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Being active, sociable and inquisitive, rats appreciate time outside their cage every day to explore and play as well as interact with you. If it is inadvisable to give your pets the run of your living room, perhaps because there are too many cables they could chew when you’re not looking, you could create an enclosed play area. Some people also like to create a play area simply for the sake of it, to give their rats stimulating things to do.
A slide is one of the top draws at a playground for children younger than 6 years old, according to Iowa State University's "Handbook for Public Playground Safety." Many older children enjoy playing on slides as well. However, if children fail to follow the rules for proper behavior on slides, the result may be conflict, hurt feelings or even injury. More than 200,000 children in the United States end up in the emergency room every year due to accidents on playground equipment. By encouraging your child to follow proper etiquette for going up the slide, you can help him --…
Rubber playground curbs are used in and around playgrounds to keep soft playground surfacing material inside the playground area, keep debris out and provide softer surfaces for children in the event of falls. They have the additional benefits of being recyclable, maintenance free, and non-fading. Most rubber curbs come with pre-drilled holes which will fit either stakes or rebar to pin them into the ground, but some will require that the user drill his own holes.
Making the layout for a playground is the first step in the construction process. Many things need to be considered when making a playground layout, such as the age of the children who will be using it and your budget. Safety, ground cover, materials and store-bought equipment are other things to consider. With careful planning and a few drawing materials, a playground layout can be made to meet specific needs.
Playground towers provide hours of fun for children. Fortunately, constructing one requires relatively little aside from time and materials. There are a wide variety of playthings that you can add on to the tower. These might include swingsets, slides or sandboxes, all of which you can either purchase as units from your local home improvement store or construct yourself with leftover lumber.
Kids love to play, explore and dash around the playground. Playground is a place to be carefree and let imagination soar. Many important social activities take place in the playground, and hanging upside down on the monkey bars promotes motor development. Playing is a vital part of growing up, and exploring new ways to use the playground is a way to engage in thinking outside the box.
As a tech-savvy parent, Barack Levin is exposed to computers every day. The Atlanta-area stay-at-home dad and author of "The Diaper Chronicles: A stay at home dad's quest for raising great kids" says he sees the disadvantages of living in a wired environment and decided not to allow his only child exposure to technology until he was 5. Even at that age, Levin sets limits. “My son is limited to play with a Nintendo DSi for only 20 minutes a day – not more than that. When he turns 8, we might introduce him to other technologies such as a…
Wood chips are among the best shock absorbing materials for a playground. They shed rain quickly and provide better shock absorption than sand or gravel. A 9-inch layer of wood chips, for instance, protects children from serious head injury to a fall height of 10 feet. A 9-inch layer of sand protects children from a fall of 5 feet. When choosing wood chips, consider durability, as well as safety factors.
Playground politics is an unfortunate truth when it comes to being a parent. Maintaining healthy and rewarding relationships with other parents in your area can be a challenge, especially when those parents have their own motivations and conflicts. It may not be possible to completely avoid the politics of the playground, but you can certainly limit how much these politics affect your life and the lives of your children.
Bacteria can survive outside the body for about three days, while viruses survive for almost a month. Germs live on many surfaces, including the playground equipment your children touch every day. Playground equipment should be cleaned at least twice a year --- in the spring and late summer. Any part of the equipment your children touch should be cleaned, including the swing ropes, stair handrails and slide edges.
It is not always possible to take your baby to the outdoor playground for some play time. Disagreeable weather and extreme seasons pose challenges. However, parents who still want their babies to experience the stimulation of a playground can take their child to an indoor playground. In addition to being accessible year-round and during any weather, an indoor playground is an enclosed, safe space.
Parents expect daycare operations to provide a safe and fun-filled environment for their children. Safe playground equipment eases the worries of parents, and they can be assured their children will be in safe hands.
