Children's playground: ideas, materials, schemes, implementation, design

Why children need a playground is probably worth explaining only to someone who was born six feet tall, in a business threesome with a tie, crocodile shoes and a cigar in his mouth. The cigar is, of course, electronic. Even the smoke from it is not chemical, but depicted by holography and is clearly visible without anamorphic glasses harmful to the eyes.

There are plenty of guides for building a game for posterity. And in these - really valuable and necessary instructions on safety, reliability of fasteners, quality of materials, etc. However, having reviewed many of them, something like that in fig. below. Paradise, no doubt. Okay, palm trees, a hefty stump (it looks like at least 100-year-old eucalyptus). Maybe they have palm trees there, that we have swans, and highly valuable industrial wood is distributed to everyone for nothing, if only they were taken out of sight.

However, here and there, a middle-income householder who decides to please the kids by making a playground for them with his own hands immediately raises the question: where to get the space? Land for such a monumental structure took no less than 2 acres, and if there are only 6 of them in the country? Or even less in the personal adjoining territory? A playground for children is being built when the economy is already established. Therefore, further we will consider, first of all, how to properly arrange everything that children need for joy, trying to keep within 1 hundred square meters or less. But, of course, the very components of the playground for children's games will not be ignored.

The most difficult case

The most difficult thing is to arrange a playground in the country. In addition to the acute lack of space, she remains unattended and unguarded throughout the cold season. That is, in addition to resistance to external conditions and environmental friendliness, the material of the structure should not give much temptation to possible robbers. At least the temptation worth the trouble of disassembly. Consequently, the entire summer cottage complex should be compact, strong and at the end is inconvenient to approach with the instrument. And what if they still drag it away or succumb to bad weather, this should not bring big losses.

A good version of a children's play corner in the country from improvised materials is shown in the photo:

Children's mini play corner

The main material in this case is quite reliable, high-quality and affordable - construction pallets (pallets). Occupied area - only approx. 5 sq. m. Behind the climbing frame - 2-storey secret shelter. If one of the younger members of the family is a woman, then the car is unceremoniously driven out to the green parking lot, and the garage is transformed into a boudoir, a kiosk, a doctor's office, etc. If there is sufficient space in front of the building, a ladder or slide can be attached to the captain's bridge.

About materials

The case above is not trivial. Improvised materials go mainly to the design of the site; we will return to this issue later. But for its key structures (see below), high-quality structural materials are needed, because we are talking about the safety of the child.

Wood - coniferous without signs of rot, mold, cracks, falling knots. Bearing elements - a bar from 130x130 mm or a log from 120 mm. Boards - edged or tongue-and-groove from 20 mm. Before assembly, the parts are treated with an oil water repellent (water-repellent agent) or impregnated twice with a water-polymer emulsion. The best finish is a water-based acrylic lacquer over a well-sanded surface.

The second most important material is metal. In addition to fasteners, heavily loaded elements are made of steel, for example. in sports facilities. In this case, it is preferable to connect the parts by welding: any protrusion is traumatic. For a completely, it would seem, smooth head of the bolt, the tomboys manage to catch on clothes that seem to be completely unsuitable for this. Metal parts are necessarily painted over a primer and twice. The best paint finishes are acrylics.

Plastics are easily electrified, in the open air microcracks appear in them within 1-2 seasons and hygiene disappears. And since at home plastics are also non-technological, it is better to refuse them altogether in a home-made playground. Perhaps the only place where plastic is appropriate on the playground is a manhole. A plastic barrel works well for him. It’s better to take a white, translucent one so that they don’t get scared, don’t start to fight there in a panic and don’t get stuck. Glass and other breakable or brittle/separable materials (composites, for example) are absolutely unacceptable.

A stone for a playground is also an unsuitable material: having crashed on a grand scale, you can hurt yourself great about it. If curbs are required on the site, then they need to be laid either soft or home-made wooden, or plant phyto-curbs from soft hardy plants, for example. sedum (sedum).

