Construction Play Outdoors – Using Garden Cuttings!
My 4 year old son Doodles is absolutely obsessed with all things building and construction related. I f he’s quiet then I know not to worry as he is probably playing with Lego or bricks or pieces of recycled rubbish and building some sort of a contraption!!!! I even had to ask his preschool teacher to discourage him from playing in the construction corner at school all the day everyday and encourage to him to do other activities!
Construction Play Obsessed – Lego, Blocks, Cubes, Tent Building – you name it Doodles loves it! (and so does his little sister!)
We have been cutting back all of our hedges and trees and shrubs over the past few weeks – we have a huge garden so this has been a massive job (now finished thank God!). Anyway, as a result of all this work there has been a tonne of garden debris stacked up in a pile waiting to be shredded. Doodles has been keeping an eye on this with great curiosity, I could almost see the cogs turning as he planned in his mind what he could use all the branches for.
Yesterday afternoon, as soon as he got home from preschool, he set to work! He hauled as many of the big branches as he could into the middle of our front lawn and began to build his fort. He worked away until he was happy with his circular fort. He then happily played in his fort for most of the afternoon. He just amazes me everyday with his building ideas. He will use absolutely anything he can find to build. There is always another use for all of our rubbish, be it garden cuttings, toilet rolls, boxes, etc. Why not let your little engineers lose with these materials and see what they will create.
Ciara x
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The Finished Product – Fort Doodles!
- Our Little Friday Letter | 22nd May 2026
This week’s little letter is all about the emotional atmosphere I want this summer to hold — slower mornings, calmer evenings, less pressure, more connection, and ordinary joyful moments that don’t need to be perfect to matter. - What Mindful Living Actually Looks Like in Real Life
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If life has been feeling a little full lately, these 10 tiny habits offer a gentle way to slow things down. Small, realistic shifts that can help you create a calmer, more peaceful rhythm in your everyday life. - 30 Simple Summer Traditions to Start at Home (That Actually Feel Good to Keep)
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Our Little House in the Country
Hi, I’m Ciara — writer, homemaker, and the heart behind Our Little House in the Country. I share slow, seasonal living from our cozy corner of the Irish countryside, where life is a little messy, a little magical, and deeply real. Whether it’s a teen-friendly recipe, a lived-in home moment, or a reminder to let go of perfection, this space is about embracing the everyday and finding joy in what’s already here. Come in, kick off your shoes, and stay a while — the kettle’s always on.
25 Comments
Iona@Redpeffer
Great idea and lovely imagination-my son is transport obsessed so he would probably try to build a road with those cuttings somehow!
Aedin
Wow,he’s quite the little engineer!Lovely photos!
ciwin22
Thanks Aedin.
Island Traveler
Creative, fun, imaginative!
ciwin22
Thank you, he’s a creative little man!
Alicia Owen
How creative! Reminds me of when I was a kid. I used to love going outside and making teepees from sticks, a blanket, and use pine needles as bedding. 🙂
Adventures in Homeschooling
I adore this and only wish we had a big enough garden to do something similar. Outdoor fun just can’t be beaten!
Merlinda (@pixiedusk)
A young architect! I love his creations and he designs are magnificent. =) #countrykids
ciwin22
Thank you so much! 🙂
Le Coin de Mel
Great job, Doodles! Great, big garden, too! Mel #CountryKids
ciwin22
Thanks Mel, have a lovely weekend!
debra
This is brilliant… I love creative he has been with something so simple.
Let kids be kids
Fantastic! What a great imagination and a lot of fun.
Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids
TwinsplusTwo
Great idea! Mine were trying to build wigwams with ours! #letkidsbekids
ciwin22
I actually thought that he would build a wigwam, that’s what came to my mind first but, no, he had other plans – and he won’t let us clear it away or shred the branches yet!!!!!! Thanks for visiting!
afamilydayout
I hope he clears them all into the garden waste bin afterwards! Looks like he had great fun, it’s a very imaginative use for the branches. #letkidsbekids
ciwin22
The fort is still in situ! Still trying to convince him that we need to clear them!!!! Thanks for stopping by!
Coombe Mill
Just what kids should be doing, applying what they learn inside to the world outside. It looks like a great fort and hours of happy play. I bet he slept well after all that lugging branches around. Thank you for sharing such imagination on country Kids.
ciwin22
Thank you so much, the fort is still standing, our next battle will be to persuade him that it is time to dismantle so that it all can be shredded – meanwhile we still have a wonderful fort in out front garden!
Loving life with little ones
Thats a fantastic fort, don’t feel you need to discourge his construction obsession, he is going through something called a ‘schema’ where they repeat actions of play over and over to understand concepts and the way things work, his is construction at the mo. All children do it and it is their way of learning and understanding, things like emptying and filling, climbing/building are examples of schemas. my two are into emptying/measuring and filling at the mo,
ciwin22
Thanks for that, I am very familiar with schema in terms of drawing and writing development but never occurred to me that it obviously applies to all areas, thanks, we fully encourage him in this at home, it’s just at school that we would prefer to see him widen his horizons. He just loves to build- yesterday he created all sorts of vehicles using play dough and lose parts. Thanks so much for stopping by 🙂
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Ness - One Perfect Day
This is fabulous Ciara. I’m featuring it on Tuesday Tots this week. Thanks for linking up.
ciwin22
Thank you so much! That’s really lovely to hear! I love Tuesday Tots! 🙂
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