Last spring we (I) had an idea. We (I) felt that Rocket Boy needed a playground in our own backyard. Rocket Man seemed puzzled at hearing this. After all, we do live within walking distance from 3 public playgrounds. And by walking I mean literally just around the corner.
I patiently explained that only one out of three of these playgrounds had any kind of shade in the summer. Plus none had sandboxes or any kind of water feature. But my main argument went something like this: “Honey, wouldn’t it be nice if we our son played quietly on his own for a change?”
That same evening, after putting Rocket Boy to sleep, we sat down to plan the playground. Our “wanted” list included
- lots of opportunities for gross motor skills development
- a sandbox
- access to water
- a teepee or a hide-out
plus the playground had to cost very little, be simple to construct, to not take up much space and to not look ugly.
The next day, Saturday, we cleared out space between the trees from English ivy and Virginia Creeper and defined the playground boundaries with tree logs left over from when we had a couple of large trees cut in our yard. Since we didn’t have enough logs to go all around, we used a wide board to build a bridge over a gap. We also used bamboo poles and twine to make a simple teepee. And on Sunday we added a sandbox and filled it up with sand. A dozen or so bags of mulch, a bag of pea gravel for the rock play area, a small plant by the sand box and the playground was finished.
To say that Rocket Boy was excited would be an understatement. He was beyond thrilled. He could walk around the entire playground without ever touching the ground – on top of the logs and over the bridge, climbing down onto the sandbox cover and from that – to the deck. Gross motor skills development – check! But soon the excitment wore off and within a few days was completely gone. The playground stood empty and our dream of watching our child busying himself in the backyard while we leisurely sip Sangrias on the deck was never realized.
So, what went wrong? Quite a few things, actually. Now that we’re planning Rocket Boy Playground version 2.0, we are trying to learn from our mistakes:
Mosquitos
Last summer our yard was completely overgrown and neglected, a paradise for mosquitos. So this year we are concentrating on clearing the grounds and using natural mosquito control methods – birds, bats and non-toxic traps.
Unstable tree logs
Don’t get me wrong, these are great for any playground and we plan on using more of them. But the first ones we set around, while safe (as tested by two adults), were too unstable for a child with some gross motor challenges. He loved walking over them, but as long as we held his hand. So this year we are going to change things a bit by making sure that the logs don’t wabble and providing some sort of guide rail (a thick rope stretched between the trees).
Nowhere to hide
The teepee that we hastily put together did not provide any privacy nor did the rest of the playground. After a couple of weeks Rocket Boy did figure out how to create a hiding spot out of the sandbox cover, but it was clearly too little too late.
Not enough sand
The frog sandbox that we snagged on Craigslist was cute and inexpensive, but it was simply too small. It became especially evident when other kids would come around for playdates. We’d love to have a big sand area, but the reality is there are quite a few cats in the neighborhood (including our own) plus the playground is set in between pine trees. So we do need some type of cover for the sand… Something to think about…
Not enough variety
I blame it on mosquitos that made working in the yard impossible. Seriously, once the initial set up was finished, we didn’t do much to add to the space. See that music wall on the plan? Never added! Water feature? Not there either! We did though added quite a few scraps of wood and were delighted to see Rocket Boy build elaborate structures with those. But this year we need to step it up and I do have a plan…