Separately, it should be said about the ropes. In terms of children's injuries on playgrounds, the top three are consistently occupied by rope railings / fences, labyrinths, tangles and climbing nets. They hang over the first ones, not yet being able to correctly assess the stability of the support by eye, fall somersault and are seriously injured, up to a neck fracture. Nets do not leave parents inconsolable, but there are a lot of fractures and dislocations behind them. Muddles do not physically seriously injure, but due to fright with hysteria, they can leave an indelible mark on the psyche. Therefore, the ropes on the playground are applicable only as suspensions for swings, stretching awnings and creepers - a gymnastic rope with knots.

Note: fabric and non-woven textile products in playgrounds are used for awnings and soft fences. In any case, the fabric should be stretched so that there are no rinse sides.

Basic and advanced equipment

The traditional typical playground consists minimally of a sandbox, a swing, a slide, and a fungus. The latter are now most often combined in the form of a 2-storey playhouse with a balcony, an air passage, an observation platform, a climbing frame and a ladder. This allows you to create a greater variety of entertainment in the same area, see fig. However, it is impossible to make a sandbox on the ground floor of the house: trampling over their heads will in no way benefit the development of very small, “sandy” children. The sandbox must be separate.

Safety zone of a typical playhouse with a slide

So, we get a basic set of a sandbox, a combi house and a swing. He is able to serve from the first top-top until the time when it turns out that the girls, in general, are not to pull their braids. If possible, add to the mini-set:

• A free place for quiet games, children's picnics, in winter - for making a snowman, etc.
• Decorative elements to develop an aesthetic sense.
• Boom, i.e. jogger-pusher.
• Inflatable pool, tub, trough or basin for bathing.
• Hidden hideout.
• Sports complex.
• Playground for sports games.
• Mini flower bed or mini flower garden.
• Hut or tent.
• Labyrinth.
• Children's carousel.

Many other additions are possible, there would be a free area and the imagination of the parents. But they no longer have a decisive significance for the comprehensive development of the child, so we confine ourselves to the observation that most of them and some of the above can be placed in the gaps between the security zones of the main structures, see below.

Location selection

Ideas for the artistic and decorative design of the playground can be anything; some of those combining business with pleasure will be discussed below. There are no regulations/prescriptions regarding the appearance of the facilities on the playground. However, when choosing a place for it, certain safety and comfort rules that contribute to the proper development of children:

• The site should be within sight of the most habitable premises. In private households, this is usually the kitchen;
• All facilities on the site, including their safety zones, must be within a 45 degree viewing angle. This approximately corresponds to the possibility of viewing the hostess, who is busy at the stove located according to the rules of fire safety;
• If the site borders on the passage, incl. internal (one's own, yard), between him and her there must be a capital impenetrable fence for children, regardless of the presence of a fence of a different type;
• Reservoirs, wells, utility yards, etc. should also be delimited. sources of possible danger. In such a case, the fence may be easy, but necessarily impenetrable for children;
• The site should be located in sectors from north to southeast. Otherwise, the smallest in the sandbox and children engaged in active play should be protected from harsh afternoon light;
• At any location of the site, the sun should not blind the eyes of children engaged in active games or sports exercises;
• The sandbox is located first in order of distance from the exit to the site. If it is not there - the first from home;
• The sandbox must not be under a tree(s);
• The directions of swinging of the suspended swing and rolling out from the hill should not cross the sandbox. Otherwise, the distance between them must be at least 3 m for the swing and not less than the height of the slide;
• The same directions should not go to the carriageway;
• Between the sports complex and the sandbox there must be a playhouse or a swing, or another permanent (immovable) structure, or there must be at least 3 m distance;
• The safety zones of capital structures should not intersect.

Note: the safety zone of the children's play facility is assumed to be 1 m by default. The roll-out zone from the hill is 1.5x1.5 m. The swing safety zone is equal in length to 1.5 of the height of their suspension, and not less than 1.5 m in width; carousel - its diameter. The security zones of sports complexes are indicated in their projects.

