The Digging Spot

The children spent many hours per day playing in their California grandparents' nearly indestructible back yard and I saw how good that was for him. We bought this house and it came with a professionally landscaped back yard, which is beautiful, but means that it also has many delicate spots and opportunities for me to shout, "Don't touch that! Don't move that pine straw, don't move those cedar chips! Don't hurt that plant, it's expensive!" Upon coming home, I decided to make the children their own Digging Spot.

Before: One bare patch

After! I raked away the old pine straw, dug a shallow pit, and filled it with play sand. I took two large pots we were not using: One I filled with dirt for more digging and one I filled with the kids' various digging implements so they'll be available "on site" instead of in the toy basket in the sun room.

I also dragged rocks and old bricks over to the site, having found them scattered all over the yard. These materials are good for building things. We're worried about North Carolina biting ants promptly taking up residence in this new soft dirt and sand, so we'll keep our eyes out for that.

A castle in progress. Normally John approaches me to interact during back yard time so often that I can't read more than a paragraph at a time, but this time he spent nearly an hour quietly building a castle--not bugging anyone, not poking his sister, not getting into trouble.

Bonus picture: The children were playing oh-so quietly in John's room, so I peeked my head in to find them leaning back to back, each reading a book.