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The Land of Believe — Your Home!
Whether your kids love pirates, superheroes, explorers or fairy tales, they’ll likely love a good adventure too. If you’re trying to save money when it comes to keeping the kids entertained, why not focus on making your home more adventurous? There are plenty of low cost ways to create space for fun and activities in your house and garden. From adventure playgrounds to fun conservatory furniture, here are a few ideas:
Set up a special place to play
Kids have active imaginations and can have an adventure simply if they have a separate room of the house to play in. If you have a conservatory or dining room that you don’t use as your main living space, why not let your kids choose some fun colorful furniture and use the space to play and create? Beanbags and floor cushions are a great idea. You could add a mini table and chairs where they can play at arts and crafts. Whatever their interest, you can theme the furniture and activities to suit their idea of adventure.
Create an adventure playground
If you have a garden you have plenty of scope for transforming it into an adventurous space for the kids. Playgrounds can be built on any budget, perhaps using recycled materials, or buying pre-made frames and swing sets. Pinterest is a great place to look for inspiration, where you’ll find themed garden play areas, DIY ideas and plenty of ‘how to’ instructions. If your kids particularly like pirates or explorers you could even build the play area around one of those themes. The kids would go nuts for it! However much space you have available, it doesn’t matter— the kids’ imagination will do most of the work.
Build a den or tree house
The main thing about a den is that it’s a private space for your kids to go, where they can take ownership of how it’s decorated and who comes in. With this in mind, you don’t have to build an extravagant tree house to create adventure. This is great if you have a suitable tree plus the time and money for construction, but a ground level den or playhouse can be just as good. If you don’t have a garden, consider letting your child build a den or put up a play house in the conservatory or dining room.
Cooking fun in the kitchen
The kitchen might not be the usual place where you’d want kids to play, but by setting aside one afternoon a week for baking or cooking you can turn the time into an adventure. Buy a kids’ cookery book or allow them to create their own culinary experiments. By choosing some fun cookie cutters or kid-friendly baking equipment you can provide hours of fun.
The main thing you need to create adventure is a bit of imagination, and kids have plenty of that to offer. Whether you use recycled materials or store bought items, you can create just as good an adventure space in and around your house.
Photo: WillHolmes/Flickr