We are out in the big play – sky, sea and rock outcrops as big as dinosaurs. The kids are breathless climbing the rockface, exultant as they stand tall at the top of a bluff.

Water is a liquid magnet, rock an immoveable castle. Nothing compares to the infinite possibilities of nature’s playground. Each rounded pebble is a beauteous discovery, each ocean weary wave a splash of excitement. Here we find glistening ice puddles crannied away in a craggy dugout.

Despite the cold, there is time to play in the sand. Belly down gets you closest to the action moving, shifting, moulding, making mounds. Here and there glistening clumps of seaweed are pushed up against the boulders.

What a great sensory experience with wind, grit, salt spray, uneven surfaces and a variety of textures. And then there are the physical challenges, the testing of limits, the discoveries – all in the name of fun.

Try and make space for a little nature playground adventure, you won’t regret it and the kids are pretty much guaranteed to have a good time.

These shots are taken about 8 miles as the crow flies from downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The tattly™ looks like this. Will this be the first in a series? A slide, monkey bars and roundabout could all be complementary.

And this is how it could look on you. Playground, a fashion accessory and advocacy statement in one fell swoop.

Many thanks to Marc for his creation. This story via SwissMiss.

Check out Marc’s blog, serious drawings.

I’m in for 6 of the Playground tattlies™. Can’t wait to try them out with the kids.

Think of this as a very slow stumble upon, an invitation to relish something new or to revisit an old friend. Some of the people and places may be household names in the world of play and playgrounds, others not so much. I hope all will pique your interest in what they have to offer and further your own possibilities for playfulness.

rethinking childhood

rethinking childhood is a relatively new blog under the pen of Tim Gill. Tim is well known as a respected advocate of play in the UK and beyond.

Tim believes that children and young people have the potential to be more resilient, capable and creative than we give them credit for. Yet their lives are becoming ever more scheduled, controlled and directed. If children are to enjoy and make the most of their lives, we need to revisit and revise our ideas of what a good childhood looks and feels like. We need to reconnect children with the people and places around them, and with the natural world on their doorstep. We need to design neighbourhoods so that it is easy for children to walk, cycle and play near their homes. We need to improve play and recreational spaces and services, and ensure that schools, nurseries and childcare settings give children time and space for play and exploration. We need to support parents, so they feel able to give their children some of the freedoms that previous generations enjoyed when they were young. We need to accept that it is natural and healthy for children to take risks, make mistakes, have everyday adventures and test themselves and their boundaries. In short, we need to expand the horizons of childhood. (Source: rethinking childhood)

rethinking childhood is truly worth a read. Don’t take my word for it, pop on over yourself.

Thanks to ‘Sketchy’ and the folks at Roughcut Presents for these mirthful moments and my morning smile.

The Fairytale Playground, Malmö. Source: Wikipedia; Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

It’s a city I know little about but one I would love to visit just by virtue of its playground smörgåsbord. My hunch is that Malmö has more imaginative playgrounds per capita than any other city of similar size. At approximately 300,000 inhabitants, it is significantly smaller than its more populous neighbour Copenhagen (another playground hotspot) to which it is linked by the Øresund bridge.

The Music Playground, Malmö. Source: Lekplatsprogram för Malmö, April 2006

In the mid-1990s, the city’s playground stock was getting a little old and tired. Instead of replacing the old standards with more of the same, Malmö City Council made a policy decision to begin building themed playgrounds with custom designs. It was a new playground paradigm, providing children and families with a richer play experience in terms of both imaginative and physical play. Djurlekplatsen, Animal Playground, was the first of the new themed spaces out of the blocks in 1997.

The Spiral Playground, Malmö – Riding the Spiralosauras. Source: Beatrice Hansson

There are now a total of twenty themed playgrounds in the city catering to all age groups. Spend a morning with the small ones at Fairytale Playground, dipsy doodle over to The Spiral Playground with sculptures by Beatrice Hansson and then start trekking for a safari at the Africa Park.

