Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: children's playrooms

[Elaine (itchyink]

I think our community has smartly planned, good playrooms. We have a very
small room with no door and a soft floor just off the dining room. That's
for the very young children -- like 3 and under. Parents can eat or sit in a
meeting while their toddlers play. If it were in more full view of the
dining room it would be even better.

Then we have a larger room further away and with a door, which is good since
it gets quite noisy. It is the rec room, or "wreck room" as one child calls
it. There is cast-away furniture in there so they can jump on the sofa to
their hearts content. There is also a futon on the floor and they arrange
all sorts of games that involve jumping and landing on that futon. It is
high enough for a loft to be built -- motivation for that will probably come
when some of the kids grow into teens. Some members have also set up a DVD
player in a high, locked cabinet in there for movies to project onto a
screen and kid/adult friendly movies are shown there every so often.

These playrooms are important so the babysitter has somewhere to go with the
kids during meetings as it rains a lot here too. It's also nice for the kids
to have a place that feels like their own as it seems they're forever being
reminded of common house rules and stifled in play in the adult areas. This
community started out with one child and now there are 8, so it's good to
plan for the possibilities.
Elaine