We Play - Fairyland in My Backyard

This week, we've been all about soaking up the last warm days of autumn, and getting out in our garden to enjoy it before the winter sets in.

The kids have been enjoying favourite outdoor activities - drawing with chalk, climbing trees, playing in the sandpit, blowing bubbles, swinging on the swingset, digging up weeds, and creating fairyland spaces.

One thing I really enjoy about outdoor play at home, as opposed to out and about, is the ability for the girls to create an integrated and sustained imaginative world.

In these pictures, the older two are drawing with chalk to create a "magical door" to fairyland, whereupon they then proceeded to pretend to jump into it, and "emerged" in the garden beyond, blowing bubbles at the fairyland palace (aka the lime tree flowerbed), climbing trees for a better view, and building fairy paths in the sandpit and garden beds.

The eldest girl later drew a map of fairyland in chalk, showing the layout of our backyard and marking out the magical places with incredibly inventive names.
(Sadly it was washed away before I got the camera to it!)

Check out Childhood 101 for lots more great play ideas at the We Play page.