Although swings, slides and sandboxes rank among the most common children's playthings, author Michael L. Hennger in 1993 deemed such equipment "not sufficient" to stimulate the broad spectrum of quality play essential to children's developmental growth. These findings, writes Weaver W. Pangburn in the January 2007 edition of the "National Municipal Review," led to more indoor playgrounds and recreation centers, as experts continue to identify "important play types in the indoor setting" that facilitate the development of toddlers and preschoolers.
Playgrounds should be safe environments where children can enjoy themselves and have a good time. However, if the playground is old and run down it could be a safety hazard to neighborhood children. Playground equipment for the most part is designed for extreme weather conditions, but over time elements like water, the sun and wind take a toll on materials like plastic, metal and wood. Restoring your neighborhood playground might be a difficult task but the result is worth it.
Falls from playground equipment are a significant cause of childhood injury. In fact, according to the American College of Surgeons, head injuries resulting from falls are the third leading cause of childhood death. For this reason, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has published industry standard ASTM F1292 which addresses wood chip specifications for children's playgrounds. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission endorses that standard.
Ninety percent of playgrounds are unsafe because of inadequate playground surfaces, according to the Department of Parks and Recreation in Vancouver, Washington. Recycled rubber mulch is used by parks and recreation workers because it is easy to use and causes fewer accidents than bark dust or asphalt. Recycling rubber mulch for playgrounds is simpler than it sounds. However, a professional should always turn your rubber into mulch so nobody gets hurt.
In New Hampshire, especially with its frigid winters, parents sometimes need to get the kids out of the house to burn off some energy. When the weather is too cold, snowy or rainy, indoor playgrounds are places to takes the kids to play and interact with other children.
Surfacing is a key factor in reducing the risk of serious head injuries in a playground. The Public Playground Safety Handbook does not recommend hard surfaces including grass, dirt, carpeting, asphalt or concrete. Instead, playground designers and planners should consider installing energy-absorbing surfacing or loose-fill surfacing. Any surfacing should be shock-absorbent and protective, and placed both under and around the playground equipment.
Playgrounds give children a much-needed place to play and exercise at recess during school, or recreationally after school or on weekends. While it is not required that every playground has a fence, the playgrounds that do have fences have to follow ASTM guidelines that mandate specific rules on playground fencing.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), children need at least one hour of play per day. Not only do kids literally need to run around, they also need to engage in activities that build muscle and bone. Playground equipment is a good way for kids to burn energy and build muscles by climbing, jumping, pushing and pulling as well giving them a chance to stretch their imaginations. Several companies offer nautical playground options options--from relatively simple wooden boat structures to fantasy, dream ships.
All preschools in California must comply with the California Playground Safety Regulations, found in the California Code of Regulations, Title 22, Division 4, Chapter 22. These regulations make it mandatory for public playground operators to comply with the recommendations found in documents published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM). Operators should refer to the full text of these documents for the complete requirements, which include detailed provisions regarding the manufacture, installation, inspection and maintenance of playground equipment. These documents also address the following general categories of playground space design.
Play is a vital part of a child's growth. Through activity, the physical and motor faculties of children develop. Moreover, psychologists such as Jean Piaget believe that children can utilize play to progress areas of communication, socialization and cognition. A common venue for play activities is the playground. Adults need to dedicate sufficient effort and attention in creating the different parts of the structure to ensure the ultimate goal of child growth and development.
The high temperatures of Phoenix summers can make playing outdoors uncomfortable for children. Playing inside is a great alternative, but youngsters can become restless when cooped up in the house. Fortunately, there are several climate-controlled indoor recreation centers in the Phoenix area.
Playgrounds are not always accessible to children in wheelchairs, which can make them feel left out. Sandboxes are too low for them to reach. Ladders are impossible to climb. Most playgrounds have ground coverings, such as sand or wood chips, that cause difficulty for wheelchair wheels. An increasing amount of wheelchair-accessible playgrounds are now being built that provide ramps, wide pathways, rubberized ground coverings, wheelchair-accessible tables and restrooms, raised sandboxes, and swings with head and back support.
