12 Top Outdoor Play Space Pinterest Boards

Are you looking for ideas for outdoor play spaces?  

Here are 12 Pinterest boards chock a block full of inspiration for irresistible outdoor spaces for either the home or the early childhood setting:

1. Outdoor Spaces @ Mia Cavalca
2. Outdoors @ Francine Cory
3. Mud Kitchens and Water Walls @ Francine Cory
4. Outdoor Play Link Up Ideas
5. Outdoor Play @ Mama Pea Pod
6. Kids' Gardens @ Nurture Store
7. Natural School Yards @ Brenda Hillenius
8. Outdoor Play Environments @ April White
9. Backyard Nature Play Spaces @ Debi Huang
10. Playground Ideas @ Karen Green
11. Outdoor Classroom Ideas @ Play Based Classroom
12. Learning Spaces @ Kierna Corr

And in a spot of shameless self promotion, here are a couple of my own:

• Early Childhood Outdoor Learning Environments
• Backyard Play Spaces

Do you have a Pinterest board of your own that you'd like to share?  

turn a boat into a garden bed

We took the kids to visit the local tip.  Or to use the fancy name, The Kimbriki Resource Recovery Centre.

Whilst there, I spied these old boats turned into funky garden beds.

What a playful addition they would make to a children's natural playscape.

In fact, we might have something just like it at school!

Of course, we don't all have old boats lying around.  So why not do what we did and visit your local tip.  You never know what you will find!

Have you used something unusual as a garden planter?

it's playtime - play outside!

Welcome to another week of  It's Playtime.   

Playful Picks

I hope you are in the mood for some outdoor fun, because this week's playful picks will be sure to have the little people in your world wanting to head out and play:

Leaf Maze from Happy Hooligans

Spider Cave Maze from Adventures at Home with Mum

And last but not least,

Sticks!  The original wooden toy from Fireflies and Mudpies

Meet my Partners in play:

Messy Kids,

The Imagination Tree ,

hands on: as we grow and

QuirkyMomma

What have you been playing this week?

Linking up is simple.

monster beans

There was excitement in the playground as the word has got around, our bean hut was yielding a crop of monster beans.  If by crop you mean 3 beans.  But they were enormous.

A crowd gathered to get a closer look.

"Monster beans!"

"We have to eat them!"

How do we share out 3 beans between 25 children?  Chop them into tiny bite-sized pieces.

Small though the sample may have been, our first harvest of fresh, crisp beans went down a treat.

It is such a privilege to be reminded of the excitement,  awe and wonder of the natural world through the experience of young children.

What's growing in your veggie garden?

new booklet on making a mud kitchen

A mud kitchen includes elements of the much-loved domestic corner and cooking from indoor play, which are then hugely enriched through the special nature of being outside.  - Jan White

Mud kitchens, mud pie kitchens, outdoor kitchens - no matter what you choose to call them - are such a valuable addition to any outdoor play space that I have blogged about them time and time again.


Jan White, author and all round outdoor play guru clearly shares my enthusiasm for all things mud pie kitchen.  So much so that she has written the book on it.  A free, easy to download booklet called "Making a Mud Kitchen."

Says Jan:

There are hundreds of wonderful, homemade mud kitchens being shared on blogs and pinterest around the world – take a nice long tour and be enthused and inspired!

If you are looking for an inexpensive and simple addition to your outdoor space that will provide hours of engagement for children of all ages, then you can't go past a mud pie kitchen, and you can't go past "Making a Mud Kitchen" for inspiration.

stump loving

Welcome to another week of  It's Playtime.   

Playful Picks

You all know that I'm a sucker for a natural playscape, so it will come as no surprise that I love the colourful stumps in Adventures at Home with Mum's backyard:

Meet my Partners in play:

Messy Kids,

The Imagination Tree ,

hands on: as we grow and

QuirkyMomma

What have you been playing this week?

Linking up is simple.

There's no rush. A wander in the bush.

If you go down to the bush today you might see us...just hanging around.

No agenda.

No hurry.  No time to be back.

No boxes to be ticked.

Just plenty of time to wander through the landscape wherever curiosity leads us.  

  In today’s world of standardized testing, TV, organized sports and electronic toys, children have very little time for just being kids and engaging in real self-directed free play - especially in natural settings.

Let's take free play seriously!