A Child's Garden, 60 Ideas to Make any Garden Come Alive for Children

Until recently, children played outdoors with carefree abandon after school and in the summer. Today, however, children are more likely to spend their free time indoors, watching television, playing video games, or using a computer. But children thrive in the natural world. Studies show that they work and mature better mentally, physically and emotionally when exposed to nature. This book offers more than 60 simple ways to bring the out-of-doors back into the lives of children. The author fist explains what children really do when they step outside. They love to play in water and with creepy critters. They savor hideaways, cannot get enough dirt and sand, and relish climbing to great heights. They want to make believe, and to nurture other growing things. And most of all, they learn from everything that is new and stimulating.

Addressing these basic needs, A Child's Garden offers a wide range of innovative examples that show how to create special places in which children can experience nature on their own turf. Here are child-friendly ponds, places for pets, and private refuges. Out-of-the-ordinary sandboxes are pictured, along with paths, mazes, furniture, peepholes, and scores of ideas for creative play areas that fit perfectly into adult gardens. A child's questions about how flowers, food and animals grow can be answered with miniature plots and places for pets and wild creatures.
Featured throughout this profusely illustrated book are miniature paradises that parents and grandparents have designed just for the children in their lives, highlighting an enchanting variety of elements that will make any garden come alive for children.