I've looked at these online and drool over how they can convert slopes, yards, hills, into natural play spaces, without loading up their playground with plastic.
My backyard is all LT and Step2 and while I agree it lasts practically forever and is pretty safe, I still long for natural landscaping for the kids to explore and play in. Does anyone have something like that?

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I do! I am nature explore certified. You can see pics of programs certified here: http://www.natureexplore.org/certified/

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A play yard with natural play features is my goal/plan, but I'm not there yet. The playgrounds featured in the link above are beautiful! I'd been searching on Pinterest on ideas, but these are great!

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This is my goal, too. I'd love some gentle hills/rolls for my infants & toddlers to climb.

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nothingwithoutjoy on here has an amazing yard! Her studio is gorgeous as well. All very Reggio/ Waldorf inspired. It's lovely & leaves lots of inspiration for imagination. Course she has beautiful NY mountainside.

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Ooh I would love to know more about this process. I have a design proposal to turn my large front yard into a natural playscape and would be interested in becoming certified once the work is completed. Is it a difficult process?

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Not difficult at all! My place is still a work in progress. If anyone wants to see my yard I can PM a link to my web page.......if I can figure out how to PM.

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Thank you! How nice of you to say. :-)

(really just a suburban MA backyard)

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It is my goal! I am so inspired by natural playscapes. If anyone would like to share how they did theirs (how you sourced materials, set-up, licensing issues, etc.) I am all ears!

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I do. My advice would be to go ahead and get rid of the plastic if that's what you're hoping to do. Then you open up the space for new possibilities and inspiration.

Tell the parents what you're trying to do, and invite them to help. Make a wishlist of things they might donate (plants they're removing from their gardens, logs from a tree they've cut down, old pots for a mud kitchen, etc.) I've made friends with the town's tree guys, and invited them back to see our space one day while they were working on our street (we were standing on the sidewalk watching them work, as always). They gave us some nice stumps, and even hauled them into the backyard for us. A parent cut me some tree blocks from some fallen branches. Another parent once dumped a pickup truck full of soil into a heap (he'd dug it out of his yard for some reason, and it had been headed for the dump until I said dump it here!) which the kids loved climbing and digging in.

We have a skinny row of trees between us and a neighbor, which we call "the woods." I extended it and made it more woods-like by putting garden beds in front of it, with paths running through. The beds were just fall leaves for a long time--I'm planting them as I can. The paths are bare dirt, lined with logs. It transformed things to have those places to wander through, and any plants I add there makes that area feel more secret and interesting.

We have an herb garden where the kids can pull and eat (mostly chives and mint, as we have very little sun).

We have a mud kitchen full of real pots and pans and spoons and colanders and, of course, dirt! It's surrounded by and filled with log-hunk "stumps."

I'm working on adding lots and lots of fruit-bearing bushes. We don't grow enough to do much with, but there's lots of in-yard snacking!

I just keep adding bit by bit over the years, working toward my vision, which is, of course, much better than my reality! :-)

Here are some old pics. I'll try to add some newer ones soon.

And here's my outdoor-ideas pinterest board.

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I am moving in that direction!! In fact I am replacing my last plastic item (sandbox) with a $20 garage sale find which happens to be the wooden sandbox with benches on my pinterest board!! Yay!
http://pinterest.com/originallkat/na...r-play-spaces/

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I would love to see pics. Thank you

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Haha! I thought you were in the Catskills....

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I emailed my resource specialist this a.m. about my desire to transform my backyard and she sent me the natureexplore link. I'm working towards my 3rd STAR and if I can get it, I'll use the thousand dollars towards my project. I love what I've seen so far! She also said she'd be happy to come and check out my place and brainstorm some ideas with me.
Pinterest is a goldmine of ideas!

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I love the natural playscape idea. So here is my question. We are going to cut up and sand etc a bunch of 2x4's this weekend to use for outdoor building blocks and cut some logs in half etc. I am waiting however for the licensing lady to swoop in and declare them dangerous. She has made off hand remarks about the size of our wooden sandbox, and our wooden climbing structure. We also thought about adding a rock for climbing (2 ft high) but I told DH that I was sure that would be a no no. Has anyone had issues with natural playscapes and licensing? Or am I overthinking this?

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I can't imagine there being a problem with the blocks unless they were heavy and could fall on a child?

Why does she even comment on your sandbox? Is it too big? Too small? To my knowledge there is nothing in our regs that says anything about sandboxes. As far as outdoor equipment, the biggest thing is having proper ground cover in fall zones. The rock would probably be fine as long as you have proper ground cover underneath.

I literally only had a small plastic sandbox and a mini Little Tikes slide when I first became licensed. That's it My licensor was totally ok with it

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Our sandbox is HUGE. Its 32ft long x 24 ft wide. Sand was cheaper and more forgiving on bare feet then mulch so that is what we went with. She comments that it must take hours to clean it each morning as she is sure stray cats use it for a litter box. In reality it takes me about 20 minutes to rake daily. I have found poo in it once in the last 5 months.

I will have DH add the rock then. We have 8 inches of sand in the box. I am sure some places are less then others now. But, where I am thinking they should be fine.

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The ground cover issue worries me. We were planning on putting in a grassy mound with a slide. I can't find anything in my licensing standards about ground cover and where it's needed. It would be a shame to go to the expense of putting it in of its not allowed

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You are completely right and I would definitely contact your licensor to determine what will work and won't.

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Ooooh, ok I understand. Well then every uncovered sandbox should be in question

I would call your licensor about the rock first... my licensor wouldn't mind with proper ground cover but yours might.

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Yes. I will shoot her an email. I asked her for ideas on ground cover she said sand so we got sand lol! The kids love it!

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I bought a tarp to put over our sandbox.

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Our sandbox is also home to our clubhouse, swing set and a climbing thing..A tarp wouldn't really work well. I don't mind raking daily.

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I ordered the nature explore ideas book and it just arrived. Can't wait to get started!

My hubby wants to know when I'm going to stop spending and start making money but this is just too much fun

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