Search Playground Professional's Archives

Anyone who has ever visited a playground can tell you how much fun they provide for children of all ages. If you dig deeper, you’ll find that playgrounds not only provide fun and entertainment, but that they also provide important opportunities for …

The Hanifl Family Wild Woods A Nature Based Play-Area at The Minnesota Zoo   Trees love to toss and sway; they make such happy noises. Emily Carr   A Description of The Hanifl Family Wild Woods   The Hanifl Family Wildwoods is a 1.1-acre play area in …

In a recent conversation with play designer Cas Holman, best know for her Rigamajig, she mentioned the Cyborg Manifesto, an essay written by Donna Haraway. Many writers have adopted Ms. Haraway’s notion of humans becoming cyborgs for various purposes and …

Riseofthegreats.net  I want to share a story with you to demonstrate how much influence your mind has over your athletic performance. The skills you bring to the table, as well as your level of athleticism will play a part in how well you do, but only a …

When a small group of moms in Redmond, Oregon approached the city about a new playground at Sam Johnson Park, they had no idea it would become the amazing, collaborative project it came to be. What is now the largest inclusive playground in Oregon, Hope …

A World Fit For Kids! www.worldfitforkids.org 678 South La Fayette Park Place Los Angeles, CA 90057-3206 (213) 387-7712 Action for Healthy Kids www.actionforhealthykids.org 600 West Van Buren Street, Suite #720 Chicago, IL 60607 (800) 416-5136 Alliance …

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MCT is Theatre for the community, by the community! Ok, that’s all well and good, but what IS MCT? Is it the Missoula Children’s Theatre, recognized across the country and throughout the world as the premier group that brings performing arts opportunities …

At a pop-up adventure playground, a child tells her father where a window needs to go. He borrows a box cutter from the site volunteer and follows the line her finger traced with the blade. As she waits, she dances foot to foot and waves to a boy she …

“We firmly believe that the development of the Play Community and the facilitation of FLOW are the main goals of play leadership.” John M. O’Connell and Bill Michaelis ~ (The Leader’s Handbook) Finding ways to create and support a healthy Play Community …

With the recent phenomenon of helicopter parenting, the extensive use of electronic media, and the emphasis on high-stakes testing, is it time to panic that free play has lost its relevance in today’s society? Fifty years ago the New Games Movement …

The daily lives of U.S. children are changing dramatically, and not always for the better. The average 8- to 10-year-old spends nearly eight hours a day with a variety of different media, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Older …

The importance of play in children’s mental and physical development is well documented. Yet, the number of children fully engaging in outdoor unstructured play appears to be dwindling. Currently, only one in five children live within walking distance of …

If you ask anyone in the Village of South Elgin, about an hour northwest of Chicago, they will tell you the same fact: this is no ordinary community. South Elgin is a community that cares deeply. Karen and Joe Cluchey, South Elgin natives, along with many …

Anthropologists who study intact indigenous peoples find that they generally do not have a word for play. Children in these communities just do what kids have always done, naturally and without much “parenting.” The French philosopher Rousseau largely …

The new starting point for debate on this very complicated Issue Let’s recap the status of the ASTM ballot process on the issue of lowering the F1292 impact threshold from 1000 to 700 HIC. No change has been approved through the ASTM standards development …

A recent issue of Play and Playground Magazine carried an article, “ The Evolution of Playground Surfacing ,” which contained a version of history that begs the question: Is there a Chapter 2? Although playgrounds have by virtue of gravity always had …

“Hey! Let’s go to Long Ramp Playground,” said no kid ever. As followers of my posts will know, one of my self-appointed missions is to push for better playgrounds with more play value. Nowhere is the problem of bad playspace design more rampant than in …

We know their names—Boomers, Gen X, Millennials. We have even discovered that they sort of have a shared “personality.” (See Vanity Fair,  November 2015, " From Millennials to Boomers: The Ultimate Generation-Gap Guide .") In many ways these so-called …