Situation · a path, a lawn or a patch of soil · 2 activities
Outdoors and In the Garden
Two activities written for outside, and a second list of indoor ones that are better out there.
If you want to be outside in the next ten minutes, put a dried bean from the cupboard into a jar of soil. That is Plant Care and Growth Measuring: two minutes to start, then five minutes every morning for weeks, with a paper strip cut to the plant's height each day and taped up in a row. It is the smallest daily habit on the site and the one children stay with longest.
The other is a project for a Saturday. Two large tins, two lengths of rope and a hole punched either side make bucket stilts, fifteen minutes to build once, then a taped or chalked line across the garden to walk. It suits five to eight, and the falling-off is part of it.
One swap makes most of the rest of the library work outdoors: chalk instead of masking tape. Tape does not stick to a wet path or to grass, and a chalk line on concrete does the same job, washes off in the next rain, and lets a child draw the route herself.
The two that live out here
Both suit five to eight. One is a build then a game, the other is a few minutes a day for several weeks.
- Bucket Stilts Balance Track Your child stands on two upturned tins, holds a rope in each hand to keep them under her feet, and walks a taped line across the garden. 15 min, once · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Plant Care and Growth Measuring Your child grows a bean from a dried one in the cupboard, waters it on a schedule that is hers, and cuts a paper strip to its height every morning. 2 min · 5 min a day, for weeks · household only
Bucket stilts want a flat surface and shoes. Grass is softer for the landings and harder for the walking, which is a fair trade at first.
Indoor activities that are better in a garden
These nine live on other shelves and were written for a kitchen table or a hallway floor, but every one of them takes the outdoors without losing what it teaches. Several are easier out there, because the water and the soap shavings stop mattering and the rope path can be twice as long.
- Sponge Squeezing Your child soaks a sponge in one bowl, carries it dripping to the other, and squeezes it out with both hands until the first bowl is empty. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Walking the Balance Line Your child walks the length of a strip of tape stuck to the floor, slowly, and then turns round and walks back. 2 min · under 5 min · household only
- Water Pouring and Transfer Your child pours water from one small jug into another, and then back again, and again, until the table is wet. 3 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Three-Step Instruction Hunt You give three instructions in one breath, and your child goes and does all three, in order, without help. no setup · 3 to 5 min · nothing at all
- Blindfold Rope Path Walk Your child follows a rope laid along the floor with her eyes closed, finding the turns with her feet while your voice tells her what is coming. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Painters Tape Floor Balance Track Your child walks a line of tape stuck to the floor without stepping off it, then does it again carrying something. 4 min · 10 to 20 min · one substitute needed
- Balance Beam Coin Carry Your child walks a taped line heel to toe carrying a small stack of coins on a saucer, and discovers that the only way across is slowly. 2 min · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Maze Blueprint Mapping Your child tapes a maze onto the floor and then draws it on paper as a plan, or draws the plan first and builds to it. 2 min · 20 min or more · household only
- Soap Carving and Safe Whittling Your child cuts a shape out of a bar of soap with a blunt tool, slowly, and the shavings go everywhere. 5 min · 20 to 40 min · household only