Examples of the layouts of the base modules of the playground for its various orientations according to the cardinal points are shown in fig. The house is conditionally marked with a gray circle with a star of rhombuses with half-rhombuses. The swing safety zone is shown as a mustard-colored rectangle; house with a slide - thick green. What is a sandbox with an awning, see below.

Layout schemes for a playground with its different location relative to the house

About sports complexes

On fig. below are the projects of children's sports complexes with a house and a slide (left) and only the most compact gymnastic T-shaped scheme. From there it can be seen that less than 30 sq. area with a typical solution is indispensable, and the full complex leaves no room for a sandbox. It would seem that home sports do not shine in a small area.

Projects of children's sports complexes

Nevertheless, it was Russian specialists who developed projects for children's outdoor sports complexes based on the conditions of the Russian Federation, namely, the high endowment of the population strata left from the USSR, provided with medium and lower land plots. In the West, only a very rich person can afford to have 6 acres outside the city for recreation.

Drawings of one of these children's sports complexes are shown in fig. below. Material - steel pipe (27-30)x2. Its features are an extremely narrow, but well-founded security zone, only 0.5 m along the contour. No matter how you look at this design, its ergonomics are perfectly thought out: if you hurt yourself, it’s not much, and you won’t hurt the little ones nearby. The second is the correct configuration. This facilitates the placement of the complex on the site, which is clearly seen in Fig. with layout schemes: a playground with opportunities for sports does not “climb out” anywhere for 1 hundred square meters.

Compact safe children's sports complex

About fences and dividers

In addition to the protective fence, it is highly desirable to delimit zones on the playground for 2 or more children. If the place allows, a labyrinth will give a lot of fun and useful skills, see below about it. The traditional solution to the issue of zone separation is a fence, and inside the site there are tires or logs, also see below. But the fence, albeit very cheerful, as in fig. a little lower is a clear ban, which is generally not useful for children. The strongest and most reliable discipline is conscious, understood by one's own mind. And from an explicit ban during the "holiday of disobedience" you can tear off the board. And to climb, where it should not have been at all, without even realizing what it is fraught with.

playground fencing

When you need to isolate yourself from the roadway, there is no choice, because. The safety of children in this case depends not only on them. But, for example, a pond or a utility yard will not come to the site on its own. In this case, if the site is made of wood, the ideal lightweight protective fence is wattle. Firstly, it is not difficult to weave it, and free material is almost everywhere in nature. Secondly, a sufficiently high wattle fence is very difficult to overcome even for an adult well-trained person. Don't believe? Try to jump over. It was not for nothing that wattle was once used to make temporary fortifications - fascines. In the same way, a bull is not capable of breaking a properly made wattle fence, not like a person. Thirdly, the wattle fence itself is an excellent decoration for a suburban area.

But most importantly, children do not perceive the wattle fence as a prohibitive sign. Why? And you can see through it. Just look at the pond - well, the water lilies are beautiful there, well, the frog climbed onto the leaf and croaks. And in a crack, stealthily - a fairy-tale world appears, inhabited in the imagination by amazing creatures. Okay, we don't have a pond yet. But then, if a gloomy pig or an angry gander turns to the wattle fence from the other side, you can be scared to your heart’s content, without really risking anything. Rest assured, children perfectly distinguish the toy fear, on the basis of which reasonable caution is developed, from the real one.

An almost ideal ground base for a playground is a seeded or rolled grass lawn: it dries quickly enough after rain, slows down a rolling one well and dampens a flopped one, and does not overheat in the heat. One “but”: clothes can turn green, which is washed poorly. Therefore, often the soil on the playground is covered with fine gravel. It drains and brakes even better, but under the sun it heats up more and can be scratched. The ideal backfill would be fine, up to 1.5-2 cm in diameter, well-rounded pebbles. But, alas, this is a very expensive material, and its predatory self-harvesting is punishable by law.

