Adventure Playgound

Totally Inspired. 

We have just had the best day and I have to write about it right now.

The Adventure Playground at the Berkeley Marina is a work of genius. The playground encourages children to build their own play equipment; forts, boats, towers, tents.....

Under adult supervision, children are given access to hammers, saws, clamps or paint in exchange for finding discarded nails, litter, large splinters or Mr Dangerous!!! 

Dotted around the playground are large racks of wood to be used in any which way the children want. There are already well established constructions that can be added to and played on or you may just choose to start your own project from scratch - we did a bit of both.

The concept for Adventure Playgrounds apparently originated in Europe after World War II, where a playground designer studied children playing in the "normal" asphalt and cement playgrounds. He found that they preferred playing in dirt and lumber from the post war rubble. He realized that children had the most fun designing and building their own equipment and manipulating their environment.

At first the children didn't quite know how to get involved. They were unsure about the 'rules' and where they could add their own design ideas. But as the hours ticked by they soon got the hang of things and were backwards and forwards to the workshop exchanging tools and collecting nails for the next wooden addition. By the end of the afternoon, Owen had moved on from adding to existing projects for making his own tent using and old windsurf sail.
        
















I'm thinking that this would be a fantastic addition to Southwold, Reydon or Wrentham. It has definitely inspired me to allow the children a little more of a free rain with the tree house when we get home. I see painted rainbows and home made flags, little wooden chairs and a whole host of 'secret camp' things made with scraps of wood and the odd nail.