What are your 'staples' for outside?

I'm just wondering what all of YOU have for 'outside'....

I have 4 kids, ages: 8mos, 2, 2.5 & 3

I have a swing set - w/ slide, seesaw, 2 regular & 1 baby swing.
A riding car, 2 bikes, a tunnel, a mini-slide, kids picnic table, a chalk/magnet easel, legos, 'camping' chairs, 4/5 soft foam sport balls AND bring out bubbles once in a while.

Why...oh WHY do they just stand there looking bored?? Am I missing something? :unsure: **My DD isn't an issue, she's the opposite - I have to tell her to stop :laugh:**

The baby is easy....with the others I encourage catch and fun chasing, races, soccer, looking for birds or flowers etc.

Tips? Advice?

I do not have swings or slides in my yard - we got to the park in morning to enjoy the big muscle play cause my yard is small :(

I have a Little Tykes cottage with outside babies and role play items.

On the deck which is huge I have on the lower deck 3 sit on toys - teeter tater, horse and motorbike. A basketball hoop and balls. On the upper deck kids size picnic table and on my benches I place 3 sensory bins with stuff like water, sand, rice and so forth.

In grass area I have a planter shepherd hook thing that hangs hula hoops, skipping ropes, bag of balls.

In the shed for ratational items tunnels, ball pit, collapsible crates with variety joysticks steering wheels to create with, parachute, bin of fabric and clothes pins for fort building, blocks, box with race cars and homemade ramps for building courses with, sports stuff like baseball tee ball set, mini golf set, bowling set, bouncy castle, and so forth.

Today they spent an hour doing water play I set out buckets water and paint brushes and they painted the fence, spray bottles and buckets soapy water for cleaning toys ... they did this for the entire time even the 1 year old sat at the fence with a bucket.

The other invitations outside were 8 various size boxes, sensory bin on deck with rice, and chalk and black paper - but they all wanted water - only got one left and be has the spray bottle in the cottage making dinner for his mom.

Ooooh, can we come play at your house MammaMia? I seriously don't know what's wrong with your kidlets! I have two sizes of slides, a water table, a picnic table, and lots of shovels and pails for digging. That's it and my kids are running out the door like crazy to get to play.

But we usually head to the parks with the big play equipment because they love that. However, they always know wherever we go I will have the bubbles, shovels and sidewalk chalk packed for them. Those are outside daily favourites.

In my yard, I have a sand and water table, a small slide, various types and sizes of balls, a plastic playhouse, two ride on toys and a bottle of bubbles. Mine never want to come in!

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Originally Posted by Mamma_Mia

....Why...oh WHY do they just stand there looking bored?? Am I missing something? :unsure: ...

Tips? Advice?

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You are not missing anything - that is lots of option out there for them.

Sometimes less is 'more' with some kids - if there are too many choices they do not know what to do or where to start so they just 'stand there'.

When I worked in centre care one of the things we use to do with kids like that was as we were heading from the transition of inside to outside we were make them choose where they were going to go before they got out there ... this helped prevent the kids who all like to run to get to the swings for example know before they got out there it was not their turn cause Sally and Bobby already picked swings so they had a 'game plan' to prevent that blow out when they get there thinking they are first and it helped the 'lost' kid to have some direction ... you could try something like that.

When all else fails - there is nothing wrong with just standing there - do not give it power by worrying or doing a dance of do you want this or that or trying to entertain them cause then they will play into that ... IMO kids need to learn to play and use their imaginations and so forth - honestly my crew sometimes has the most fun at the park in the mornings with no 'toys' just their imagination and whatever they find from nature and honestly some afternoons NOTHING comes out of the shed - they just play outside with the staples that are in the yard everyday.

Reggio, I mean this honestly...I wish you had been my kids' daycare provider. You have such a wisdom and calmness about you. Awww and here's me being all "I love you man" without having even had any booze! LOL :wub:

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Originally Posted by Alphaghetti

Awww and here's me being all "I love you man" without having even had any booze! LOL :wub:

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Oh man that's funny! You made my day:)