What do your elementary school age kids use your yard for?
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Anonymous
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They used it a lot in elementary school for playdates to run around and jump on the trampoline. My back yard was invaluable for their birthday parties, so I could rent a bouncy castle and organize games. Starting from middle school onwards, they haven't used it so much, because they're not the type to throw a ball, contrary to the neighbor kids, who are all in middle school and beyond and play soccer, lacrosse or other ball games in their yards all the time. My husband grows vegetables there now - it's south-facing and receives all the sun he needs. *I* find green space around a house very necessary. I hated living in apartments when I was a child in a crowded European city. I need my privacy, as well as visual separation and distance from neighbors! |
Anonymous
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We’re in a duplex with a long driveway / no yard. My DD’s (9) best friend is a twin. When she’s at their house they trampoline, spend HUGE amounts of time building fairy gardens, and these days spend a lot of time playing with mochi figurines.
Often when I go to pick her up they’re sitting out on a towel with their heads together giggling and perhaps trying to avoid the brother. At our house they mostly play stuffed animals in her room (or build their Minecraft world) but they certainly have done sidewalk chalk in our driveway. My DD likes soccer and skateboarding but her friend is more interested in art than sports so they don’t really kick a ball at either house. |
Anonymous
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Playing with the dog
Throwing a baseball Neighborhood football Shooting hoops Chopping wood with an axe Sprinkler When they were younger, we had a playset and sandbox M 5th grader still plays outside a lot, but he’s into nature and sports and we have a lot of kids around to play with. My 12 year old mostly just plays basketball in the driveway |
Anonymous
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My 3 are teens now but they loved our yard - front and back. Soccer, football, home base for kickball (we live in a court), sidewalk chalk, sledding.
Often the neighbor kids would join in in pick up games of hide and seek, tag, sand table in back yard. Our yard was the run around under the sprinkler yard. Small Inflatable pool in backyard. I even allowed my DD to create a small bike obstacle course in the backyard. Oldest enjoys any sort of yard work now-mows the lawn, takes leaves, helps with gardening and weeding. |
Anonymous
| How are all of you dealing with mosquitos? |
Anonymous
Pretty much this. We have a lot of open-ended time outside w a bucket of toys. We have a small swing set and a ninja line. My oldest still goes out and reads On a swing. I often put out a picnic blanket and a shade tent w a box of Lego or crafts so they’re outside doing what they would have done inside. Basically, they are only inside when they need to be. If we can, we find a way to be outdoors. |
Anonymous
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When they were younger elementary- chalk on driveway, in the yard, bubbles, slip and slide or sprinklers, lots of nerf wars and running, then transitioned to skateboarding on the driveway.
Now upper elementary - basketball, still skateboarding and scootering with tricks, lacrosse rebounder on the grass. They still like the occasional sprinkler or slip and slide when it’s hot. |
Anonymous
They are only really bad in the summer at dusk at our house. There aren’t any now. |
Anonymous
| To OP, our yard has a huge slope. They didn’t care and still ran/run up and down it. I do wish our driveway was flat because we were never able to get a basketball hoop since we live on a fairly busy street. |
Anonymous
| Lawn darts, croquet, squirt guns, bubbles, corn in hole, slip n slide, pool, ball, T-ball, basketball, chalk, scooter, bike, tricycle, electric car, playground, tree house, jump rope, hide n seek, egg hunt, tag, obstacle courses, sandbox, water table, art outside at table, sprinkler, bird feeding/watching, backyard safari, swings, slide, trapeze, monkey bars, badminton, sparklers, fireflies, stargazing, rock climbing, sledding, snowman, snow angels, snow/nerf battles, eating out, paint projects, cloud watching, star gazing, stomp rocket, hula hoop, bow/arrow, horse shoes, ring toss, football, frisbee, digging, scavenger hunts, and on and on… |
Anonymous
Where do you live? Ours are horrible at all hours from May until November. I have to spray the kids in Deep Woods Off to have any chance have survival. |
Anonymous
| 11 year old son uses it for when his best friend comes over to play. The backyard at her house is tiny with not a lot of play space, so she always looks forward to their playdates at our house. They do all sorts, they reenact fairy tails, play pirates and astronauts with a cardboard box, grow plants, have watergun fights, dig in the mud and pretend to be explorers, play tag, give each other piggyback rides, wrestle on the trampoline in fits of giggles and so on. |
Anonymous
Vienna. |
Anonymous
Ah. You don’t live near DC. |