Re: Playrooms
From: Kay Argyle (argylemines.utah.edu)
Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 10:13:01 -0600 (MDT)
I thought surely this message would generate a fair amount of advice, & not
being a parent I wouldn't reply, but since there's been nothing (unless you
got some private replies) ....

> They all fit into a smallish room with bean
> bags, a small table and two chairs, and an adult-size table with two
> chairs. I would love any feedback.  > Amy

It's been my observation that kids prefer to play on the floor.  That sounds
like a lot of furniture for a "smallish" room, especially one in which you
want a lot of open floor space.

Our common house kids room is "organized" by the toys (all cast offs, and
not very enticing, in my viewpoint) being tossed into plastic bins on
shelves.  A donated air hockey table was recently moved there on an
experimental basis; it was previously in a room the kids had to ask an adult
to unlock.  If it gets trashed in the kids room, it will be removed
(hopefully *not* back to the previous room, which is supposed to house a
potter's wheel).

The flooring is level-loop carpet.  There are hinged fold-down table tops
along one wall, about knee high, below the line of windows, so they get good
light. One wall is painted with blackboard paint from knee level to above
head height, framed with molding to make it look tidy.

Speaking of which -- I wish our much-used mailroom message board was a
chalkboard instead of a whiteboard.  We go to trouble & expense to recycle,
but the bigger part of being green is choosing your products & practices to
reduce waste in the first place.

Chalk is about as environmentally neutral as a product can be.  The resource
(a type of limestone) is used with minimal processing.  The product is
nonstaining, generates only nontoxic dust (calcium carbonate -- toss it in
the compost bucket), leaving nothing else to dispose of, and can be used by
children without supervision.

In comparison, whiteboard markers use more resources to manufacture, cost
more, emit VOCs (a health hazard for those of us with touchy bronchial
tubes, and the biggest reason I dislike them), stain wallpaper or other
surfaces, require supervision of children (to make sure they're recapped, if
nothing else), and have to be disposed of when they dry up. Unless they're
recyclable, which even if true doesn't occur much in practice, they'll spend
eternity taking up room in a landfill.  Ugh all around.

Crawling down off the soapbox,
Kay
Wasatch Commons
Salt Lake City
argyle [at] mines.utah.edu

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l

Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.