We Went To The Park Instead!!!
This is our neighborhood park. It is very nice, we have some nice equipment and they installed some swings in the Fall. Although, the swings are so high off the ground that young children can't get on without help. My stance on that is, if you can't get on yourself, then you can't go on. I don't have to worry about Little Miss M because for some reason they didn't put any baby swings in, go figure!!! We like to get on with her and swing with her on our lap... we called it the butterfly swing when I was younger.
There are climbing parts, sliding parts, swinging, and tunneling. So it is an all around nice park. 
Who says you can't get Fine Motor Work done at the Park??? Who ever said it, has never met these two friends :)
My friends were sticking the little pieces of mulch through the holes on the platforms... ingenious they are!!!
Here are the girls trying to get on their swings!! They were laughing and giggling, until they finally got on. I don't have a photo of that one, because after they finally got on, and I gave them each a push, I was called to help clean some wet slides.Now, this beautiful Park is great, for awhile!! Believe it or not they get bored after just a short time. Unless other kids show up, or I pull balls or toys out of hiding they get bored. Today was no exception. After a few "I'm bored" and "Go and Play or were leaving" exchanges, I realized that they had ventured off the mulch into the grassy area surrounding the park. They had found the TREES!!!
Let the climbing commence!!!
We put all our effort into mastering this skill, and climbing up as far as possible.
One of our Mom's was driving past and only saw her son running around. It took her a couple seconds to locate myself and my best friend, but she couldn't see any other kids. I felt like the Von Trapp Family, where the kids are hanging out in the trees when the Dad drives home with the new girlfriend. But with all that expensive play equipment... what do the kids eventually gravitate to?? The natural parts of the playground, the grassy area to run, the trees to hide in or climb on, and the woodsy area to look for bugs and insects. It was a nice morning :) We decided to link up to Childhood 101, in their We Play Post!!! Check it out to see all the wonderful things people do all over the world!!! Play is Contagious!! 
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My favorite photo of the day... How can that be comfortable??? This was the way Little Miss M fell asleep today. I must have moved her back up 3 times, but every time I would look, she would be hanging off. She was asleep the whole time. To cute!!!
Several years ago, when my daughter was little, a big push was made to remodel a playground we often frequented. It had a wading pool with these tall concrete columns rising out of it, that the kids loved to climb on . . . and jump off. There was a massive hill of dirt upon which some past generation had built a type of boardwalk with all kinds of tunnel style slides shooting out in all directions. People thought that was too dangerous and it all got removed and replaced by all the latest, safest stuff and a spongy fall zone. In effect, they made it look the way adults think a playground is supposed to look.
ReplyDeleteWe were pretty excited to visit the redone playground for the first time. My daughter stopped, open-mouthed, and said, "They ruined it!" We tried playing there for awhile. I soon noticed that there were lots of proud adults climbing on the structures and sliding down the slides, while all around (like in your park experience) the kids were climbing on the landscaping rocks, hanging from trees, swinging sticks and picking flowers.
Oh, I wish we had a park like that for the kids to climb on trees! We have them here, just not within walking distance. I think I need to do some more searching of our area and see if I can't come up with something! These kids are missing out! I don't even have a tree in my yard!
ReplyDeleteWe love climbing trees, too! I moved and their aren't that many parks like that....
ReplyDeleteI am a big tree fan so kids catch it from me, too!
Most of the playgrounds near us have also been made to the latest "safe" equipment, and it's getting too small for my kids! Bring on the climbing trees :)
ReplyDeleteI have written an article about this very subject which will be published online shortly. I love the fact that the children gravitated to the trees and I love the Von Trapps too!
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