Modules and elements

Sandboxes

First, what is a sandbox with an awning, which is necessary when the site is located in sectors from south to northwest? See fig. It is not necessary to make the panel very large and lower its edges too low: it is enough for the awning to shade the sandbox from the high midday sun. Closer to sunset, if the children are still playing at this time, about half of the box should be shaded so that the little ones themselves are located where it is more convenient for them.

Sandbox with awning

The second thing that will be very useful if there are two or more children with a sufficient difference in age is a sandbox-truck, or depending on the inclinations of the older (older) sandbox-boat. In the latter case, the cabin with a navigation bridge is located, as on any decent "transport", in the stern. Then the younger ones will take care of their sandy affairs, without feeling intrusive guardianship, and the older "parent" will be able to perform their duties literally effortlessly, without getting bored. And if one day he will take the wheel or stand at the helm professionally, he has already deposited at the level of reflexes: the main thing in a flight is passengers and cargo.

Sandbox car and sandbox boat

House with a slide

A lot has been written about children's playhouses before. Let's fill in something missing here. The first is the slopes of the hills. They are most often bought ready-made, made of plastic. There are basically 3 designs to choose from: straight, spiral, see fig., and pipes.

Plastic ramps for children's slides

It is better to ignore the latter: the children's slide is not a water park, water lubricant does not flow through the pipe. Children in the ramps-pipes often get stuck with everything that follows. In terms of the degree of psychological traumatism, the slopes-pipes are almost on a par with the tangles.

Of the others, if there is very little space for the platform, it is better to take more expensive spiral ones. Their use allows in a typical design (see above) to abandon the roll-out zone, because it will be sideways, within the general security zone. And rolling with a propeller is more fun and “cooler” than just like that.

Profile and dimensions of the ramp for a children's slide

However, as mentioned above, plastic in the playground is best avoided. Therefore, for sufficiently skilled home craftsmen, we give in fig. on the left, a profile of a sheet metal slide for a children's slide. The sliding line is highlighted in red, the sides of the trough-shaped chute are marked in brown, and the straight protective edge with an outward bend is marked in blue; green - an elastic pad on it made of smooth rubber. The latter is necessary to slow down with your hands. The width of the slope chute is 600-700 mm.

Note: it is superfluous to remind, but for the sake of the seriousness of the moment, we recall that the overlaps of the sheets that make up the gutter and the sides should be directed down the slope. Otherwise, the overlaps will turn into knives.

Swing

Swing seats

The cradle (seat) of a hanging swing is often made from tires. Then, if the children are boys, it is better to hang the tire vertically, on the left in the figure, it will be possible to “tarzan” from the heart. For girls, a swing cradle made of a tire, suspended flat, is better suited: it’s already convenient to sit in a circle and gossip like a woman.

The cradles of the sports swing, on the right in the figure, are made rigid, in the form of a flying trapezoid with rings, and soft. Making rings separately is recommended only for children who are already involved in athletics and have some success in this: many beginner gymnasts were seriously injured trying to make a cross on the rings without sufficient physical preparation.

With enough space, the little ones will really like and use the swing-balancer, inset in fig. below. If there is not enough space, and the child shows the makings of a dexterous and strong fellow, they can be replaced with a spring swing. A diagram of their device is shown in the same fig. Spring - from the shock absorber of a small car or motorcycle, depending on the age and weight of the rider.

Balance swing and spring swing

About labyrinths

The labyrinth for children's games must meet the following conditions:

• Be one-dimensional, i.e. from the partitions standing on the ground.
• Partitions should not be deaf and high: the elders should see over them and be able to climb over, and the younger ones should see below and crawl.
• Plant labyrinths for children's games are unacceptable, they can, having lost their way, get confused and injured in the bushes with a fright.

funny beauty
Tires

Functional, i.e. suitable for games, decorative elements of playgrounds are most of all made from truck tires. Let's leave aesthetics to adults. Children of pragmatism, it is important for them that it is elastic, coolly springy, and does not beat if you slam on it. Try to only use solid tires: over time, traumatic ends of the cord often protrude from the cut ones. Or check the tire structure regularly and walk along the protruding wires with a grinder with a grinding wheel.