Africa Park, Malmö – life size giraffe

A full list of themed playgrounds with locations is available here. Reviews of themed playgrounds in Swedish are here – Google translate works well enough to provide a good idea of what’s going on.

For Lotta, a Malmö mom I contacted through flickr, the themed playgrounds are an important part of the Malmö play mix.

A lot of land is reserved for parks and recreation and I think it is money well spent. Largely I think the City is making good decisions. There are themed playgrounds and un-themed for that matter as well popping up regularly in town.

Lotta has no problem selecting a couple of favourites that she regularly enjoys visiting with her girls.

I really like the Fairytale playground next to the City Library. It’s very modern and caters to all ages by well thought-through areas. Another favourite is the Farm playground within waking distance from home. It has a barn like structure with swings and slides, carved wooden cows and calves for climbing and riding and little playhouses that mimic the farmer’s home and stables for play for the younger children.

The Farm Playground, Malmö. Source: Malmö Town

We’ve just begun to scratch the surface as far as what Malmö has to offer kids and parents in search of fun and quality play experiences. The Evans family, recently relocated from their US home to Malmö have been out exploring the themed playgrounds. Read about them and enjoy their many photos at the links below.

The Africa Playground
The Sea and Beach Playground
The Space Playground
The Spider Playground
The Forest Playground
The Spiral Playground

I figure I have about three years left to get my three wee ones to this playground paradise. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to manage it but I think it could be the vacation of a lifetime – plenty of fun for everyone without a lot of hype and flash. I’ve also thought that perhaps there is a remote possibility of being appointed by the City of Malmö as the Chief Worldwide Publicist of Themed Playgrounds. This would require at least one familiarization trip accompanied by my testers of choice. Mayor and Councillors, I am ready to take this trip whenever you have a need to call on me…

Readers, if any of who can think of a way, or ways that could get my family and I to Malmö for a couple of weeks please share it with me. No idea, or concept is too zany.

The Concrete Playground, Malmö. Source: City of Malmö

Malmö’s commitment to play is serious business that other jurisdictions could learn from – great spaces that make kids and adults tourists in their own city. Read a brief report on the themed playgrounds here.

Just in case you didn’t know, for the kids in Malmö life can be a circus!

The Circus Playground, Malmö

Newsreel Playgrounds – British Pathé

Thanks to the assignment editors, producers and cinematographers at British Pathé for this selection of playgroundabilia ranging from 1939 to 1967 in various UK locales.

Click on the image to be taken to the play page. Clips can be played at full screen and each has a detailed shot list. Enjoy and thanks again to British Pathé for making their inventory available for public viewing.

Bolton Schoolyard Playground – 1939 – Runtime: 00:50

In all, there are five vignettes to enjoy. This spring I am planning a guest post on the British Pathé blog about these visual treasures and any others that I can source. More…
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Flickr Blog Features PlayGroundology Curated Photos

Click photo to enlarge

What a pleasant surprise when I discovered that the Flickr blog had featured some photos curated by PlayGroundology in a flickr gallery entitled Swedish Aesthetic.

I never tire of thanking the photographers who post their images to flickr. Curating photos using the gallery function is nothing short of a gift. More…
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Seven Up! meets Adventure Playground

I came across a reference earlier this week to the adventure playground scene in the British documentary Seven Up!. The ongoing popularity of this television documentary made it relatively easy to find on the wonderbox as I sometimes call the internet. The acceleration of the opening sequence is zippingly exhilarting. More…
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ABCs for Play – Call and Answer

Starting this morning and ending on Christmas Day, PlayGroundology will be going through the alphabet one letter per day and asking people to submit their favourite words related to play for that letter.

PlayGroundology will send out a tweet ‘call’ each morning with some of its favourites and wait to receive ‘answers’ from others with their favourite play words for the letter of the day.

It was a great participatory game with wordplay and playwords galore. The A through Z results, ranging from 20 to 60 words per letter are posted on PlayGroundology. More…

Think of this as a very slow stumble upon, an invitation to relish something new or to revisit an old friend. Some of the people and places may be household names in the world of play and playgrounds, others not so much. I hope all will pique your interest in what they have to offer and further your own possibilities for playfulness.

