New Garden Makeover Montessori Toddler

How are you? Welcome back to my channel. In today's video, as you'll see by the title, I'm giving you a little preview of our outside space. I actually did this around this time last year when we were heavily in lockdown and we created the best we possibly could with what we to turn our garden into a functional space for Oscar during lockdown, during winter, during a pandemic. We created a little cubby house for him and I will link that video above now and in the description box if you're interested. That was done on a very small budget but with the massive skill of my husband. So if you're on a small budget, if you are trying to DIY it, that is a really good video to go and watch. In this week's video though, we have put a little bit more money into it to turn our garden into a functional space for all four of our children. That includes our four and a half year old Oscar and also our triplets who are 20 months old. It was getting to the point where getting out of the house during winter is such a slog of getting everybody dressed and everybody's boots on and maybe going into the van and driving somewhere and with the winter hours it was getting to the point where we would do all of those things, get to the place and if we started to get dark and we would be there for very long. So we've invested in our outdoor space to ensure that we can get out a lot more during the winter and obviously it's still going to be there during the other seasons but it's just outside our door. So we wanted it to be a functional usable space for all the children that can be used in all weathers. So in this week's video I'm going to show you what we built, a little snapshot of the building process and then also the toys and other accessories that we've chosen to put in the that means that it is a fun and usable space for those ages. So definitely going to be used for many years to come but it can be used for young toddlers as well. So I hope this video is useful as always I will link everything I possibly can in the description box below and now that I have my comments back don't forget to ask any questions in the description box, no in the comments box and I will try to get back to as many of you as I possibly can and I really hope this is useful. So let's go outside and check out our new outdoor space. Okay so when you come out of our house you're greeted with the decking area. This was actually here when we bought the house but Jamie built the railing around the outside because it didn't have anything, it just was a drop off. So now it's safe, we've got a gate here and a gate here. We actually keep this gate open now and up here is basically the kind of ride-on toys. This is Oscar's old balance bike that Hendrix is starting to have a go at, a little scuttlebug, this was the main Christmas present this year, a backhoe loader, the other piece is actually up there that goes on the back so you can actually do some like digging. Sometimes it's up here and sometimes it's down in the wood chips. Here we have our sand tray and I also have a tough tray that when they're playing at it I put the tough tray down on the floor to hopefully save some of the sand which you know is a thankless task because inevitably sand goes out over the side but I do save some. So this is just, we saved this from a neighbour who was getting rid of it, an old sand tray. We have play sand in there so it's nice and clean, no bugs or whatever and we keep it shut so there's no animals that can get into it. And then in the kind of more summery months I use the tough tray out here with like water or lentils or something else but at the moment in the winter time it's kind of just reserved for saving the sand. Then over here we have more of our ride-ons, these are the two cars that the triplets got for their first birthday, the little tykes jeep and car and it also has a trailer under there. We have a little lawnmower and a wheelbarrow, we actually have two wheelbarrows but one of them is currently under repair, they're just used so much. So yeah and then we have a table out here which really could go away probably, we don't use it too much in the winter time. And then down here is our new play area. I always get asked what size the space is and I can never remember so I will put it on the screen now because I know lots of you ask what how much space this is taking up. If I just show you what our garden normally is like, it is mud. We have a real big drainage issue and so that's why we decided to do what we've done. We're actually thinking now to move our planters over to here and actually extend the play area so kind of from the door of the shed there and have all of this because they use it so much and at the moment this just side is useless because of the drainage issue so it might actually get bigger. So at the moment we're dividing it with these planters that Jamie built, they're kind of full of rubbish bits of wood at the moment but these will eventually be lined and then planted and then there'll be a trim around the top so you can actually like sit down as well and these are going to be mainly filled with fruits and vegetables we're going to grow so it's kind of like nature's snack while they're out here they can pick peas or strawberries that's my aim so yeah put those down there with a few flowers and that will be our next project really I think before we do that though we're going to decide whether we are going to extend because if we are we need to move these planters before we fill them because otherwise it's going to be impossible to move them. So here is our play space this playground area was all built by Jamie and we kind of came up with a few ideas based on a plum play design I really liked and also a couple of local playgrounds that I really liked but basically I wanted to create something that had lots of play value more than just your typical swing and slide kind of contraption I wanted them to have something to be able to climb a little place that was covered they could do stuff I wanted their mud kitchen in there as well so we kind of just thought about different designs and then Jamie's an architect so he drew it all up and then he's very handy with woodwork he loves building stuff so then he built it it's actually still not finished so I'm filming this kind of a bit prematurely but we're not sure when it's going to get finished but it's actually usable at the moment and so we're just going with it so the ground is wood chips like I said we have a big drainage issue so we were trying to think of a way to combat that so what we've done is underneath here is and I'll insert clips of the process we basically put down gravel layer of gravel then a layer of polythene is under here and then this is quite a thick layer this is playground grade wood chips so these are soft they absorb impact they're designed for playgrounds basically so this isn't just like mulch this is actually tested playground grade wood chips they're actually really soft I get lots of people asking could you walk on it barefoot you actually could and they dry really quickly as well as another thing so there's no drainage issue because we've got the polythene that is perforated the gravel underneath and then these wood chips on top and then we wanted something that they would be able to use as part of their play as well which they do all the time they dig this up use it in the bucket I'll show you in a minute use the digger to dig it up and it gets thrown down the slide and things like that so it's actually part of the play area in safaris it's the ground but they also use it to play with um so yeah get it from a reputable company that supplies playgrounds with wood chips and you're there's no problem so then over here we have an