{"id":4849,"date":"2019-05-17T09:45:12","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T14:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/?p=4849"},"modified":"2019-05-17T09:45:12","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T14:45:12","slug":"how-to-create-a-garden-that-encourages-your-kids-to-stay-active","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/how-to-create-a-garden-that-encourages-your-kids-to-stay-active\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Create A Garden That Encourages Your Kids To Stay Active"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all want our kids to be happy and healthy and encouraging them to get out and exercise is an important part of that. But unfortunately, that\u2019s harder than ever to do because of the influence of screens on kids. Finding ways to <\/span>get them away from screens<\/span><\/a> and convince them to do something more active instead is a struggle for a lot of parents and they worry about their child\u2019s health as a result. If you\u2019re going to get them outside more, you need to find ways to make it more exciting for them. One of the best ways to do that is to create a great garden area that they\u2019ll love playing in. These are some of the best changes that you can make to your garden to encourage your kids to play out there more often. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Open Up The Space <\/b><\/p>\n

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Kids need a lot of space to run around and play, so you need to make sure that the garden has a lot of open areas. If you\u2019ve got big trees and bushes that are growing into the garden and taking up a lot of room, you need to know <\/span>how to use a reciprocating saw<\/span><\/a> because it will make light work of those branches. Cut away all of the trees and bushes and you\u2019ll open up a space that the kids can play in easily. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Add Some Color <\/b><\/p>\n

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Kids respond well to color so you should try to make the garden as bright and colorful as possible. If you\u2019ve got flower beds around the edges of the garden, try to fill them with lots of <\/span>colorful plants<\/span><\/a>. Just make sure that you check before you plant anything because you need to make sure that there isn\u2019t anything that is poisonous if eaten. Kids tend to explore the world through touch and taste and if you\u2019ve got young kids you need to be sure that they\u2019re safe in the garden. You can also add a bit of color and make the garden more exciting by painting murals on the fences. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Grow Some Vegetables <\/b><\/p>\n

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Getting kids involved in a project is a good way to keep their interest in the garden, so you should try to <\/span>grow some vegetables<\/span><\/a> out there. They\u2019ll enjoy planting them and watering them regularly and they\u2019ll be excited to get out in the garden to see how they\u2019re growing. At the end, they\u2019ll learn a valuable lesson about hard work and patience when they finally see the end product, and they might even start eating their vegetables more often if they\u2019ve grown them. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Play Equipment <\/b><\/p>\n

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You\u2019ll need some play equipment out there to keep them entertained. You can pick up a cheap sandpit or just make your own with a few bits of wood and some sand. If you\u2019ve got a big tree out in the garden, you could even try to <\/span>build a treehouse<\/span><\/a> up there. You can also get a swing set for fairly cheap and they\u2019re easy to put together. <\/span><\/p>\n

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If you set up the garden so the kids love playing out there, it will be a lot easier to encourage them to stay active.<\/span><\/p>\n

This post is a collaborative effort by St. Louis Dad.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all want our kids to be happy and healthy and encouraging them to get out and exercise is an important part of that. But unfortunately, that\u2019s harder than ever to do because of the influence of screens on kids. Finding ways to get them away from screens and convince them to do something more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"How To Create A Garden That Encourages Your Kids To Stay Active #dadbloggers","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,276,6],"tags":[857,12,147,850,155,16],"class_list":["post-4849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-family","category-outside","tag-active","tag-blog-2","tag-family","tag-garden","tag-kids","tag-lets-go-outside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/park-with-abby.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JMKA-1gd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4851,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions\/4851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}