5 Exciting Garden Design Ideas for Foster Carers
When people think about introducing foster children into the home, the focus is typically on bedroom design. However, other elements of the home are just as important, including the garden. With a little bit of imagination, you can create an environment built around enjoyment and educational experiences, which are essential parts of child development.
Pond Life
Having a pond will make your garden look fantastic, but it’s also a fantastic resource for providing those all-important educational experiences for foster children. For example, if you teach them how to maintain the pond, they will learn about how different ecosystems work. As well as this, it will highlight how important it is for humans to take care of the environment.
The Vegetable Patch
When you’re learning about being a successful foster carer with fosterplus.co.uk, you’ll find out all about the importance of healthy nutrition in children. However, in many cases, foster children won’t have been encouraged to eat healthily – this is where you have to try and break the cycle.
You can start doing this by building a vegetable patch together, which will teach them how to care for vegetables and other plants. Once they’ve grown, you can pick them, wash them and use them in healthy recipes that your foster child will want to taste.
A Sensory Feast
Childhood development involves engaging the senses, which is why so many toys and activities include touch, hearing, and smell. If you’ve got the space in your garden, you can build a sensory garden that will help activate their brain. Here are some things to put into your sensory garden:
- Sandpits
- Scented plants
- Mirrors
- Wind chimes
- Whiteboards
- Water features
- Wood chip/bark
Creating a sensory garden doesn’t have to be expensive, but it will have clear value to your foster children. As well as this, you will most likely find a walk through the sensory garden relaxing, especially as the wind trickles through the chimes.
A Garden Escape
Depending on your budget and how much space there is in your garden, you can create a garden structure for your foster children to escape to. Having a playhouse, or even a tree house, will provide a sanctuary for them when the world is becoming too much. After all, being in a new environment and dealing with emotions can be challenging for them.
Let’s Get Creative
Having an appropriate avenue to get creative is an essential part of childhood development because it broadens the mind and improves problem-solving. You can facilitate this need in the garden, and we’re not talking about a table and chair setup for your children to draw at. Instead, create a dedicated space for letting the creativity run free, which can include whiteboards, graffiti walls, and spaces to use chalk on the pavement.
Being outside is fantastic for the mind, but the garden can offer so much more for your foster children than fresh air and sun. If you have the space to introduce the ideas above, you’ll be well on your way to supporting healthy childhood development.
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