Playing Is Educational

By investing in a wooden play structure, you invest into your child’s physical development, social development, and imagination skills.  Keep your child safe as he or she is playing and learning.   

Each year, about 50,000 children go to U.S. hospital emergency rooms because of injuries on home playground equipment.  About 80% of the injuries occur when children fall from play equipment.  To reduce injuries and protentially life-threating injuries, one of the most important things you can do is install the proper protective gound surfacing under and around your wooden play structure.  Your lawn, grass and dirt,  IS NOT considered protective ground surfacing because wear and environmental factors can reduce their shock absoring effectiveness.

No matter what ground surfacing you have, injuries from falls may occur, including broken limbs.  However, with the proper shock absorbing protective ground covering, it is less likely for your child to aquire any serious injuries including protential head injuries that could be life-threatening or life-altering.  

Protective Surfacing:

You wooden play structure should never be installed without protective surfacing of some type.  Contrete, asphalt, or other hard surfaces should never be directly under your wooden play structure.  Grass and dirt are not considered protective surfacing because wear and environmental conditions can considerably reduce their shock absorbing effectiveness.  Certain manufactured synthetic surfaces, carpeting and mats,  are acceptable; however, test data on shock absorbing performance should be requested from the manufacturer.  These test results should comply with ASTM F1292.  (ASTM F1292 Standard Specification for Impact Attenuation of Surface Systems Under and Around Playground Equipment)

ASTM F1292 ratings provide the “critical height” rating of a surface.  This height can be considered as an approximation of a fall height below which a life-threatening head injury would not be expected to occur.  This rating should be greater than or equal to the fall height - the distance between the highest part of your wooden play structure and the protective surface beneath it.  

Certain loose-fill surfacing materials are acceptable, such as the types and depths shown in the table below.  To determine the proper types and depths of recommended protective gound surfacing, determine the “critical height” for falls, as noted in the above paragragh, and view the chart below.

FALL HEIGHT IN FEET FROM WHICH A LIFE-THREATENING HEAD INJURY WOULD NOT BE EXPECTED (Minimum Compressed Loose-Fill Surfacing Depths)
Type of material	6” Depth	9” Depth	12” Depth
Double-shredded bark mulch	6 Feet	10 Feet	11 Feet
Wood chips	7 Feet	10 Feet	11 Feet
Fine sand	5 Feet	5 Feet	9 Feet
Fine pea gravel	6 Feet	7 Feet	10 Feet

Fall Safety Zones:

Your fall safety zone, covered with a protective surfacing material, is essential under and around your wooden play structure.  This area should cover a minimum of 6 feet in all directions from the perimeter of the play structure and also be least 6 feet away from any buildings or obstacles, and that includes fences, sheds, trees, or poles.  In the swing area, you should have a larger safety zone to the front and rear of the swing.  This distance should be equal to or greater than twice the height of the top beam from which the swing is suspended.  (For example: If the swing beam is 10 feet off the ground, the safety zone should be a minimum of 20 feet in front and 20 feet behind the swing.  So, the total play area should be a minimum of 40 feet wide.)

The above information is supported the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) at cpsc.gov.

Unfortunately, about 50,000 children go to U.S. hospital emergency rooms annually because of injuries caused on home playground equipment and about 80% of those injuries are from children falling off of the equipment.

To ensure that your child has a safe and entertaining experience while playing on their wooden play structure, make sure that you select and/or create a safe location for their play structure.  Your child’s wooden play structure should be placed in a location where it visible from inside of your home, patio, or porch.  This location should also be clear of obstacles that could cause injuries.  This location should be away from roads, driveways, and low over-hanging tree branches.  You should also make sure that are no overhead wires, such as power lines or cable wires, by this play area.

To reduce the likelihood of your child getting hurt from tripping, you should choose an area that is level and free of tree stumps and/or roots and large rocks.  Having a level playing area will also provide an excellent well-drained play area that won’t get  washed away be heavy rains.  (If your desired play area isn’t level, you should have it re-graded for the proper installation of your wooden play structure and to provide for proper water drainage.)

This location should also be least 6 feet away from any buildings or obstacles, and that includes fences, sheds, trees, or poles.  In the swing area, you should have a larger safety zone to the front and rear of the swing.  This distance should be equal to twice the height of the top beam from which the swing is suspended.  (For example: If the swing beam is 10 feet off the ground, the safety zone should be a minimum of 20 feet in front and 20 feet behind the swing.  So, the total play area should be a minimum of 40 feet wide.)

As mentioned earlier, 80% of the injuries that children receive while playing on their home playground structure are caused by falling.  To help protect your child from falls, you should provide a shock-absorbing protective surfacing material, such as mulch, sand, of other rubberized compounds underneath and around your wooden outdoor play structure’s safety zone - that was discussed earlier.

The above information is supported the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission at cpsc.gov.

When you invest in a wooden play structure, you are making an investment in your child’s early childhood development by increasing her self-confidence, social skills, imagination, physical strength, and muscle coordination development. 

Self-Confidence:  At the beginning, your child will not know how to maneuver around a wooden play structure.  As he learns how to climb the ladders, slide down the slide, or swing on the swing,  she will increase her own self-confidence.

