Backyard Adventure

The backyard has long been a space associated with recreation and relaxation, a private patch of earth to escape to, and a springboard for the imagination. In her signature style and drawing on her personal experience as a mother, gardener, and author, Amanda Thomsen encourages kids to create kingdoms of their own making, right in their own backyards. With whimsical projects for every season and any setting, from forest to pavement, fun-seeking kids and their families will rediscover the yard as a place for inspired play, using repurposed materials and existing features of outdoor spaces. Whether they're creating tiny gardens inhabited by action figures, weaving a secret hideaway out of a loom of twine and twigs, or setting sidewalk cracks on fire with Coffeemate, Backyard Adventure lets kids of all ages turn their yards into a place they can call their own.



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  Turn the backyard into an adventure zone, with playful projects and plans for inspiring kids aged 6 to 10 to explore, imagine, and create their own fun.
Amanda Thomsen is the author of Backyard Adventure and Kiss My Aster as well as a mom, a Girl Scout troop leader, a garden maker, an adventure planner, and a rule breaker. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and eight-year-old daughter.

  Permission to Play – Granted!



Set kids loose and let their imaginations run wild with inspired ideas for self-directed play. Bolts, buckets, bubble wrap, and other everyday items become the building blocks of free-play fun. Kids are transformed into the independent masterminds of their own mud labs and confident kings and queens of their cardboard castles.



Make exploding sidewalk chalk, bang on a wall of noise, fly high in a tire swing, launch amazing science experiments, perform on your own outdoor stage, build a straw bale fort, slip & slide on paint, weave through a yarn lazer maze! The Roots of a Wild Child

Chapter 1: Forts and Other Hideaways

  Scrounging for Unexpected Building Materials

  Forts & Playhouses

  Natural Burrows

  Packing-Material Tepee

  Plants That Make Great Places to Hide

  Build a Straw Bale Fort

  Plant a Living Willow Hideaway

  Cardboard Castles

  A Fort in Winter

  Tunnels

  The Simple Leaf Pile

  Make a Loom Tent

  Badger Holes

  Unexpected Sandboxes

  Make a Map of Your Neighborhood

  Hiding Play Materials

Chapter 2: Places for Tinkering

  Create a Mud Lab

  Marble Racetrack

  Soda & Mentos Eruptions

  Setting Booby Traps

  Make a Slingshot

  Build a Catapult

  Protect Your Toys from Pirates

  Create a Wall of Noise

  DIY Rube Goldberg Device

  Bored? No Way!

Chapter 3: Naturally Wild

  Miniature Worlds

  Grow a Tiny Fruit Tree

  Natural Paints & Dyes

  Grow Your Own Snacks

  Snacks to Identify & Forage

  Dig Your Own Clay

  Mown Labyrinth

  Logs & Stumps

  Seedo Torpedoes

  Drums

Chapter 4: Setting Up Camp

  Backyard Camping

  (Fake) Neighborhood Lore

  Make a Hand-Washing Station

  Create an Outdoor Shower

  Set Up an Outdoor Toilet

  Make a Fire Pit

  Hobo Camp Food & Old-Timey Cooking

  Outdoor Stages for Performances or Fomenting a Rebellion

Chapter 5: Sidewalks, Fences, and Driveways a.k.a. Places to Draw

  Graffiti on Fences

  Fun on the Driveway

  Chalk Outlines

  Exploding Sidewalk Chalk

Chapter 6: Adventure Course

  Swing It!

  Make Your Own Slip 'N Slide

  Tough Lil' Mudders

  Make Your Own Stilts

  Red Yarn Laser Climb

  Cardboard Armor

Chapter 7: Water, Bubbles, and Goo

  Sprinkler Setups

  Make a Water Blob

  Super Soaker!

  Baby Pool Fun

  Pinata Full of Water Balloons

  Make Giant Bubbles

  Tyvek Suit Full of Water Balloons

  Eggs