Monday, May 20, 2019

Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous


 
About time.  What has evolved is absurd.   Kids want to use tools and this needs to be encouraged.  That means bashing things and cutting things.
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A stack of scrap wood is always powerful.  Teaching them to pull out nails is also important.  All that and a few basic tools and hours of learning and imagining the creation of something is possible. Best they learn to make do with what is at hand.

Recall every farm boy heads to town to repair something last after he has proven he cannot do it.  Why do we not expect as much from all.
 
Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous


“I came to the counterintuitive conclusion that engaging in risk is actually very important in preventing injuries,” a researcher says.

Children play on opening day of The Yard, an adventure playground on Governors Island.

By Richard Schiffman

May 10, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/well/family/adventure-playgrounds-junk-playgrounds.html

“Oh my God, this is going to be amazing,” a preadolescent wearing a gray hoodie exclaimed as he dashed in to The Yard, a 50,000-square-foot adventure playground on Governors Island in New York Harbor.


The Yard, for kids 6 through 13, lacks the usual monkey bars, slides and swings. It is, however, well-stocked with dismembered store mannequins, wooden packing crates, tires, mattresses, an old piano and assorted other detritus of the modern world.


There were a few rules: no iPads or electronic devices, no flip flops and no adults. The painted wooden gate is low to discourage adults from inadvertently wandering in.


Despite a steady rain on Saturday, the opening day for the season, The Yard was a hive of activity. Joey Gunderson, 11, and his crew were attempting — not altogether successfully — to nail together wooden boards and plastic sheeting to construct a ramshackle “house.”

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