Take Your Child to the Adventure Playground
If you’re looking for a pristine playground for your untouched kids, one where they can slide down the base color plastic slides and land on a soft surface, this post might not be for you. Today we’re talking about adventure playgrounds , where you’re more likely to meet kids hammering nails into wood waste, climbing into abandoned boats, rafting in muddy ponds, or making musical instruments from old cans and bottles. Some spaces look like real landfills. You have been warned.
With this disclaimer, adventure playgrounds are just great! They are common throughout Europe, but due to liability issues, they are difficult to launch in the US. Things seem to be changing – there is a movement to create more of these playgrounds equipped with loose fittings ready to be used in a pirate voyage or castle dragon battle or whatever kids can imagine. Unstructured play is good for kids . Even the most important. This is how they learn to take risks, deal with surprises, and use the resources in front of them. And you can’t deny the simple thrill of balancing on a rope bridge or sculpting real mud pies.
Ready to get dirty? Here is a list of playgrounds across the country as published by the North American Adventure Games Association . Put your iPad aside, grab your ratiest sneakers and have some fun on the loose.
California
Berkeley Marina Adventure Playground , Berkeley
What kids will find: Rope, boats, tire swings, tire rolling mound, rope bridges, wooden climbing structures, and DIY playground materials such as hammers, saws, and paints. Parents must sign a waiver upon entering the play area and children under seven must be “within reach” of participating adults.
Playground Eureka Villa Adventure , Val Verde. What the kids are looking for: rope swings, elderberry forts, an insect wagon and a giant bird cage. Or they can climb a tree – there are 118 of them!
Huntington Beach Adventure Playground , Huntington Beach What the kids will find: Pond rafts, rope bridge, landslide and all the materials needed to build a fort. The playground is only open during the summer months.
Irvine Adventure Playground , Irvine What kids will find: water pumps to fill the stream bed, construction vehicles in the mud, concrete slides, life-size blocks, a giant chessboard, play structures and ping pong tables.
Sacramento Adventure Playground , Sacramento What kids will find: Wooden structures, a rope bridge, and lots of loose parts. In summer, there is a water slide, water jets, ice games and a mud pit.
Nebraska
Sally Foster Adventure Playground , Omaha
What the kids will find: a treehouse, slides, tools, tires, tools and lots of loose parts.
New York
Play: GroundNYC , Governor’s Island, Brooklyn
What the kids will find: 50,000 square feet of imagination, construction and destruction. This is a kids-only area in the landfill’s playground, which is filled with discarded materials.
Anarchy zone in nature , Ithaca What kids will find: locust logs, bales of straw, topsoil, river clay, cardboard, sand and boulders. They can dig for worms and build fortresses from bales of straw.
There are also several pop-up adventure game locations around the country and other playgrounds that are in development.