Backyard Play Ideas for Kids by Walter Bennett Book Review

2015 has been one of the most intensely cold and snowy winters New England has ever seen. With the back-to-back snow storms and below-freezing temperatures, many of us have been stuck inside for what seems like an eternity. Luckily, spring is less than a week away and parents along with their children may be spending more time outside.

With our increasingly sedentary technology-driven society, outside is just not as enticing for children as it used to be. Some parents may find it difficult to keep their child entertained outside while iPads, tablets, video games, television, and more beckon to them from within the house. Backyard Play Ideas for Kids, by Walter Bennett, is a quick read that describes a variety of different activities and projects for children to do outside. Playing outside during the spring and summer months in New England is a great way for children to get the exercise needed after a long, cold and snowy winter.

The book is only about 50 pages long but it packs over 40 different ideas for outdoor activities. Also, Backyard Play Ideas for Kids can be downloaded for free on most android devices.

One of my favorite ideas presented by Bennett is for parents to create a vegetable garden with their children. I can remember as a child receiving different vegetable seeds as a ‘toy’ in a Happy Meal and how excited I was to plant the seeds and watch them grow. I think that the garden idea really appeals to me because children can be involved in almost every step of creating it. When constructing a vegetable garden there are so many different activities involved that this one idea seems like many.

Some of the other backyard activities for kids mentioned in the book were: lemonade stands, forts, tree-houses, butterfly gardens, trampolines, and more. The author explains how to involve your children during and after the creative process while entertaining then at the same time. Also, he included ways to create activities for parents who are on a tight budget and for parents who are not. This quick read presents many different outdoor activity ideas for children and will help keep kids entertained and make playing outside their new favorite thing to do.