Crafts for playgrounds from tires

A classic product of this kind is a boom runner. It can also be a zone delimiter or a barrier between a sports complex and a sandbox if there is not enough space. So, in all respects, it is better to dig tires for him not along, as is customary, but across, as in pos. 1 fig. at intervals of approx. 30 cm:

• We clearly see the gap where it is not necessary to step.
• If the foot slips, then to the side. Whoever knows about sports physics knows that then the first to come into contact with the underlying surface without any grouping skills will be not the physiognomy, but the fifth point.
• It is convenient and safe to push: the legs themselves rise to the position of the strongest support, and if the leg slips, then everything is as in the previous one. case.
• Whoever is pushed does not fall back, risking injuring his back or hitting his head, but sideways, which is safe for children.

Small, if the tires are somewhat different, you can simply fold them up, pos. 2. For those who are older and smarter - an “advanced” climbing frame in addition to the usual one, pos. 3. Pos. 4 in general a godsend: an old, but real steering wheel, and if you swing, then generally like a tractor over potholes.

Pos. 5 - the well-known sun from a tire and bottles - in fact, not only a decoration. PET bottles are an excellent, durable target for darts, arrows, and anything thrown. And do not be afraid that children will grow up aggressive. On the contrary, just those who in childhood did not have the opportunity to express the natural masculine, conditioned by epochs of biological evolution, inclinations in a harmless way, when they grow up, are much more likely to break into their manifestation in an adult way, up to the highest measure of responsibility under the legislation of the place where the act was committed.

Tire gardens for children

For girls, yes, perhaps, and not only them, a mini-flower bed made of a tire, on the left to the track, will suit and decorate the entire area. fig., or a flowerpot from a worthless wheel. In the latter case, in view of the injury risk from the cord indicated above, it is better to turn the flowerpot with festoons down, as on the right in the same place. What it lacks in aesthetics here and there it makes up for in coloring.

They make a lot of other things out of old tires. For children, already without obvious functionality - different figures. For example, what are the crafts for the playground from tires in the form of different animals, see.

pieces of wood

We will not dwell on snags or roots painted like animals: everything depends on the source material, the type of which is impossible to predict, and already known creations cannot be repeated either - there are no two identical snags. Let's deal with what is more or less stable in its original form: logs. Not necessarily business measured, any deadwood or waste from pruning trees will fit into crafts for children from logs. Just by sawing churaks out of them, and not very carefully, you can already build a good zone delimiter, on the left in the figure, a sandbox, in the center, or a furniture set for a puppet picnic, on the right.

Simple log crafts for the playground

And with a little more effort and skill, make figures for a composition that has independent meaning or, say, for a children's carousel. Drawings of some of these are shown as an example in Fig. below.

Drawings of figures made of wood for decorating a playground

One more idea

The arrangement of the playground is still the same, without going beyond 100 sq. m and without interfering with anything else there, one more thing can complete. Let's say you still have a baby bath, and you are not going to have more offspring. The old adult bath is too deep, it is better to put it on a mini-pond. Or a leaky trough was lying around in the barn. Or, let's say, you stumbled upon an ad: "Used culinary equipment for sale", and in it - "Donut tray 1100x650x100". In general, you need any tub with a length of 80-90 cm, about half as wide and up to 15 cm deep.

Why is it for children? Launch ships. For adults, patching construction or aquarium silicone, painting if rusty is a simple matter. It will take a little water, so you can just change it more often, without using excessively not always safe disinfectants. If you keep the children's mini-sea in the sun, and throw a couple of grains of potassium permanganate or methylene blue (pharmacy blue) into the water, until it is barely pink or blue, and cover the pond with a film at night, week-long continuous navigation is ensured in it. Children from her - a lot of delight and fun. There will also be a lot of splashes and wet clothes, but there’s no need to be angry here, or weren’t you yourself?

Video: do-it-yourself playgrounds

Video: playground ideas