Natural Playgrounds

What do you picture when you hear the word "playground"? Do you think of sports fields? Swings? Industrial-sized Little Tykes climbers?

If you grew up way back in the 70's you might envision tractor tires and oil drums cleaned and hollowed out, concrete tubes and wooden teeter-totters.

I read a few years ago about some playgrounds in Britain in which there were modular materials--2x4s, tires, and other "interesting stuff" that the kids could use and change around to suit their playing purposes. Which do you think brings more play and learning value--a prefab generic "safe" playground, or something that can be built, changed and experimented with?

Here is a link to a photo journal about playgrounds that shows what I'm talking about: http://www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/playlink/exhibition/woepossibility/index.html

As you may have guessed, I lean towards the latter option.

Let's take this a step further. How about truly natural areas? Wouldn't some large climbing trees, bushes, a small creek, tall grasses, etc. make for even greater imaginative play? Maybe I'm making you nervous now though, especially with the water, tree climbing and possibility of encountering wildlife.

I am going to go "out on a limb" here and suggest that allowing children to face and experiment with risks such as these will actually help keep them safer in the long run. Children need to learn their limits, not limits artificially placed upon them (except in extremes--playing tag in a parking lot is just a very bad idea; going without a pfd, not wearing a seatbelt or a bike helmet are unnecessary risks that bring no benefit to anyone). In order to develop good judgment and self confidence, children need to be allowed to take a few risks.

This doesn't mean you leave them completely to their own devices. It's always a good idea to talk about risks involved in activities. But the conversation needs to be two-sided, and you need to allow for the child to come up with suggestions and solutions.

For example, my eldest loves to climb trees. He is a talented climber, and light-weight, so he is able to go further than his friends. I expressed several concerns about his climbing--dead branches that could snap, slipping, and copycat behaviours from younger or less climbing-savvy friends. He suggested that we see which branches had live leaves and no signs of insect infestations, that only running shoes with treads be worn climbing, and that he not do this in front of younger kids. I added a suggestion that he make sure it is ok with the adult in charge first if that happens to be someone other than myself.

Are there still dangers involved? You bet there are, and sometimes I have to sit on my hands and bite my lips. But there are dangers involved in absolutely everything we do, and what it comes down to is evaluating which risks are worth taking. We have had similar conversations about flash flooding on rivers, creeks and waterways, about approaching wildlife, about public transit (which I still haven't sent him on alone--soon though!), and other "risky" activities.

The idea here is that rather than taking the lazy road and completely banning all activities that appear to hold risks (and by doing so create and artificial "padded room" sort of existence), instead help the children develop the skills and judgment necessary to decrease the risks and allow them to participate in the activity so they can learn and grow. It is true that as an adult we have access to a wider range of experiences and may see risks that aren't apparent to children; it is our job to teach our children about these and help them develop the necessary skills, tools and judgment in order to proceed.

Sometimes we forget the really big risks we take for granted--like driving in automobiles, for example. Certainly this holds a great deal more risk than tree climbing, lake and river romping, and pretty much most other activities that are of great value to children's play. Other risks that pop into mind are overexposure to media, overindulgence in "screen time" and routine consumption of processed food products. Since the dangers of these things are less immediate, we tend to disregard them and focus on those that get the parental adrenaline flowing. There is no denying that seeing your child at the top of a 40' tree can cause parental anxiety, and that for some kids it would be a truly poor choice (like me, for example). But you need to remember to look at each child individually and assess their needs and abilities before taking over the decision making.

I battle with the social issues as well. Aside from bullying, physical or emotional violence or other hurtful actions, I think adults tend to step in a little too quickly to sort out their children's squabbles.
We need to teach them the basics--be kind to others, consider everyone's feelings, take turns listening, apologize when needed, forgive each other, etc. but then we need to step back and let them try it all out. We need to let them make mistakes and learn from them first-hand. It's better to be shunned for a day from a group when you're 7 or 8 because you made a social faux pas than to make similar mistakes as an adult and never quite understand other people's reactions. We need to let our kids take risks socially as well, and to keep the channels of communication open without interfering.
It's a fine line, and a difficult one to keep from crossing when we see our children struggling. But these are the years in which our children develop their sense of identity, so it is especially important that we give them a balance of freedom and support in order to truly learn and grow.