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?  

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.

ice in the stomach

Risk taking should be part of childhood. We learn through the point where we feel challenged. The feeling of having a knot in your stomach is the place where you feel out of your comfort zone. - Rattler Magazine

We all know that feeling that you get when you see your child just about to do something risky.

Your stomach does a little lurch, and you hold your breath without even realising it.   The part of your brain where common sense lives has a little holiday as thoughts of calling out a useless "be careful" or stopping the play altogether take over.  You may already be mentally dialling 000.

Have you ever thought of what the child is thinking at that exact same moment?

Anticipation?  Determination?  Nervousness?  Exhilaration? Excitement?  Fear?  Wonder?  Abandon?  Joy? All of the above?

At the Unwrapping Risk Conference last weekend, Claire Warden shared that in Denmark they actually have a name for this knot in the stomach feeling.  

'Is i maven' translates as 'ice in the stomach' and is seen as a positive emotion and one that both children and adults seek and benefit from.

Wouldn't it be sad, if through our well intentioned desire to keep our children safe, we denied them the chance of experiencing challenges that bought on that incredibly important feeling of 'ice in the stomach'?  

Let's - as parents and as educators - strive to be risk aware and not risk adverse so that children can fulfil their right to a childhood of adventure, challenge, exploration, freedom and risk taking.


For more on risk in early childhood:

• Young Children, Play and Risk

• When benefits Outweigh the Risk

take me outside day

Tomorrow is Take Me Outside Day.  Admittedly this a Canadian campaign, but it is so worthwhile I think we can embrace it where ever we may live.


According to the campaign, children in Canada are spending an average of nearly 8 hours a day indoors, in front of screens.  This isn't just happening in Canada.  A 2011 Australian study reported a similar dramatic and worrying shift in childhood activity in Australia from outdoor play to indoor activity.

It seems that in the short space of one generation we have gone from being a nation of outdoor kids to a nation of indoor kids.   

So let's commit to just 45 minutes outdoors with the kids tomorrow.

This is what we will be doing:

I'll be marching the boys out the back door and down into the bush for a walk after school.

They will probably complain so much that you would think that I was marching them through the gates of hell, but the usually stop by about the 10 minute mark!

What will you be doing with your kids outside?

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.

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!

it's playtime - obstacle courses

Welcome to another week of  It's Playtime.   

Playful Picks

Spring is here and it's time to head outside and enjoy the glorious weather!  Why not set up an obstacle course like Happy Little Messes?

It can be as simple as setting out some paper plates, as Crafting Play shows us:

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.

Primary school bans handstands. What next?

Photo Credit

And in a world gone completely mad, one Sydney school made the decision this week to ban handstands, cartwheels and somersaults unless "under the supervision of a trained gymnastics teacher and with correct equipment.''

But wait, that's not all.  Last week it was revealed that a Melbourne Primary School, had placed a ban on balls in the playground before and after school.

I spent my primary school years covered in mechurochrome from scrapes received on our asphalt playground, but that didn't worry me - or my parents - in the slightest.  In fact, we kids at Balgowlah Heights Primary School in the 1970's and 1980's wore our mechurochrome-covered cuts and scrapes with great pride and continued our handstand games of 'hey presto' without missing a beat.

A sprained ankle or a banged up knee seems a small price to pay for the sense of pride and accomplishment you get when you finally master a cartwheel.  

Not to mention the fact that you are moving your body, gaining confidence, building self-esteem, developing resilience, working on balance, strengthening and stretching muscles, developing co-ordination, taking risks and delighting in shared play experiences.

Increasing pressure from the cotton-wool generation of parents is backing schools into a corner and leading them to make decisions that would have seemed ludicrous a generation ago.  At the same time, here we are all wringing our hands and shaking our heads over the rise of childhood obesity in Australia.

Children can get hurt any time, anywhere - as can we.  That's life.  My youngest son broke his risk running into a wall at his school.  Do we ban running?  Walls?

What do you think?  Are schools being smart to protect themselves?  Are parents over-reacting?  How can we, as parents and teachers, protect our children's right to free, unstructured outdoor play?