Short days and cold weather don't leave many outdoor play options for Pennsylvania children during the wintertime. The good news for kids and parents in the Pittsburgh area is that there are a number of indoor playgrounds near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to keep the tots and teens entertained during those cold weather months.
Daring knights, vicious pirates and deadly dragons are just some of the fantasies of children at play. With all of this excitement, the last thing children are thinking about is safety. Falls from playground equipment can cause serious injury; however, using mulch on the playground will soften the ground in the even of a fall. Playground mulch can be made of wood or rubber, as both a cushioning for children as they play.
A playground should always have some type of protective surfacing under and around the play equipment. There are many types of protective surfacing options to choose from. Wood mulch is one type of loose-fill surfacing material that is appropriate for use on playgrounds. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has published recommendation guidelines to ensure optimal playground safety.
Indoor toddler playgrounds and play centers throughout California offer educational, safe and fun opportunities for toddlers to socialize with their parents and other children. These centers can be found throughout California, but many of them are concentrated in the greater Los Angeles area. While parental or adult supervision is required in most playground facilities, there are some exceptions to this requirement.
Nestled in the South Platte River Valley in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, Denver is exactly one mile above sea level. Home to many sports enthusiasts, the city has a team representing all eight major sports leagues in the United States. You can find several sports complexes and indoor playgrounds for both kids and adults around Denver as well.
Whether for swinging, zooming down a slide or climbing, children love to spend time on playgrounds. Their active enjoyment, though, relies very much on the surface of the playground. Running and jumping can lead to spills and skids, and a poor playground surface can result in injury. Today, most playgrounds feature surfaces specifically designed to keep kids safe and healthy.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 156,000 children require emergency medical care each year because of playground injuries. One of the most important factors in preventing serious injury is the use of playground mulch. CPSC guidelines concerning playground materials include rules about critical height, toxicity, minimum fill depth, maintenance and playground preparation.
You want to believe that your children can always be kept safe at the playground, but many hazards exist that you may not even be aware of. You know to teach your children basic safety skills to ensure that they aren't seriously injured while using playground equipment. However, one risk you might not be aware of is that playground wood chips are a fire hazard.
According to the National Recreation and Park Association, improper surfaces are the leading cause of play yard injury. Grass, dirt, sand and concrete are being replaced with mulches and other impact-absorbing materials in public playgrounds.
Playtime is a vital part of a child's growth and development. The groundwork for skills that children need as adults, such as creative thinking, reasoning and socialization, may begin on a swing set or a rock wall.
As adults, the words recreation and playground equipment probably bring back many wonderful childhood memories. Merry-go-rounds, swings and seesaws are many of the rides we enjoyed as youngsters. But playground equipment can also be dangerous for our children if we do not carefully consider the condition of the equipment and the way our children understand and handle it. We must choose quality playground equipment and set guidelines in order to provide a safe recreational environment.
Anyone who has children knows that it's pretty hard to keep a kid from goofing off and playing whenever possible. Parents and caregivers can ensure that the kids of all ages are safe while they play by making sure that playground equipment meets certain requirements.
Exciting playground equipment inspires kids to develop an active lifestyle as opposed to sitting in front of the television or computer. When shopping for playground equipment, look at both structures and sports items. Always consider the safety components when setting up a playground.
When you have kids, you will want to have a nice playground area in your backyard for them to burn off some energy. There are many playground ideas that your kids will love, and many are very affordable and easy to set up. Your child will be delighted to have his or her own playground in their backyard. Remember, try and pick areas for your equipment that will be in both sun and shade, so that the kids are protected.
Playgrounds are the ultimate Saturday afternoon destination for many parents with young children. Playgrounds give kids some fresh air and exercise at a place built for young bodies to run around and blow off steam. A playground provides entertainment and physical activities on colorful equipment not available in the average backyard.