Social Skills:  A wooden play structure will provide a wonderful location for your child to increase his social skills and build life-long lasting friendships.  Your child can learn how to interact with her siblings, friends, or neighbors playing at his play structure, by sharing the swing or taking turns sliding down the slide.  They can plan their next imaginative adventures, tell stories, and play games in their own private fort deck areas. 

Imagination Development:  As your child plays with her steering wheel, telescope, and periscope on his outdoor play structure,  she can let  imagination run wild.  They can pretend that they are climbing a mountain, sailing a big ship, or flying to the moon.

Muscle Coordination and Physical Strength Development:  When your child plays on the climbing ladders or rock wall of the wooden play structure, your child will increase his balance, muscle coordination, and physical strength.

The key to investing in a wooden play structure is to make it a one time investment.  Make your investing decision as if your child is 10 years old.  Invest into a play structure large enough for your child to grow into, not out of.  That way you don’t have to purchase different playsets as your child gets older.

This is the first article in series of articles that will provide you the information that you should consider when purchasing a Wooden Outdoor Play Structure.  We will also provide you information regarding playground safety and installation safety tips.

This first article will provide you an overview of some of the general information that you should consider and these topics will be discussed in larger detail in our future articles.  If you have any other questions or suggestions, please e-mail us at customerservice@playingiseducational.com or submit a comment pertaining to this blog.

Let’s start out by discussing why you should even consider purchasing a Wooden Play Structure. 

1. A wooden play structure is an investment in your child.  We live in a world where technology has over-taken our children’s lives, with computers, ipods, and hand-held games.  Children have become less physically active.  Purchasing a wooden play structure will be an investment in your child’s physical development, social development, and imagination skills.
2. If you purchase a wooden play structure you will also be investing in your family’s togetherness and family fun.  Your wooden outdoor play structure will become a elegant gathering spot to visit your friends and family as the children play. 
3. You will also be investing into your home and yard because your wooden play structure will become the focus of your backyard landscape for years, and even generations, to come.

Now that know why you should invest into a wooden outdoor play structure, what else should you consider?

You need to determine what wooden play structure is going to be right for you and your child.

1. Determine where you are going to place your new outdoor play structure. 
2. What size do you want the wooden outdoor play structure?  (Allow additional room around the wooden play structure as a safety zone – for your child’s safety.  This will be discussed in a later article.)
3. What activities/features would your child enjoy?  (You may choose different features depending on your child’s age level.)
4. What kind of wood do you want to use for your outdoor play structure? (Premium Pine or Redwood)
5. Consider maintenance and safety features of the wooden play structure.
6. How easy are the instructions to install your new play structure?
7. What warranties come with your wooden play structure?

Other very important factors to consider are safety zones around the play structure and installation safety tips.  We want your child to have a nice, safe area to play in and avoid getting hurt.  (Did you know that each year, more than 200,000 children go to U.S. hospital emergency rooms because of injuries on playground equipment and about 50,000 of those are from home playgrounds.) 

All these topics will be discussed in detail in our later articles.  Make sure you add us to your feeds or add us to your favorites to receive these articles.  Once again, if you have any questions, comments, or additional topics you would like to have us address either respond to our blog in the comments area or e-mail us at customerservice@playingiseducational.com. 

Children should spend exciting times with safe outdoor play structures that have different play activities. A Gorilla Playset is made from quality pine that underwent wood treatment to resist rot, decay and termites infestation.  The beams are maintenance free and poly-coated. The swing beams are 4″x6″ thick wood pine that can carry heavy loads.

These wooden play structures also have chains that are all powdered coated to resist rust and iron decay even when exposed to rain and snow. The green wave slide is 10 feet of highly durable fiberglass and resin materials, while the rock wall and climbing rope are made from wood pine timber. Other amenities are the built in wooden picnic table and sand box. A Gorilla swing set also features an exclusive tic-tac-toe spinner panel and telescope for endless entertainment.
 

By definition: An educational toy is a toy designed to teach people, typically children, about a certain subject or help them learn a skill as they play.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational toy

Puzzles:

Puzzles can teach a child topics like ABC’s, colors, shapes, animals, and geography.  Puzzles can also help with hand-eye coordination, teach sizes & shapes, and problem solving. 

Board Games and Card Games:

Board games and card games can be used to teach things like counting, colors, and reading, to more complex things like communication skills,  logical thinking, and organizational skills.

Games & Toys:

Games and Toys can be very educational to children.  By playing with educational games and toys, children can learn physical skills, such ashand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and even texture.  They can also learn about things like animals, colors, and the human body.

Dramatic Play / Creative Play:

Let them dress-up or play puppet show theater with puppets and dolls.  This will stimulate them to role play and express themselves through character play.  They can learn about different foods and even money by playing with Pretend Playsets.

Wooden Play Structures:

Children love to play outdoors on wooden play structures.  Wooden play structures encourage children to be physically active and mentally active as they determine if and how they can perform specific skills.  Children are increasing their imagination as they soar through the sky on a swing and play around it.

It is important to keep our young children involved and playing – get them to play with educational toys.

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Most people don’t think about the educational aspect of children playing on wooden play structures.  Their imaginations are growing when they find themselves playing captain of the big wooden ship.  They use the large ship’s steering wheel and look through the telescope to avoid pirates that are lurking around the corner. 

Children enjoying themselves at the play structure will improve their hand-eye coordination and motor skills as they use the rope ladder and climbing rope to get up the rock climbing wall.