How to Plan a Dream Backyard for Kids?

I think it's better to plan a family backyard that's suitable for a large age range.
Kids out grow playsets in 6 or so years but they'll get bored with it long before that.
Same goes for trampolines.
A small pool would be nice - you'll be able to use it sometimes May through Oct - but an in ground pool is not always a plus from a real estate perspective.
An above ground pool is easier to remove when you are finished with it.
Some shade is good for hot summers - a gazebo or picnic pavilion will get used a lot - and a fire pit could be used year round.
Leave some room to play some corn hole or lay out a croquet game or kick a ball around.
A sunny corner can have a small veggie or butterfly garden.

You might want to consider creating 'depth' by planting a circle of ornamental grasses on berms or a ring of some mid-sized native shrubs with some stumps in the middle for the kids to sit/climb on. Giving kids protected little places to go hide, read a book, make 'fairy stew' or other fun activities which offer expanded play. I watch the children (I used to have a preschool and know kids of all ages)... offering rocks and small boulders, trimmed branches (we have a 'stick pot' in the backyard kept for the building of forts) or limbs, 'rounds' cut from trees (for sitting/walking on) and some access to water... this seems to invite kids to build and create. There's nothing wrong with having some paved area for sports and socializing for adults as well as wilder areas (oh, don't forget birdfeeders of all sorts!) to keep the natural world available for the kids.

(By the way, I have a friend in his 60s who is a farmer and loves playing with these sorts of elements. When we visit he always grabs up Kiddo and they go off to move dirt, make forts, clear the drainage for his land... I believe this 'playing' with the land is what keeps the fellow so young at heart.)

If you have the space and budget a paved basketball court that will give them room to ride bikes skates roller hockey and when older can double as a tennis court

S.,

You live in McLean? Hire a landscaper that works with redwood play sets.

http://store.playgroundsuperstores.com/Swingsets_s/1817.h...

Once your kids outgrow a redwood playset? You can sell it and move on to what they will need/use/want in their older years. If you have enough room when they are older? A mini putt-putt would be fun!!

Since you are in McLean - there are a lot of trees - a tire swing (in the back yard of course as there might be HOA problems with it in the front!! LOL!!)

Think about what you had when you were a kid or what you wanted...and ASK YOUR KIDS what they want to play on!! They may just want grass to let their imagination run W.!!

ooo, what fun!!!

we had the swingset combo thing at our little house, and while it got more neglected as the years went by, our boys DID get a lot of play out of it. but since you've got lots of space and have given us an unlimited budget, let's have some fun<G>.

trees are a must. tree climbing is one of a kid's biggest joys. we had a beautiful maple at the little house that the boys loved to climb. and of course, they're beautiful and add shade and interest. so definitely some trees, a combo of fast-growing ones and some slower hardwoods that will grow up 'with' them and be part of the family forever. make sure you plant a couple of biggies where they'll support a hammock. i LOVED my hammock at the little house. we've got tons of trees here but none that are situated correctly for a hammock.

one thing that i've always regretted is never having a treehouse for our boys. they'd have loved it, and my husband could have built a beautiful one as he's talented that way. we just never got around to it. so i'm putting a treehouse in my version of your backyard, as big and creative as you can go.

can you manage a water feature? having an above-ground pool has probably benefited ME more than anyone else, but our boys did use it too, and still do when they come home. if you don't want to go quite that far, consider some sort of circulating water pond thingummy, ideally one that they can at least get into and splash around on hot days. when they're grown you can move it into a beautiful koi pond sort of thing.

my kids pushed for a trampoline, but my nerves wouldn't take it (i'm a pretty easygoing mom, but the injuries from trampolines not to mention the skyrocketing insurance premiums ruled them out for me.)

another thing i wish we'd have managed when they were still home is a basketball court. we did put a net up in the driveway, but they both loved basketball and would have loved a real paved court. we talked about it but the budget never permitted for it when they were here. but i'll give YOU one. :)

and a climbing wall! wouldn't that be fun?

