Being outside is great. I’m a big fan of outdoor play and greatly resent rainy days or days where it’s just too hot to go outside. Fortunately for me, my kids love being outside too. Looking at the birds and hunting for snails, not to mention they get to play with water which is one of their favorite activities.
It took a good 18 months or so after my son was born before I got back into gardening. The fact that one of his first words was “weed” tells you just how bad the state of my backyard was by then.
When I was finally able to plant some seedlings I was very excited. I love seeing the spring color and was very satisfied with myself. That is until I watched my son pull up all my beautiful new seedlings saying “weed”.
As you can imagine it was a face-palm moment. My son was only little, I couldn’t fault him for not understanding the difference between a weed and a flower. What he needed was his own toddler play garden so that he would leave mine alone.
As the weather warms up, now is the perfect time to try some of these Spring activities for kids. I don’t know about you, but there’s something about the change in seasons that gets my kids excited about learning. Or you can invest in the Spring Activity Pack, which is filled with educational ideas for young kids.
Sensory Play
What is Sensory Play? Why is it so important? There are a lot of benefits of sensory play, babies, toddlers, and preschool-aged children all learn different things from sensory activities.
One of the greatest benefits of sensory play is that it helps your childs brain to build connections in a meaningful way. We process and understand the world around us through our senses. The more we engage the senses, the more our kids understand what they are experiencing.
For more ideas, check out 17 Easy Spring Sensory Activities for Kids.
Materials Needed
- Fake flower bunches. I went to my local Red Dot store and bought 4-5 bunches, each with about 5 flower heads on it.
- Pliers
- A flower pot filled with soil or a designated flowerbed that you don’t mind being played with.
How to make a DIY Toddler Play Garden
Using the metal cutter section of the pliers I separated each of the fake flower bunches into individual flowers.
Make sure to leave the stems intact because this is what you’re going to use to ‘plant’ the flowers. And voila! A whole lot of fake flowers that your little ones can plant again and again.
Apart from the basic materials mentioned above, make sure to include toy gardening tools or at the very least, a watering can. Your kids will plant, they’ll water, they will get covered in mud. It sounds like a fun way to spend the afternoon.
RELATED: Insect Sensory Bin for Spring
Are you going to make a DIY Toddler Play Garden?
Don’t forget to pin the idea for later.
Spring Activity Pack
Over 90+ pages of Spring themed play based learning activities and craft templates. Perfect for preschool and kindergarten.