Sustainable Sites Initiative

The first three projects among 155 participating in the Sustainable Sites Initiative pilot program achieved SITES Certification last week. And on to even more notable news, one of the three is a playground – the Woodland Discovery Playground at Shelby Farms Park, Memphis, Tennessee. Congratulations to all involved – especially the kids who gave a hand with the design and will get to put the space end equipment through its paces.

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That’s right, can you hear the same Paul Simon groove as me – Woodland Woodland, Memphis Tennessee. Seriously though it’s music to my ears when a playground is recognized in this manner. If I could dance right on down there, I would because it looks like they’ve mixed in a lot of fun with the sustainability.

World Landscape Architecture has a great write up on Woodland Discovery Playground illustrated with excellent photos. If you’re interested in seeing how the site developed during the build, check out David Lewis’ slideshow on flickr.

What a fine way to end a Monday – virtually slip, sliding away through a funky new to me playground.

Photo credit – ilovememphis. Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Thanks to Sustainable Site Initiative for inclusiveness of expression within their approach.

Lights, Camera, Action

Actually this post is about school, recess and playgrounds. These three words should be as intrinsically linked in the popular consciousness as the trio in the title. There’s just as much drama and adventure on most recess playgrounds as there is on a movie shoot. Recess action for the most part is unrehearsed and the cast are all naturals – it’s an organic kind of thing. Thanks to @kindlinglily for sending this story across the pond.More…

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Eden’s Fallen Log

Over a period of ten years, the Eden Project in Cornwall, England has transformed a disused clay mine into a lush and fertile oasis. Environmental, educational and cultural discoveries are the heartbeat of this wonderland. More…

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Himmelhøj – Sky High – Copenhagen, Denmark

Since he was a young boy growing up in his adopted Australia, Alfio Bonanno knew he wanted to be an artist. At the age of 14, with the full support of his Italian family, he embarked on his apprenticeship in art. From the outset, he was drawn to the materials and the look of the natural world. He’s been on a global walkabout ever since. More…

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In Montreal The Swings Are Alive With The Sound of Music

These are sweetnote dreamswings an innovation in play and sound. The 21 swings installation is located in Montreal’s Quartier des spectacles on the Promenade des Artistes. This is part of the city’s celebrated arts district where the Jazz Festival and Just for Laughs strut their stuff. Now strangers can make music together by leaning back and kicking for the sky. More…

Source: Kinderspielkunst brochure (amazing photos)

As reported in The Maui News, a Kinderspielkunst (Kids Play Art) sculpture is now being enjoyed by the kids at the Haleakala Waldorf School. This is the first Bremer and Peter playground in the USA.

This particular sculpture is brought alive with local kiawe wood. Cristina Pineda, one of the school’s teachers posted a couple of blog entries about the new play facility with photos and some video.

Photo credit – Cristina Pineda

The kids at the Waldorf School in Maui have a crackerjack playground now and Kinderspielkunst have their first foray into the US market. As the crow flies, this playground house call was in the vicinity of 11,700 kilometres. Looks like Bremer and Peter will consider working anywhere if the conditions are right.

Let’s leave the last words to kids. If you know German it will be a big help watching this video. If you don’t, the visuals are still interesting.

Bravo to Kinderspielkunst – Kids Art Play for their captivating designs and their sense of adventure.

Imagine my excitement yesterday when I came across this film footage featuring the ‘helicopter’ ride, aka spinny thing of death. The 36 second clip starts pretty innocuously but the last 10 seconds or so pack a real punch with risky behaviour galore.

This is the playground that I would have loved to visit as a kid. I can imagine myself hanging upside down although I’m not sure I would have had the guts of the upside downer kid in the film.

Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey, California was an early example of a destination playground. Designer Arch Garner outdid himself on this project conceived by Dennis creator Hank Ketchum. Kids couldn’t get enough of it and who could blame them.