http://www.care2.com/greenliving/kids-on-junk-revisiting-the-adventure-playground.html
Kids on Junk: Revisiting the Adventure Playground
The other day I was momentarily teased by a bout of spring weather. I took the day off, gathered up my toddler son, and took him to a nice little playground (Heckscher) in a corner of Central Park (in NYC, of course). The playground was recently upgraded a few years back with new landscaping, concrete bridges, tunnels, etc. The place was packed with children, parents, nannies, and the like, and to my eyes, it looked like an ideal place to run wild, explore, and be fully childlike.
To my surprise, the newly landscaped climbing structure and play area were all but abandoned, in favor of rougher terrain, just a few feet away, consisting of large climbing boulders and mud left over from a recent snow storm. Young children and teenagers alike were playing a sort of harmonious king (and queen) of the hill game as they scampered up the boulders, sometimes lending a hand to one another, and sliding down on their butts. Even my two-year old showed only a moderate interest in the modified and landscaped play area, and instead kept peering skyward toward the frolicking children on the rocks as if they were some form of mischievous dirt gods.
While the new-fangled playground, with all of its smooth manicured edges and safe structures looked good to me, a parent, it seemed obvious that many (if not most) children want something a bit more feral and natural out of their physical and imaginative play.
This reminded me of the long lost urban movement (at least in this country) around Adventure Playgrounds (or “Junk Playgrounds”). A creation of a Danish landscape architect C. Th. Sorensen, Adventure Playgrounds were created to fulfill a child’s need to “create and shape, dream and imagine a reality” by using raw outdoors spaces (dirt, rocks, water) along with rudimentary tools and materials in free-form play. Basically, from an adult perspective, this was wild play amongst the junk and detritus of urban life–looking more like a littered vacant lot than a city park. However, children the world over responded enthusiastically to these park projects with lots of cooperative play, engaged physical activity, and, what I would imagine were, mounds of dirty clothes and soiled sneakers.
Sadly, the general consensus and concern from parents sought to close down a lot of these parks, as they were just a bit too feral, seen as far too dangerous, and somewhat of an eyesore to some people. Instead they were duly replaced with the safer, but far more subdued, parks of today.
This is too bad, because the Adventure Playground offered something entirely unique and rare in the urban setting–a place where children could invent their own play that is loud, spontaneous, dirty, and of their own design. It is an uncultivated social space that exists without an adult imprint and neither adheres to or defies adult rules. It is purely the invention of the child’s mind.
Does anyone out there have an experience with an Adventure Playground or something even more rough and tumble? What are your feelings about the current state of the urban playground? Too tame? Not safe enough? Lacking imagination?
Eric Steinman is a freelance writer based in Rhinebeck, N.Y. He regularly writes about food, music, art, architecture and culture and is a regular contributor to Bon Appétit among other publications.
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I can understand how parents would feel about safety but sometimes it seems that parents might as well put their kids in a bubble and say okay honey don't get hurt.
The best toy to a little kid is their own imagination. I remember my parents getting me moving boxes and my sister and I would make them into all sorts of things (I believe we had a house and a space ship before)
They say that kids are never satisfied with what they have and yet young children only get to see human made things to play with and only what other people give them premade. I think imagination is loosing the battle here and now I just wish for trees to climb on and washes to run in so that I could play with them once again.
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I am in college and am working on my senior project along with 13 others right now. As a class we have decided to spend the next 10 weeks laying the groundwork to launch an adventure playground in our area (Spokane, WA). From all the research we have gathered and read it seems like it could be a tough task due to the fact that most parents are concerned with safety (myself included-I am a mother of 2 little girls). I think our biggest challenge will be changing the perspective that these parks are dangerous and instilling the idea that these parks promote growth for children in all developmental areas! Thanks for the article!
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I remember when I was little, there was a playground nearby where there was an old wooden playstructure that was pretty rundown and various sizes of huge truck tires to jump in and climb around and balance on. I had a lot of fun there as a kid. They've since replaced it with "safer" plastic contraptions, but I don't see how any kid would have as much fun on those pieces of plastic as I did just with the tires and all the games I made up with them. I grew up completely using my imagination, and I don't see why adults today seem so motivated to stop kids from doing just that.
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LOL, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Talk about timing, I am in the middle of a Playground Renovation in my own neighbourhood. This made me stop and say hummm.
I have been the advocate for a native plant garden and passive play area. I think I will have to put more thought into what we want with our passive play area. It will be awesome when we are done with our playground.
Thank you for the article and all the comments, they have all been very helpful.
---
Peace, Love, & Playtime :-)
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LOL, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Talk about timing, I am in the middle of a Playground Renovation in my own neighbourhood. This made me stop and say hummm.
I have been the advocate for a native plant garden and passive play area. I think I will have to put more thought into what we want with our passive play area. It will be awesome when we are done with our playground.
Thank you for the article and all the comments, they have all been very helpful.
---
Peace, Love, & Playtime :-)
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Reading your article just saved me from spending $300 on a plastic playhouse for my little granddaughter! Now I will see about providing the materials, tools, and inspiration for the family to help her build her own and furnish it with "found" items of her own choosing.
My sons had several equipped playgrounds within walking distance, but they preferred to play in the sand along the railroad tracks (fenced) and on the piles of dirt created by the prolific house construction in our neighbourhood. Sticks and stones were tools enough for my little cavemen!
I definitely vote for more interactive play with nature and open, unstructured spaces, and it's possible that children's immune systems are strengthened by contact with the normal germs of life in a natural environment as opposed to the concentrations of them in artificial environments.
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I am fortunate to live in a city with an adventure playground: http://www.ci.huntington-beach.ca.us/Residents/Parks_Facilities/parks/huntington_central_park/Adventure_Playground.cfm
My three kids always love going there to play. The Huck Finn "rafts" are just large pieces of plywood, the "mudslide" is literally a dirt hill with a trough dug out and lined with black plastic, and of course the old tire on a zip line is a huge favorite. Every city should have one (at least) of these!
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Some of my best memories of childhood play are centered upon family gardens. Both sets of grandparents (who lived in a small town in Oregon) had gardens, growing both flowers and vegetables, and my mother had a flower garden, even in the city.
We children were free to play, and even construct our own inventions, in these gardens so long as we respected the growing things and left them alive and undamaged. We built our own little paths of mud and stones, we fashioned fairy shelters from sticks and twine, we raced between the rows of peas creeping up their taut lines and frames, and we counted the strawberries as they went from green to white to pink to red.
Oh, the parks and the slides and swings and stuff were fun, a place to go and play and not come in from recess when the bell rang (as with school). But the gardens and the abandoned lots around the neighborhood: those places were HOME territory, and meant more.
These were the spaces in between camping (which my family did a lot of, every summer) and playgrounds. I think Adventure Playgrounds and community gardens that welcome inquisitive children would be very helpful to urban kids. When I worked at a local Boys and Girls Club, the most popular activities among the young people were the cooking club and the adventure club. The cooking club gave kids hands-on access to fruits and vegetables. The adventure club took them outside under the trees to examine plants and insects.
Our younglings are dying to experience
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Simplified parenting, what a relieve! No need for trampolines, jungle gyms and the next junkie gadget. Find a puddle and get mucky... that might be more challenging for the adults.
check out our adventures on our podcast!
go out and play,
Allie
http://clarksplayground.com/index.php/category/podcast/
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