Monday, July 6, 2009

The Start of New Play-Yard Activities

So, a couple weeks ago I began coveting a newly cut pile of logs across the "creek" at our back-yard neighbor's house. We hadn't met him yet, so I didn't feel comfortable just waltzing over, knocking on his door, and saying "Hey, I'd like your logs." But this weekend, he and his son were in their backyard, we were in our backyard and I just did it. I waltzed up to the "creek", said "Hi, I've been admiring your new pile of logs..." and he jumped in and said, "you can have 'em!". Dream come true. And our new friend will be receiving a fresh-baked batch of home-made chocolate chip cookies from the kids and I later in the week!

We took some time yesterday dragging the pile over to our yard and doing some experimenting with what we want to do with them. We added some seating to the fire-pit area for our kids and family. Then, for the daycare area, we did this....






We made a "bridge" with them! A shorter, flatter area for them to walk across, and a taller, more uneven area for them to balance across as they got braver. Today... They Loved It! Look at them - not only did they balance, but they loved jumping off it!






We also started dragging home some long branches that had fallen (we discovered them as we were fishing Thursday night and dragged them into the van along with 7 fishing poles, tackle boxes, camera bags, 4 children and 2 adults - that was an adventure!

We started stacking them together to create a cool climbing/balancing area. Short enough for the little ones to experiment on, challenging enough for the older pre-schoolers and even my older, school-aged kiddos! Tonight B and I will be buying rope to help stabilize the junctions a little better, but they're having fun on it already!





I can't wait to implement more ideas as we come across more stuff!

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