and don't forget a garden. simple flower beds, and some nice raised veggie beds. all kids should have the experience of planting and tending growing things. and plan for a few benches or garden seats under the trees and near the flower beds, so you can sit out and read while your kids are whooping it up, and gardening.

i'll throw in a chicken coop, since your back yard is sort of my dream one. i always wanted to have my own fresh eggs, and chickens are relatively low work. give your kids a mini-farm experience, not to mention getting to eat what you raise between the garden, the eggs, and the chickens themselves (if you can- i think i could but my husband balks at eating animals we've tended.)

i can't wait to hear what you decide! be sure to post when you've got it planned out.
:) khairete
S.

since I do home daycare we spent a lot of time thinking of this before we did our yard - first we did an awesome climber from cedarworks - they use non splintering wood and have logically set up swingsets, our set is now 11 yrs old and still wonderful, our girls played on it daily, as did/do all the daycare kids for hours and hours
I had the climber put in a spot where I can see if from the back windows of the house while I do dishes or sit at the table so I can supervise kids easily from inside if needed. Our climber has a curly slide, a super long slide, a smaller slide, 3 swings but I wish we had splurged for the fourth so if friends came over they could have all been on the swings, a rope ladder, a rock wall, a rope thing that spins, a tunnel over the swings - it's loaded. We put rubber mulch under the climber, 4 inches is a safe amount for an 8 ft fall and it lasts forever. We got various other playhouses, slides, a small water table and kid sized picnic table and other stuff. It's nice having the stuff all on the mulch to contain it. I have a bench for me to sit on and it opens so that stuff can be stored in it. We also planted trees around so that there is shade over the whole playground area. Most kids say our backyard is better then any playground.
I put a large sandbox at the farthest end of our yard so that if they kids played in it the sand would shake off as they walked back to the house and minimize how messy inside of the house got.
Now that the trees have matured we have a hammock between two of them, the kids climb the ones that have thicker branches.
There is about a 6 ft section between the mulched area and the fence that was in a gully and always wet so we planted native prairie plants there - this has become a nature oasis - the kids pretend to be explorers there or see the insects there. I put a path of walking stones through it but I over planted it and it's way too wild now. If money wasn't an issue then I'd have a professional gardener keep it in check more.
I would have loved to make a section on the side of my house into a ride on paradise - I'd put a cool paved path around the edge of it with various houses to be a town around with a gas pump and stuff like that so that the kids could really have a great time with it.
I would have loved to have a water feature too. I have a rain barrel and the kids get water from that and have a great time, but a small creak with no standing water, that just recycled the water with an underground pump would be so cool.
I sometimes go on pinterest and I have a whole board about ''outdoor oasis'' ideas. We have a lot of open space so that there can be soccer games, catch, and other games like that. All the stuff is to the edges of the yard. If money were no object, and we didn't have neighbors so close, there are so many more things I could and would do. If you do actually do this stuff look at daycare supply places, you'll find more unique and higher quality things. My kids and their friends played on our swingset/climber daily till they were about 12 yrs old, and even at 13 and 16 they will still go out there and play every now and then. The sandbox is used by the daycare kids, but my kids played with it lots up until they were 9 or 10, so worth having it there for those years.

Splashpads are fun for all ages.

How could I forget a tree house!! My kids would have killed for one but our house was new construction so there were no trees that could support one. We considered a playhouse but our lot was not level. Even as adults my kids seek out quiet places to read so I am sure they would still be hiding out there if we had built one.

Fairy garden or flower/veggie garden.

We are saving/planning for a concrete basketball court in our backyard. We are going to do concrete so it can also double as a patio when we want it for that. But we'll add two hoops for them to play actual games. All 3 of our kids would LOVE that, they are 8, 10, and 12.

They would love a pool, but it doesn't seasonally make sense for us right now...MD isn't warm enough long enough to justify the cost.

