Cohousing-L Mailing List: Playgrounds

[DCS (cdm]

Our group (Eno Commons, Durham NC) is currently discussing the same
issues regarding a Tot Lot, and a playground for older children. We have
about 14 kids under 10, and about 11 on-site most days.

We have put off building anything for the kids because we haven't
finished moving in (we're about 16 homes moved-in of 22 homes). In the
meantime, the children have created their own play areas, which you
might find interesting, and which has caused us to reconsider our
playground plans.

Keep in mind that all of these points concern children in the 3 to 7
year-old range.

First, the builder has been dumping dirt from the lots into a big
(anywhere from 4 to 7 feet tall, depending on builder activities) pile
in our meadow. The children took to this pile immediately, and it is
everything from a pirate ship to a mountain, and they also took pieces
of play sets from their former homes and stacked them on the dirt pile
to make slides. The dirt pile keeps them busy many hours a day, and I
don't think any play structure we had designed would ever spark their
imaginations the way the dirt pile does.

Then, in the woods, the kids found a huge sycamore that fell in
Hurricane Fran. It's become the "Friendship club", and they climb and
bounce on the branches. From some branches, they tied up old bike parts
as a swing. They've experimented with all kinds of things as swings to
hang from the tree. 

One of neighbors ordered a dump truck load of "screen", the tiny
fragments left over after they make gravel. She used some of it, and
what's left has been taken over by the kids as a great place to dig and
play, since the dirt pile is really too compacted for good digging. This
is the only place on site where the kids can safely take off their
shoes, and they love the way the powdery stuff feels cool on their feet.

The kids love walking around in our garden (raised beds, so they can't
do too much damage), and they like digging (again) in the piles of soil
with the garden tools, and they especially love it when the hose is
turned on. One neighbor helped the kids start a pumpkin patch.

Another neighbor has a sprinkler available upon request for the kids to
play in.

Then, there's the parking lot, where the kids ride their bikes (even the
2 year olds get in on the action) and skate.

One day while the kids were off school, I lead a group of them in
building a fort in the woods out of scrap lumber and small trees and
large branches. We wheeled a big cable spool back there for a table or a
stage. It looked great, and while they were excited about and proud of
the fort after we completed the project, within a few days, it was
abandoned. Occasionally, it gets visited, but mostly when one or two
children want to get away from the rest of the pack.

We have a relatively large site, 11 acres, and 2/3 of it is undeveloped,
so the kids have a lot of room to explore. Their play areas are
distributed all around the site, and there's plenty to choose from. We
are currently looking at ways to make what they've chosen safer
(checking the strength of the sycamore after a few months of use, for
example, and removing poison ivy) and some other things we might bring
in (like a water play area), but I'm hard pressed to believe that
anything we would construct, even a playground the kids helped design,
would be better than the play areas the kids have already built.

Christine Della Maggiora
http://www.employees.org/~enoweb/
Eno Commons Cohousing
Durham NC

cohousing-l [at] freedom.mtn.org wrote:
> 
>                             COHOUSING-L Digest 31
> 
> Topics covered in this issue include:
> 
>   1) Playgrounds
>         by "Sharon Villines" <sharonvillines [at] prodigy.net>
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 22:06:12 -0400
> From: "Sharon Villines" <sharonvillines [at] prodigy.net>
> To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] freedom.mtn.org>
> Subject: Playgrounds
> Message-ID: <199905160206.WAA09944 [at] pimout2-int.prodigy.net>
> 
> Our site plan calls for a tot lot and a playground for larger children. We
> would like to have safe and environmentally friendly equipment. Any
> recommendations of a manufacturer?
> 
> What kinds of equipment have you found useful?
> 
> What was a waste of time and money?
> 
> Sharon Villines
> Synergy Cohousing, Delray Beach, FL
> http://www.cohousing.net
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> End of COHOUSING-L Digest 31
> ****************************