Well, I have been totally immersed in Rusty Keelers “Natural Playscapes”, for several days now… imagining and dreaming of a wonderful new playground for our centre. I have been taking stock of what we already have to work with and what changes we could make.
And right on top of Rusty’s list, “20 Ways to Create Natural PLayscapes”, is ‘1. Build Hills’.
Oh wow, and how right he is! We have one! A grand one! We are know around our local area as the preschool with the hill/tunnel!
Rusty suggests… “by changing the topography of a play area, you change the whole world. Hills, bumps, and berms all help to create places and plateaus to climb to, look out from, roll down, build decks on, mount slides into, and grow plants on. Children use all sorts of different muscles as they find a variety of ways to climb up or maneuver down. And remember, the hills don’t have to be gigantic. A 3-foot to 5-foot-high hill is big enough to make a huge difference in a child’s perspective.”
Oh, I have big plans to enhance our hill!
I also have a wonderful childhood memory of my own about rolling down a hill! It was at my grandparents house when I was about 5 years old. I was rolling down a slope on my grandfathers front lawn with my cousins as my grandfather and father sat on the verandah watching on. Unfortunately, I must have gotten a little dizzy and disorientated as I rolled straight into my grandfathers fish pond! My grandfather apparently shot up off the verandah informing my father of what had happened, to which my father responded, “Don’t worry, she can swim!” I particularly remember spending the rest of the day dressed in one of my grandmothers cardigans, not the beautiful ‘white’ lace dress that my mother had initially dressed me in! What was she thinking?! If my cousins and I weren’t rolling around in the grass we would have been perched up in the 3 willow trees at the back of our grandparents property… one tree for each little girl!
Rusty is so right… delve into the memories of our own childhood to realise the importance of natural playscapes in the lives of children!
So…. that was rolling ‘just for fun’, now here’s some jumping ‘just for fun’!
"Don't worry she can swim" – love it, such a dad thing to say.
Yep! My dad definitely lived by the "She'll be right!" moto Jenny! 🙂