We do have a trampoline and that gets a TON of use. They sometimes just sit and talk on it - and we love that most.

Our play set had a couple of swings, monkey bars and trapeze bar/rings. Kids love to climb and swing, at all ages, so that was totally worth it. And it was solid wood, very well made. If $ is not an issue don't be cheap with that.
We also had a cool, good size playhouse with a porch which went through phases of playing house or store, to camping out with friends and cousins, to making out with boys <<<sigh>>>
We also had an old, concrete patio pond which was kind of funky but the kids LOVED that thing. I had to put mosquito fish in there (which ate any mosquito larvae) and we had tadpoles and frogs every spring which the kids watched and caught with glee.
Also a large sandbox, they loved that too, for a lot longer than I expected. As old as 8 or 9 my son and his friends were creating battles in the sand using dozens of plastic green army men :-)
And if you're so inclined, it never hurts to plant a garden, even just a small one, flowers or veges or both. I miss the days when my littles loved digging in the dirt, planting seeds, watching things grow...

I'd include a hammock!!

I'd like to suggest you ask your kids. And let them help. When I was growing up, a neighbor had a beautiful tree house built for his son. He never went in it. He spent all his time at our house where he and my brother built one out of scraps of wood and random nails.

Obviously yours are still too little to build their own tree house but the are not too little to have opinions!

ETA: Also, at my house, open space that my boys can use as a wiffleball/soccer field is considered far more valuable than a swingset (I've asked them if they wanted a swingset at the expense of the field, and the answer was a resounding NO). If you have space for both, ok, but don't feel like you have to fill up the open space.

I would not do a playset personally. My dream kid backyard would have an awesome fort. And a huge tree swing...one that is up on a high branch so you can really swing far. A big sandbox with cool digging toys/trucks. A trampoline. Our kids use our trampoline a LOT and we have had it for 6 years. And maybe a zipline. When they get older I'd look into an outside ping pong table, badminton, a hang out place (the fort!) with drinks/snacks, xmas lights.

Sport court! My kids would love a basketball/hockey court in the backyard. A trampoline is always a hit and a nice treehouse would be fun too. I would also make sure you have swings. We have a playset, but also have separate swings and my kids are 12 and 10 and still like them. When we first moved in we had two baby swings, then we cut them down to be big-kid swings. Now we have an optional hammock that we can put up. I'd also consider a swimming pool, even if it's above ground. Once it's done, can I come over to play?! :)

I would do a play structure, you know, the expensive, double layered ones with a giant tube slide and adult size swings? You know, the ones that's cost 10k on sale?

We inherited ours. I have kids in the range of 13 months-13 playing on ours all the time. They have a personal playground. My kids are on it year round, and we live in Chicago where it gets cold. The folks who gave it to us had it 13 years.

We then have a garden space where the kids can plant and dig. We will be hopefully moving somewhere with water, a pond or river. My oldest wants a tree fort as well.

why not ask your kids what they want?

Go to pinterest and search backyard fun, activities, etc...and you'll spend the day drooling...

Some popular thing for people I know with large backyards and bank accounts (my mind is for older kids):
-Sports Court (basketball/tennis/volleyball)
-Batting cage
-In ground trampoline
-Zip line
-Over sized hot tub or 'spool' is the name for spa/pool. I would wait until the youngest is water safe.

A back yard skating rink isn't too difficult to put together for the winter.

My oldest are 16, I have a 7 yr old and a 4 yr old. The younger ones would love to have a swingset with a fort. If you go this route, make sure the fort part is big enough for them as they grow. My older kids say sometimes it would have been nice to have one. However, they also say they are glad they had room to run. Don't overdo it, filling up the whole yard with stuff. Make sure you have open space. I have been considering building a little house, small enough for my younger ones but big enough so I can stand inside and maybe my older kids can "get away" in the summer time from the chaos inside our home.