The children love being outdoors. I wrote recently about the positive effects on behaviour from being outside. I honestly think it makes a huge difference, but getting outdoors doesn’t have to mean going somewhere else.

The children love to be at home, but out in the garden, and whilst they love to play on their bikes and scooters, bounce on the trampoline and get all kinds of messy in the sand pit and mud kitchen, they equally love just helping out.

It’s incredibly windy where we live, so there is often a lot of debris to tidy up in the garden, the children love to help out with this and are actually really useful, so it’s a great help.

We get a lot of leaves blowing around this time of year, as well as bigger twigs and branches, and sometimes debris from the farm on a really windy day.

One of the big jobs we’ve done recently is cut the hedges. They suddenly seemed to shoot up and we didn’t want them to get too high up and out of control.

A chainsaw from somewhere like SGS can make life a whole lot easier and you can get the job done much faster. There was a lot to cut and it would have taken hours by hand, and not looked nearly as smart. No one wants a hedge that looks like it’s been cut with a knife and fork now do they?

The little boys especially loved the clearing up process, grabbing arm fulls of hedge and throwing it into the recycling bin. They are also quite handy with the broom and managed to sweep up all the debris. It’s a great activity on so many levels, they were loving being outside and being helpful, but they were also learning to work well as a team as well.

One of their favourite things to do is to squish down all of the cuttings in the recycling bin. They take it in turns to trample the cuttings down to make more space – when it gets really full, either one of the big kids has to climb in, or both the little boys get in together!

They think it’s hilarious and sometimes it’s the only way to get anything done.

They love to get muddy and messy. Oh the joys of mud! Since the dawn of time children have been drawn to mud puddles and dirt as a part of their play. Mixing soil, water, and other natural materials like pebbles, leaves, or grass provides children endless possibilities for learning and fun.

Many of us have fond memories of creating mud pies, digging for worms, or making streams and valleys in the mud. What’s more, scientists say regular exposure to the bacteria may help reduce a child’s vulnerability to depression. In short, playing outside and getting dirty makes you happier! I can well believe that looking at their little faces.

Do your children help in the garden? What sorts of things do you get them doing?