The children-play pictures from the Song Dynasty vividly depict scenes of children at play during that era, often set in gardens; they serve as crucial visual materials for studying children’s games and garden spaces of the Song Dynasty. Focusing on the Song Dynasty children-play pictures as the research object, this study investigates the interactive relationship between the types of children’s games and the characteristics of garden spaces. The research has identifi ed that: (1) In Song Dynasty gardens, the meticulous arrangement of rocks, water features, plants, animals, architectural structures, and garden ornaments provided a rich material environment for children’s play, transforming these spaces into a developmental arena for exploring nature and fostering cognition; (2) Children’s garden spaces exhibit the characteristics of triple construction, small and micro scale, proximity to nature, and a mutual appreciation of elegance and vulgarity; (3) The prosperity of children’s games and the formation of garden space characteristics in the Song Dynasty were due to the top-down emphasis on children and the mutual infl uence of the Song Dynasty’s “object hunting” and “amusement” trends. The wisdom and cultural connotations of children’s activity space design in traditional gardens discovered through the research can be applied to contemporary child-friendly landscape design.