Backyard Adventure: Get Messy, Get Wet, Build Cool Things, and Have Tons of Wild Fun! 51 Free-Play Activities

(Paperback)

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Turn the backyard into an adventure zone, with playful projects and plans for inspiring kids ages 6 to 10 to explore, imagine, and create their own fun. The backyard has long been a space associated with recreation and relaxation, a private patch of earth to escape to, and a springboard for the imagination. With her signature style and personal experience as a mother, gardener, and author, Amanda Thomsen encourages kids to create kingdoms of their own making, right in their own backyards. With whimsical projects for every season and any setting, forest to pavement, fun-seeking kids and their families will rediscover the yard as a place for inspired play, using repurposed materials and existing features of outdoor spaces. Whether they're creating tiny gardens inhabited by action figures, weaving a secret hideaway out of a loom of twine and twigs, or setting sidewalk cracks on fire with Coffeemate, Backyard Adventure lets kids of all ages turn their yards into a place they can call their own. AGES: 6 to 10 AUTHOR: Amanda Thomsen is the author of Backyard Adventure and Kiss My Aster as well as a mom, a Girl Scout troop leader, a garden maker, an adventure planner, and a rule breaker. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and eight-year-old daughter. SELLING POINTS: . Projects and ideas are inexpensive to execute and can be adapted for kids across age ranges. Scavenging and fun suggestions for using materials and settings families already have access to make the ideas in the book easy to modify for kids of different ages, cost-effective, and rich with possibilities. . Allows kids to take the reins. The move toward "free-range parenting" and the proliferation of adventure playgrounds means parents are seeking ways to cultivate children's creativity and confidence. Most of the projects in the book can be carried out by kids, with little to no adult involvement, and all of them are designed to put kids in the driver's seat, encouraging exploration, imagination, and granting permission to play and get messy. . Author with a distinct design sensibility that speaks to kids and fun-loving adults. Author Amanda Thomsen, with her background in professional gardening, combines her quirky style and playful approach to transforming outdoor spaces with her own experiences as a parent. Full-colour; photographs throughout

Reviews

"Rocket fuel for a free-range childhood." -- Lenore Skenazy, president of Let Grow and founder of Free-Range Kids

"Play is the work of childhood and modern kids are play-deficient. Backyard Adventure provides the healthy injection of play all children need. They'll never realize they're learning physics, chemistry, botany, and engineering -- they'll be having too much fun!" -- Katherine Reynolds Lewis, author of The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever -- And What to Do About It

"Wow, what a treasure trove of ideas and projects. I was laughing and saying aloud, YES, YES, YES! Amanda Thomsen understands that the simplest things in nature are what nurture young souls and spirits. Hurrah!" -- Sharon Lovejoy, Author of Roots, Shoots, Buckets Boots, Sunflower Houses, Camp Granny and many more favorite books for children

Author Bio

Amanda Thomsen is the author of Backyard Adventure and Kiss My Aster as well as a mom, a Girl Scout troop leader, a garden maker, an adventure planner, and a rule breaker. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and eight-year-old daughter.