There’s nothing like a fun family project to create the best memories and teach a few skills along the way. If your backyard could use a boost, plan to build a tire swing, a play fort or a platform tree escape with the little ones. Bigger projects like installing a sunken trampoline or clearing a space for a basketball court are perfect for older kids. Read on for some ideas to upgrade your backyard together.

Tire Swing

A fun and easy project that teaches some basic building skills—as well as ways to recycle and repurpose—is building a backyard tire swing. You’ll need a mature tree with a sturdy forked branch that is around 10 feet high. Materials you’ll need include hardened-steel chains, tubing to go over chains, connecting hardware (eyebolts, connector links, nuts and washers), a locking swivel hook, and (of course) a tire. Tools you’ll need include a power drill and an eight-foot ladder. Depending on age, kids can help out by screwing nuts and washers onto eyebolts and connecting chains with the connector links.

Play Fort

Having an outdoor fortgives kids their own area for many activities, from playing house to capture the flag to hide and seek. Build it with just four sections of stockade fencing, some lumber and connecting L-brackets, screws, and hinges, and tools including power drill, jigsaw, hacksaw and tape measure. Kids can help with measuring, holding wood in place, and customizing with paint, flags and signs. Cut windows in two of the fence sections, customize a door by cutting a fence section in half, add peepholes and telescopes, or whatever features you can dream up with your kids.

Tree Platform

Build a simple platform in a tree as an incentive to get the kids into nature with just three six-foot lengths of two-by-six-inch lumber and eight four-foot decking pieces.

Use two of the six-foot pieces to start, attaching them on opposite sides of a sturdy tree trunk six feet above the ground. If you don’t want to drill into the tree, you’ll have to secure them another way, possibly by tying them together tightly with thick rope or putting them on sturdy stilts made from two-inch-by-four-inch lumber. Brace the lumber with cross pieces cut to fit, then lay the decking pieces on top and screw them in tightly to the foundation pieces. Get creative with a wood or rope ladder and have the kids make signs with "No Trespassing" or "Kids Only" messages. You can even let the kids draw/write on an old t-shirt and use it as a flag.

Bigger Projects

Bigger projects to tackle with older kids include laying a concrete pad to play basketball or installing a sunken trampoline. These are building projects that require digging large areas, so you'll need more than a shovel. You can rent the proper equipment, and with enough manpower (and kid power!), you should have no problem completing the project in a weekend.

Both projects require measuring, digging, and basic construction. For the basketball court: concrete needs framing with wood slats sprayed with release so they can be removed when dry. For the trampoline: carefully remove turf and put aside to use around the excavated area. Dig down the depth of the legs of the trampoline so the surface is level with the ground and there’s no space to drop things underneath. Dig down an extra foot in the middle to fill with gravel for drainage. Mound the soil you remove around the perimeter, place the trampoline in the excavated area, and sod atop the surrounding mounded dirt for a fun and safe backyard attraction.