I remember my favorite park as a child.
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| Girl sporting the sailor outfit = me. |
A giant, pipe-like, jungle gym with faded out, colored
pieces connecting the bars. Two metal slides, one twenty-five feet high for the risk takers and a smaller version for the weak. Two, wooden teeter-totters that
allowed me to assist the bossy, neighbor girl in accidentally becoming airborne. A saucer with the metal head of a smiling bear perched on the edge for
little hands to tightly grip as the saucer sailed in circles, and then, the witch’s hat. Oh, that glorious piece of playground equipment. Too young to
remember? Maybe this will help.
That’s me in the center holding the older girl’s hand. Fine,
that’s a lie. I’m not in this picture, but that’s a witch’s hat, and as it sailed
up and down and round and round, it made you scream for your life and for the
sheer fun of it, all at the same time.
Oh, and if you fell…
No soft recycled bits of tire or tiny wood chips would break
your impact. You crashed on the hard ground, in the dirt, on top of rocks, and you
know what? It never got old, never.
As a child, I could spend hours at the park, and I did.
Today as I look around my neighborhood do you know what is missing? Witch’s hats? Um, obviously, but no. I don’t see enough kids. Don’t get me
wrong, I see kids. I see them shuttled back and forth from one activity to the
next, but rarely do I see kids playing.
Apparently, kids aren’t just absent from my neighborhood, kids are missing from outdoor activities in general, and that my friends is something the
nonprofit, organization KaBoom calls The Play Deficit.
KaBoom isn’t taking this Play Deficit lightly. In fact,
KaBoom believes lack of play is causing profound social, emotional, and
physical harm to our kids, but instead of just whining and throwing statistics
at you, KaBoom works to do something about it.
Encourage play.
They do this by building playgrounds, handing out grant money to spruce up already existing playgrounds, making a national effort to map out and rate every playground in the US, and much, much more. As in you need to click on the site to see how much more.
Now questions for you. Tell about your favorite piece of old time playground equipment or tell about the kids surrounding you. Do they play? Do your kids play? Do you?
Oh, tell you how this is related to family service? You just wait. I have a special surprise coming your way, and no, it's not in the form of green dollar bills, it's in the form of links, fabulous links, and it has to do with serving your family this summer, and making play a priority.
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12 comments:
oh my gosh that witches hat looks AWESOME! i've never seen one before....i loved a good playgoround and monkey bars.
and really really loved playing in the woods. my kids don't play in the woods like i did but love playing wiffle ball and basketball.
I loved the monkey bars. I'd dare people to jump from heights that I didn't dare. Until I did dare, and then did a skin-the-cat off of the top. I was sooo cool!
Kendal,
The monkey bars. Yes, but could you do a cherry drop? Does anyone remember those? It's where you hang upside down on the monkey bars and hang your arms down, a friend pulls you, and you let your arms go, and flip off.
Pure heaven.
Oh, and Kendal emailed me this link on dangerous playgrounds. http://1000awesomethings.com/2008/07/18/980-playground-equipment/
My mind flashed back to the burning hot slides!
Mariah,
Another monkey bar lover? I wonder what that says about you and Kendal? Maybe that you like the adventure of it all!
Oh, the WITCH'S HAT.. memories... memories.. of exhilarating screams and crushed fingers and so much fun! My favorite park had a witch's hat, too. We would add even more risk to the ride and play tag on it while shuffling around the thing and making someone else push us. At the same park was a TORNADO SLIDE- huge, metal, twisty. Today, that park is gone but in its place is a glorious wooden park that our entire community built in a day long ago. (Yes, I live in the same little town I grew up in). We're spoiled here in our little town of 10,0000 with more parks than I can count. BUT I agree with KaBoom-kids are "under-played' and "over scheduled." We've made a concentrated effort to limit our five kids' activities and leave time and space for free play. I love looking out the window and watching the games of backyard baseball, sandbox creating, and mud pie making :) Oddly, though, in our neighborhood where we all have several acres of beautiful green space we are the only family that uses our yards to play. Why have grass if you're not going to take off your shoes and race across it? I knew we were soul sisters- witch's hats and a heart for play. By the way, in the book The Rest of God, Mark Buchanan writes that play is one of the best ways to practice the sabbath- it's become my favorite way to spend a Sunday- just playing uninterrupted with my kids!
OOO the swings. You brought back a marvelous memory for me. I would swing for hours and fell in love with Robert Lewis Stevenson and his poetry too through the playground:
"How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do! "
Thanks for bringing sunshine into my life this morning
Swings for me as well. And the pole to slip down like a firefighter until I fell on my butt and did not do it again. My kids play in the playground in the backyard. We share backyard with our neighbors who have kids the same age so they play a bit. It's great :)
I loved this and so funny, my husband and I were sitting outside the other evening talking about this very thing. When he and I were little, we spent all our time outdoors, running, jumping, making mud pies, playing soldiers with sticks, making jewlery out of clover, driveway games, breathing in the fresh air the whole time. But then we did not have cell phones, I pods, video games, computers and lap tops. And no, we do not see the children playing out in the yard and driveways anymore. You are right, they either get shuttled from here to there, or are sitting in their house in front of a screen. I don't have a problem with playing on sport teams, but I think it is just as important for children to just play naturally at home without umpires, coaches, and screaming parents in the stands. Can't wait to see your links!
Oh, and for me. . .it was the swings and monkey bars :)
We had one of those witch's hat merry-go-rounds at the Marathon Park. I didn't know that's what it was called. I loved that old, creaky thing.
Oh, okay. Now it lets me comment. I just sent you a link on Twitter. Loved this! I was just thinking/writing about old, dangerous childhood games my own self.
Nancy, sorry about the annoying commenting issues.
Everyone else,
You must read Nancy's recent post on dangerous childhood games including one of my faves...Jarts!
If you don't know Nancy, this is a great introduction:
http://www.godspotting.net/2012/05/guest-post-nancy-owens-franson.html#disqus_thread
No problem. I think I was the cause of the commenting issue--seems I had already opened the comment box and kept trying to re-open it. Maybe I got hit in the head too many times by a Jart? Anyway. Thanks for the shout-out, and for your kind words over at Sheila's place.
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