9am: Moms with young children who like to be pushed on swings start to arrive at the playground. Not much to report here, as these children are too young to run about on their own and moms’ have eagle eyes on them
11am: Slightly older kids arrive at the playground – hyperactive toddlers! They obviously run about a little more and are harder work for parents to keep an eye on and prevent any falls. The worse injuries these young ones get are grazes on knees and elbows. After a little cry, they get up and start running about like loonies again (more…)
It is true that we all have a bit of the kid inside us and when we take our children, grandchildren or younger siblings to a playground, we would like to play as well. We do in away, but we are not allowed on any of the equipment that is provided. Having playground equipment that can be used by all, and I mean all ages, would be a great leap forward in the enjoyment families can spend together.
A Professor Killingsworth from Pittsburg State University’s Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation, thinks the same way and has formed (with other community members) a non-profit group called Credible Arts Therapies. He has said the idea behind a universally accessible playground is to have a place where everyone, regardless of age or disability, can play together on the same equipment. You can read more about this here: http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_story_178210855.html (more…)
There is a lot of research that has been completed on what causes injuries in the playground, but no-one had gone through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database before, until now that is.
A study has been completed by the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Indiana School of Medicine, Indiana University, where injury data from 2002 – 2004 from slides, monkey bars and swings were analyzed.
They found that 22728 emergency visits to the hospital were recorded in the NEISS database, and 83.9% of these injuries were caused by swings, slides and monkey bars. (more…)
Being such an advocate of rubber mulch, I am really happy to read success stories about rubber mulch applications. I came across one such story today entitled ‘Blue Mulch, Green Park’ about the first playground in the city of Corpus Christi to have rubber mulch installed.
The Kid’s Place playground is the first playground to switch from wood mulch to rubber mulch in a move to becoming a greener city. This is fully backed by the Corpus Christi Career Development Class 2008, who have created community projects to make their city greener. It was twenty volunteers from this class who spread the 62 tons of rubber mulch needed to create this safer and greener playground. (more…)
Earth Day was on the 22nd April 2008, and many countries extend the courtesy and have an Earth Week where the goal is to “broaden the environmental movement worldwide and to educate and mobilize people, governments, and corporations to take responsibility for a clean and healthy environment”. What better way of helping the environment then giving grants to schools and daycare centers to better their playground surfaces, promote playground safety and help the environment with rubber mulch.
Governor Steve Beshear from the state of Kentucky has done just that by announcing 43 crumb rubber grants (worth almost $1 million) to schools, daycare centers, churches around the state. He recognizes the fact that recycling rubber tires and using the rubber crumbs in playground is both environmentally friendly, economic and helps prevent accidents.
If you’re thinking of building your children a playground, there are quite a few things to take into consideration. You should always have a plan, that will start and end with safety, as this is a major factor in any playground, then you need to think about the equipment, different age ranges, sturdiness and even cost. The surface of the playground is just as important as the equipment and the location of the play area, for example can you see it from the house? These are only a few things to plan for and I’m sure you can think of a lot more.
I don’t want to hear any excuses, you do have time to be environmentally friendly and here are 6 ways, you can be environmentally friendly today, as you prepare to go to work, and in the workplace too.
Make yourself some sandwiches to take to work. You will be helping the environment by not driving somewhere to buy your lunch, and also saving on the packaging that comes with shop bought lunches.
Has anyone really thought about letting the little ones learn whilst having a good time? Well we do have the odd type of playground that has some type of alphabetic or numeric play things, which are usually sprayed on the ground. Most of these are either ignored by the little ones, sprayed with something else by the older ones, or just forgotten about altogether.
So what about creating some playground areas that look like different cities around the world, even buildings from ancient cultures or whole countries? The possibilities are endless. We have theme parks that use this concept and do very well, people enjoy themselves whilst seeing, smelling and feeling what it is or was like to be in the place the park is recreating. (more…)
It is there because, obviously we don’t think that much of our environment, especially when it comes to our streets and neighborhoods. We end up paying the costs for our local authority to clean up the mess that has been made by us.
Think about everything you throw away. Can something else be done with it? Can it be recycled, or can someone else make good use of it?
So don’t throw away or simply burn old clothes, books, kid’s toys, or even furniture, but instead give them to your local charity shop instead. You will be helping other people and the environment too.
There is a lot of research that has been completed on what causes injuries in the 
Being such an advocate of 
Has anyone really thought about letting the little ones learn whilst having a good time? Well we do have the odd type of 
We all see litter and bigger kinds of rubbish (like tires) around where we live, yet we all have a 
Think about everything you throw away. Can something else be done with it? 
