I'm jealous of my kids!

I was a lucky kid. I had a large backyard to play in, with a sandbox made by my Dad, lots of trees to climb, and an awesome tire swing. I didn't have any fences, or fancy climbing sets, or intricate outside toys besides my bike. And I was able to play outside without having to wait for a parent to be available to go with me. I had it pretty good. Life was different then.

Now, I sometimes watch my children playing and wonder "How did I manage without that as a kid?

They have this great sandbox that is up on legs so that they can stand up to play in it, or maybe even get out their camping chairs and have a rest while they play. No sand in their pants, and a little less in their shoes. And there is a nice cover with tie downs so the girls don't have to worry about the neighborhood cats also "playing" in their sandbox. Their sandbox isn't as big as the one I had, but they don't get splinters.

They also have sidewalk chalk. That stuff is a blast! They draw all kinds of pictures. They get me to draw all kinds of pictures. I think their favorite activity with the chalk is to color in the bricks in the patio though. Our patio is made up of lots of hourglass-shaped, interlocking bricks. The girls love to color each brick a different color. And they have discovered how to play Hopscotch. Well, almost anyway. Today they even made up their own version of Hopscotch based on the bricks they had colored in. They would jump over their board then hop over mine, counting the whole time. I got in trouble though because my board stopped at 10 instead of continuing up to 12 or 13. Oops.

I love to watch them play Hopscotch. That is such a great game for evaluating their physical skills. Miss M is able to jump on one foot from block to block. Miss S gives it a really good try. She jumps up on one foot and lands on one foot with the other landing just behind. And she is so proud, especially on the sections where the 2 numbers are side-by-side. The first couple of times we played I tried to get her to jump my way, and we both just got frustrated. Now I let her play as she wants, or is able, and we have so much more fun.

I wouldn't go back and change anything about my childhood playtime. I was a lucky kid, but that sidewalk chalk would have been a lot of fun.