Maria Montessori never intended for children to stay inside working all day. In fact, she said children should be allowed to move freely between the indoor and outdoor prepared environments as they pleased. Here at our home we try to make that a reality for as much of the year as we are able. Our children's playroom is actually a sunroom that has a door that opens to a small deck and then our backyard.
We've taken that deck and turned it into a space where the kids can work and play. Further into our backyard we have a swing set for them to play, a large vegetable garden, herb gardens, lots of bird feeders and baths, and several smaller flower gardens. Every space is open for the children just like the inside of our house. Here's a look at our outdoor prepared spaces:
Deck
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Shelf: We have a small all-weather outdoor shelf on our deck this year that organizes the kids' materials for outdoor work. This is a mix of practical life tools and art including (top to bottom):
- Vases for flower arranging
- Watering can
- IKEA gardening tools
- Children's gardening gloves
- Extra pots for the kids to plant found seeds
- Containers with bird seed for refilling feeders
- Finger paint
- Air dry clay
I also move our art easel outside for the summer and we have a DIY children's picnic table for outdoor work and meals. For outdoor reading and snuggling we have a small loveseat. And, finally, just some boxes (from IKEA) of flowers for beauty and practical life.
Gardens
In addition to our deck we have several gardens around the yard. Many are focused on flowers so that we have clipping flowers throughout the spring and summer. But we also have a large vegetable garden where we are growing a variety of food for us to eat including corn, tomatoes, okra, green beans, snap peas and more. The kids are actively involved in helping to plant, weed, water, and harvest each of our vegetables all summer long.
We also have a small herb garden off of our deck where the kids will frequently be found munching on herbs throughout the day! We also harvest them to cook with in the kitchen.
Even though our warm weather season is fairly short, we take full advantage of the time that we can get outside to work and play! Just a note that we have made these changes to our yard slowly over the past several years. Outdoor spaces take time to cultivate and that's ok!
Do you have an outdoor kids space?
