A natural playground?

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Tonight I went to my first PTO meeting. It was against my better judgement, but I went because I thought it best that I enter the school with a positive connotation, rather than the pesky mom I feel like I've sometimes become.
But low and behold, there may be a reason I was there.
One committee that is looking for volunteers is the playground committee-- a group of people who are going to help plan the playground at the new elementary school that is being built.
Maybe this is my chance to put in a HUGE plug for "natural" playground equipment.
What's natural playground equipment? Great stuff.
Trees to climb and run between.
Rocks to turn into mountains.
Logs to walk across.
etc.
The creative benefits are enormous. A slide is a slide is a slide, but a giant rock is a pirate ship, a house, a giant egg, anything.
The hard part is going to be convincing the others on the committee of this wonderful idea. I'm trying to figure out how many copies of "Last Child in the Woods" I can hand out at the next meeting...

Comments

Ron said…
Hi, Karrie,

Thanks for your post. I don't know whether you've had the opportunity to visit our website, www.naturalplaygrounds.com, but we suggest many resources and offer numerous links, articles, and services that may help your school build its natural playground
September 3, 2008 at 2:56 PM
Karrie said…
Ron--
Thank you for posting! I will share your site (and wonderful product) with the committee!
September 3, 2008 at 3:09 PM
...... Bobbi said…
What a wonderful idea! Stick to your guns and I hope your school ends up with this type of natural playground. It's something my kids would have enjoyed!
September 8, 2008 at 6:12 PM
Koala Bear Writer said…
That just captured my imagination! So many playgrounds are just flat fields. Boring! What it would be like with a few hills, boulders, logs, etc., as you say, in between the swings and slides. Cool idea!
September 19, 2008 at 3:43 PM
Anonymous said…
What was the reaction to the "natural playground" idea???
October 1, 2009 at 12:02 AM
Karrie said…
The answer? Funding. They didn't even look into it. But the school that I work for does have a very lovely natural playground. What do the kids like to play with though? Tire swing. It's all I hear.
Something to think about.
October 1, 2009 at 6:56 AM
Anonymous said…
Interesting. Thanks for the update!
October 1, 2009 at 8:21 PM
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