Category Archives: Backyard Fun

Backyard Fun, Outdoor Safety Tips

Backyard Playground Safety: Planning For a Safe Playground

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It’s not too early to start thinking about providing your kids with a Springtime surprise — a backyard swing set or playground.  In fact, it’s best to start early because there are a number of considerations to take into account when planning for a safe backyard playground experience.

Location is key! Be sure to select the best spot for your new playground set:

  • Avoid ground that slopes or is uneven. Level ground helps prevent a playground set from tipping.
  • Select a spot that is away from potentially dangerous obstacles such as trees, low branches and wires, stumps, roots, large rocks, fences, bricks, and concrete.
  • Plan for a safety zone of at least 6 feet around all playground equipment; set aside even more space in front of and behind swings.
  • Plan the location and position of any metal or dark-colored slides or surfaces. Placing these out of direct sunlight can help prevent burns on hot, sunny days.

Falls will happen! Don’t forget to choose a proper protective surface for under and around the playground equipment:

  • Grass and dirt are not adequate protection from injuries due to falls.
  • Pea gravel, sand, wood chips, and shredded or recycled rubber mulch are some recommended protective playground surface options. (Further details about the variety of protective playground surfaces will be discussed in future postings.)

In my next post on the topic of backyard playground safety, I’ll go into more detail about the variety of protective safety surface materials available.  You should then be able to make a more informed decision regarding the best choice of surface material to use under and around your playground equipment.

Backyard Fun, Outdoor Safety Tips

Sandbox Cover Keeps Debris Out

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Sandbox Cover

Are you tired of raking out the debris that gets into your children’s sandbox?  Are you looking for a Sandbox Cover or tarp to fit your existing swing set, fort, or free standing Sandbox?

Sandbox Covers are essential for keeping roaming cats and other domestic or wild animals from soiling your sandbox. They also help keep leaves, pine needles, grass, and other natural debris out of your clean sand. Helping kids stay safe during play time in the sandbox means providing the box with a snug fitting cover when the sandbox is not in use.

Backyard Fun, Outdoor Entertaining, Portable Fun

One Tailgating Essential

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Safari-Tailgate

It’s the last great American neighborhood  – the tailgating neighborhood.  Where no one locks their doors, everyone is happy to see you and all are together sharing fun, food and football!

And nothing smells better than the mouth-watering aroma of burgers, chicken, or vegetables sizzling and roasting on a grill. Tailgating is  not quite complete unless there is something delicious cooking on the grill.

There are many different sizes and types of  portable grills to choose from-BBQ Grills, Gas Grills, Charcoal Grills. Find one that is easy to clean.  And if you choose a table-top grill, make sure it is sturdy as well as functional.  Most are made for easy storage too.

Backyard Fun, Outdoor Entertaining

Safe Backyard Campfires Increase Family Fun

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Fire Ring

One of the most attractive parts of camping in the woods is enjoying a blazing campfire and all that it inspires…campfire songs, roasted marshmallows, and family togetherness.  Packing up the car with tents, food, sleeping bags, and all the other accoutrements of camping can be time consuming, though, and it’s not always worth it to do all that work for just a night or two of camping out in the woods.

If the campfire is what you love most about camping, then consider camping out in the backyard.  Set up the tents and sleeping bags behind your house, and create your own safe backyard campfire with a fire bowl, fire pit, or fire ring.  All of these choices do the job of containing a fire and make it easy to extinguish the fire once it’s time to pack it in for the night.  Most fire bowls, fire pits, and fire rings are portable, so you can still take them on a traditional camping trip in the woods or to a bonfire on the beach.  S’mores, anyone?

Backyard Fun, Healthy Ideas

Imaginations Go Wild With a Vinyl Playhouse

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Vinyl Playhouse Window

Forgotten toys, broken toys, and toys chewed by the dog are usually what we find at the bottom of the swing set club house in our backyard.  The “toy graveyard,” we call it, and they end up there when my husband needs to mow the lawn.  Any toys that are strewn across the yard get tossed under the swing set to clear the way for the mower.  As my son gets older, his powers of imagination grow, and I realize that the poorly used space underneath the swing set club house could be better put to use to help encourage that imagination.

Last weekend, we chucked out all of the old, broken toys and found a proper home for the still usable toys.  Then, we created an enclosed vinyl playhouse thanks to some custom-fitted vinyl material.  What a difference that made!  My son calls this new play area his “cabin.”   He furnished it with some kid-sized chairs and a small table, and so far, he has imagined any number of interesting scenarios.  He pretends that his new vinyl playhouse is a store, a storm shelter, a castle, a tree house.  The vinyl playhouse has become his magical spot for imagining that anything is possible.  Plus, it gets him out of the house and into the fresh air!

Imaginations Go Wild!