outdoor storage box this is designed for outdoors and this is where we house all of our kind of trucks I will link everything in the description box below for you so we have these these big trucks these were for the triplets birthday last year there's some cones if you're doing any digging work and in here we have some skittles this is the tea tower kind of keep out here to dry off the slide and whatever on mornings like this buckets and actually underneath here is kind of stuff I don't want them to always get out which is things like chalk and things like that that I'll get out on specific occasions but otherwise this I um bungee cord this open so it doesn't fall down on them and yeah they can access this all these things if they want to and then I always get asked about this big truck this was actually salvaged from a neighbor's bin they were gonna get rid of it because it was all broken and as you can probably see it is quite old we basically just ripped off the broken tip of it and then cable tied one of these crates to the top and it is now very well loved crates are kind of a big thing for us we've got these little coke ones which are like for the glass coke bottles and then we have these Schweppes ones that are slightly bigger these are basically just from a drinks warehouse we didn't buy them they were getting rid of them a lot of times these end up in skips local pubs or things like that might give them to you as well just to kind of ask around they tend to not be wanted but they're great for play the kids stack them up we've got some spare pieces of decking that the kids use for sliding down or practicing balancing it's just so good for them and it's open-ended so they can use it for their trucks make an obstacle course etc and pretty much they're all free so if you can get your hands on some do over here we have some stepping stones these are bought stepping stones but you could find something similar they're nice and sturdy and would take the weight of an adult this is which can be used as a stepping stone they also use it to spin around in has so many uses it's basically a really good open-ended toy and they're using it at the moment to be like the starting point for walking along and we put it here because the triplets like to hold on as they're walking along because they're a little bit off balance at the moment and then we have the cubby house so it is got a roof slide steps these will eventually be planted but at the moment the kids just love standing on here and filling them up with wood chips and they obviously fill with water as well so we've got the steps up we've made this future proof so we've made it quite big and at the moment we're just using the crates to help them get up basically to shorten the steps so these are there for them to help them get up if they need to oscar's fine with the big steps and then obviously once the triplets grow a little bit we can remove the crates we've also bought these proper handles playground handles as well for them to help them get up and down then coming underneath the cubby house we have the mud kitchen which is not finished yet um and it's under here because it keeps it nice and dry and this is plywood at the moment so it wouldn't do so well out in the rain but the plan is to put some shelves here and some hooks and some hooks on the side as well so that they can access a few other things so we've got two bowls in here which i just bought off amazon and then jamie cut to size and then we've got a space to actually play and that was the thing with our old mud kitchen we had kind of the two bowls and there wasn't much space to actually like dish out food or have a serving area so we adapted the design to have the bowls on one side and then a space on the other side that you can actually use it and then down below here i just purchased some wire baskets i was kind of toing and froing what kind of baskets to get i didn't really want plastic because i think they crack in the frost and things like that so these are just metal wire baskets and then each one is these are like rocks that are painted to look like fruits and vegetables these are really fun and obviously designed to be outside we've got these for christmas a little shopping basket as well and then in here is some different kinds of pots and pans and colanders and things like that in the next one we have all the kind of utensils some wooden utensils some metal utensils to do cooking in this one we have a selection of jugs and funnels and a bowl and in this one is kind of plates and bowls if you're going to serve somebody a meal and then the last one is kind of gardening utensils and the brush watering can and things like that so they've got those and then under here the plan is to maybe put an actual chalkboard in here because they love coming in here and drawing with the chalk but at the moment they're just drawing on the fence so that might be a plan but i mean it's not such a big deal it's chalk it will wash off um so maybe we don't even need to do that we just let them draw on the fence it can't be seen so yeah this space is quite nice it stays really dry as you can see and they get a lot of play out of this little area it's nice to have kind of different spaces out here so having this bit underneath is really good it is quite low like i have to crouch down to get in here but it's fine um oscar's got loads of head clearance still and he is four and a half so yeah and then here we have our bucket and pulley which is very well loved um so it's just a galvanized bucket we have this little crate so that it has like a landing spot so nobody kind of walks in the landing spot and then it's just attached to this like boom with some pulley systems and then they can pull it and then it goes through the floor so that the rope doesn't fly away so i'll just show you upstairs of the cubby house now so as you come up this is cubby house we do have a little space here that needs to be cladded and the rest of the inside will be cladded eventually i tried to pretty it up a little bit with some bunting um this is our old ikea table and the chairs are sometimes out here so that they can do some craft or whatever while they're out here and then here we have a captain's wheel so they can go driving and we also have a telescope for them to find far off lands it actually is um a pretend telescope it doesn't actually magnify um i think there's something kind of rule about children's telescopes not actually being able to do that so for their eyes or something i'm not sure so yeah so we've got the steering wheel the pulley bucket and the table and chairs up here and we have a clear roof um we were debating what kind of roof to put on but with ireland being so um dark in the winter it means that they can still come out here and it's not too dark um it's maybe not the most attractive roof but it's very practical keeps the rain off and lets the light in so yeah we've also thought about putting some maybe fairy lights out here some solar paneled fairy lights under here as well possibly in the future and then obviously we have the slide which we purchased from a playground supplier um that supply you with swings and swing sets and whatever and you can just buy the slide separately so we did that and that's how we got the measurement for how high this should be um again i'll put all the measurements of everything on the screen and in the description box so that is useful for you guys thanks for watching this week's video i really hope you've enjoyed having a sneak peek around our garden makeover and that it's been useful and i will try to get back to as many of your comments as i possibly can um so don't forget to put them down below and i'll see you again soon so Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.