What Are Your Favorite Outdoor Toys?

[preschoolteacher]

Hi all!

We're making the most of our tiny backyard, and I was wondering what your favorite outdoor toys are for babies-5 year olds. We don't have room for a play structure or swing set. I will have a sandbox with trucks and dinosaurs, lawn bowling, balls (including the kind with handles to bounce on), and a water table/sensory table. What else can I add to the mix? What about during the winter?

[MrsSteinel'sHouse]

Mud, seriously I moved a raised bed and the dirt is their favorite thing! Trucks, shovels.

[MamaBearCanada]

What about chalk? A small playhouse or if you don't have room for that a small kitchen. Mine like to play house / drivethru. Ride on/push toys. Small garden tools & plant pots with dirt and plastic flowers.

[Luna]

Last summer the most played-with toys in my yard were hula hoops and pool noodles, never once used as intended.

[jenn]

Mine use pool noodles to hit beach balls around, like golf.

[melilley]

My kids love the plain old buckets,shovels,pails, and sand molds...and I don't even have sand yet...
Oh and I have a couple of little plastic wagons that they pull around.
The Little Tykes basketball hoop is also a hit and it's not big at all. Oh and they also love balls and child sized golf clubs (they are also plastic).
I just got a Step 2 wagon and the kids love pulling each other around and having me pull them around...even the babies, they just sit in the bottom instead of in the seats. (I have 2 -9 month old's here)
I also have a couple of little bikes and a little slide.
Bubbles are great too! I have a little lawn mower that blows bubbles.

[melilley]

Mine use pool noodles to hit beach balls around, like golf.

I love this idea, although one of my kids would probably beat everyone with them.

[spud912]

I was going to say nothing, but I meant to say nothing that is not normally outside . The toy messes drive me batty (I know, I know...I'm not exactly in the right field ::: so I absolutely love being outside! No toys to have the kids clean up!! It's one of the few "activities" that we have that has little to no clean up when we are done (besides changing some clothes and hand washing).

I do have a very small amount of toys outside that I rotate (besides the playground, the climber and the sand table). Currently, we have 2 bikes for everyone to share, some buckets, some shovels and some watering cans. I rotate out balls and a couple of other things. From our backyard, the kids play with leaves, sticks, pinecones, seeds, rocks, mud, water, grapefruit and oranges that fell off the trees (and aren't filled with bugs yet), and of course any non-biting bugs they come across.

[cheerfuldom]

If you have a surface for wheeled items...I suggest scooters more than bikes and trikes and ride ons. easier to store and then you can have more of them. also small baby doll strollers are a big hit here.

something else i didnt see suggested yet is a mud kitchen.

[Rachel]

I keep my play kitchen outside, also ride on toys, balls, and doll strollers. We have a sand pit too and chalk.

[coolconfidentme]

DIRT!!!
I have a 15x48 covered deck for riding toys, a toddler slide/swing set, a little tikes slide, a huge wooden slide/swing set & 2 Rubbermaid picnic tables. They all like to play in the dirt first & foremost. After that they like to play under the picnic tables like a fort.

Maybe you can hang a sheet up off of the fence for a makeshift tent.

[canadiancare]

I was going to say nothing, but I meant to say nothing that is not normally outside . The toy messes drive me batty (I know, I know...I'm not exactly in the right field ::: so I absolutely love being outside! No toys to have the kids clean up!! It's one of the few "activities" that we have that has little to no clean up when we are done (besides changing some clothes and hand washing).

I do have a very small amount of toys outside that I rotate (besides the playground, the climber and the sand table). Currently, we have 2 bikes for everyone to share, some buckets, some shovels and some watering cans. I rotate out balls and a couple of other things. From our backyard, the kids play with leaves, sticks, pinecones, seeds, rocks, mud, water, grapefruit and oranges that fell off the trees (and aren't filled with bugs yet), and of course any non-biting bugs they come across.

Jealousy! I am hoping to have some success with indoor citrus trees. I need to move somewhere hot.

[Jewels]

Jealousy! I am hoping to have some success with indoor citrus trees. I need to move somewhere hot.

Theres always apples, my little ones love the crab apples falling from the tree and play with those alot!

I also say dirt, my kids love the dirt the most, they love digging for worms, otherwise bubbles, they love the stomp rocket(pretty cheap on amazon) sand box, they love the water table as well, but I haven't filled it yet here, when it turns to fall my water table turns mud table, and gets filled with dirt to play in.........there are many times with dirt that I am having to have the kids stand at the door and one by one carry them to the bathroom to wash their feet as well as hands:: In the summer I have pools and sprinklers out most everyday, its just alot of work and alot of water, cleaning and changing daily, but its worth it.

[canadiancare]

Theres always apples, my little ones love the crab apples falling from the tree and play with those alot!

I also say dirt, my kids love the dirt the most, they love digging for worms, otherwise bubbles, they love the stomp rocket(pretty cheap on amazon) sand box, they love the water table as well, but I haven't filled it yet here, when it turns to fall my water table turns mud table, and gets filled with dirt to play in.........there are many times with dirt that I am having to have the kids stand at the door and one by one carry them to the bathroom to wash their feet as well as hands:: In the summer I have pools and sprinklers out most everyday, its just alot of work and alot of water, cleaning and changing daily, but its worth it.

I tried growing what was supposed to be a winter hardy fig last year but it doesn't seem to be coming back. We did have a heavy snow and cold winter this year so maybe it just isn't THAT hardy. I can't do apples because the raccoons go crazy for them and I don't want to encourage them to hang around.

[Blackcat31]

I've been collecting the really expensive all terrain rubber wheeled tricycles.

The kids literally ride them around the yard for hours! No sidewalk or smooth surface necessary.

They run about $50-70 and so far I have 4.

The ones like this: