Must haves for outside play

[GymMom]

Since I'm new to the dayhome scene, and my kids are older, I don't have many outside toys for the yard. A trampoline that we will NOT be using, a sandbox with no sand (will fill it up in the spring)...in the warmer weather we played at the parks, but now that winter is here, I'd like to set up my yard to use for the dayhome kids. What are the must-haves for outdoor play in winter?

Thanks!

[playfelt]

We use very little toy wise in the winter. I have let them on the litttle tykes type climber but it can be icy/slippery so have to watch the stairs carefully. The door of the playhouse is usually snowed shut, the sandbox is buried under the snow and I always fret about them flopping in the snow and hitting the corner of it (wooden square box). They do use the swings as their feet soon smush the snow under them.

Mostlly just put them out and give them child size shovels and they will be happy - one per child of course.

You can flatten an area for them to make paths through the snow, hang some bird feeders which they follow the path to each day to check if refills needed.

My toddlers don't last more than 20 minutes outside in winter anyways so the shovels pretty much keep them happy.

[Wonderwiper]

Hi! I have a large outdoor plastic playhouse that is great in winter, kids make "snow" food on plates to serve each other! Our wooden clubhouse/ swing set gets used all year of course. I have a toddler climber ( panda climber ) that we pile the snow around and jump in! A small incline down the side of the house is perfect for bum sliding! We don't really use small toys outside. Mostly running around getting exercise!

[Crayola kiddies]

My husband plows the snow into a big hill so the kids like to climb up and slide down , we also have a playhouse and I make sure to keep the door open so the kids can go Inside and of course the shovels and I also have a baby sled and a regular sled so everybody gets a little ride.

[Momof4]

In the winter? Pails and shovels for the children and a little sled for towing the smallest baby and my big snowshovel for making snowforts. That's all we need. The rest of the fun all involves the snow.

[Inspired by Reggio]

We are lucky in the backyard in winter cause all the 'shade' from the leafy trees is gone and it is nice and sunny out there in the morning ... we have a huge deck I can shovel off and allow the 'wee one' to crawl around and pull up at the table and sit and rock toys without freezing just sitting in the snow or on a sled the whole time and for the older kids I put out the sensory tubs with 'snow' in them to stand at for them to paint in or dig in or whatever so my little shovels do not get lost out in the deep snow of the yard ~ cause that happened my first year and we had to go the rest of the winter with no shovels cause a snowstorm blew up and we'd not tidied them up proper and well they were 'lost' in the feet of snow ~ so now only the 'long tall shovels' get to come off the deck the tiny ones stay in the sensory bins.

My spouse is great at shoveling the sidewalk for riding toys and does a path to the 'Little Tykes cottage' so that it is still accessible and like Wonderwiper the other kids play in that to make 'snow food' and so forth.

And with all the shoveling we get lots of 'hills' back there so some taboggons for the older kids to slide on.

We still love to do things like chase bubbles in the winter, play music and dance.

We also walk to the park when the weather is 'nice' to be out longer and enjoy what that has to offer with bigger hills for sledding and so forth.

[Spixie33]

We have a large play structure in the back yard - the kids still love going on that and going down the slide and into the snow. They also use the swings all year round.

Backyards are great just for making snow angels too.

When we go in our front yard then I have the red plastic snow shovels for each child. They love those and a few yellow construction vehicles where they can push and build using snow.

When we go to the park - we take beach shovels and buckets.

Besides our large playstructure with swings - I have tons of stuff in the back yards - some smaller slide structures, a step 2 castle, some rocking toys and a toy picnic table. Most of these don't get used in the winter

[treeholm]

These are some great ideas, thank you!

[Momof4]

I have a large Step II Slide and I make sure it is positioned so I can dig out the underneath for an easier snowfort also. The kids loved that 2 years ago. Last year we didn't have enough snow for anything, but hey, we were meeting at the park in Jan. & Feb.

[kidlove]

all you need is a snow hill (have hubby shovel his heart out or snow blow/plow into a hill) and sleds. once the snow gets deeper, fort building supplies are a blast too. SLEDDING by far is the number one with my kids here. Most of them have never been sledding beforeuntil they go down the hillls here.....it's the only thing they want to do in the winter.