Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with playground

Long Island rocketship?

Morrigan — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:10:55 -0800

Inspired by this question, I'd like to determine what playground I loved to be taken to in the late 1960s, early 1970s on Long Island, probably in Nassau County. The most salient feature was a climb-on rocket ship. Was it at Jones Beach?

How to kill grass on a playground?

roaring beast — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:47:31 -0800

How to kill grass on a playground? We recently installed a wooden playground set in use by about 20-30 kids each week. After laying down about two layers of landscape fabric on top of grass, we put about 2" of rubber playground mulch over it.

The problem is that grass and weeds are still growing up through it. In hindsight, we probably should have killed off the grass before putting down the fabric. Now it would be an incredible task to move all the rubber mulch, lift all the fabric, kill the grass and put it back on all over again.

It's been suggested that we use Roundup to kill all the grass, but I wonder if this is safe since children will be using the playground in the future.

The mulch with grass growing through is quite unsightly, but maybe something we just have to live with.

What should we do? Any ideas?

POISON! Back to Zero, My Friend

NolanRyanHatesMatches — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:34:13 -0800

BasketballFilter: History of the games "21" and "Utah"? I grew up in Indiana, where we played 21 as THE playground basketball game-- basically every person for himself, free throws after making a shot (and, if three consecutive free throws are made, the scorer gets the ball at the top of the key), play until someone scores 21 points. I've played 21, with a variety of different rules (i.e. if you don't hit 21 exactly you go back to 14 on your next made basket; two-handed tips send the shooter back to 0, and a one-handed tip knocks him out of the game; etc.), all over the country.

But when I moved to NYC, everyone seemed to play Utah: every person for himself, three-pointers after making a shot (or free throws, but the ball can't touch the backboard, or else it's a live ball), play to 100, each basket worth 5 points.

I wondered if anyone knew some good books/links about the histories of 21, Utah, or any other every-player-for-himself playground basketball games (excluding HORSE, although I'd welcome any links about that, although I imagine they're easy to find). I'd imagine that there are tons of regional variations on 21, Utah being one of them, but it just now struck me that I totally don't know the game's lineage.

Any help?

Cool/fun places for a rest stop when driving with kids from upstate NY to DC?

chr1sb0y — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:31:57 -0800

If we are driving with kids (9 and 5) from upstate NY (Rochester) to DC, where can we stop in PA off of route 15 for a picnic, run-around and see-something-cool-or-weird break? We're taking route 15 down through Williamsburg, Harrisburg, and York, PA. (Unless someone chimes in to tell me that's a crazy route that only google maps would suggest...)

Ideally I am hoping for tips on an awesome playground or cool state park that is right off the highway somewhere along that route, so we can stop and eat and let the kids run around a bit as a break.

Funky road food tips and other roadside POIs are welcomed.

Help us re-design our neighborhood playground and park.

Ostara — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:15:49 -0800

Help us re-design our neighborhood playground and park. The park is about 20 acres in size and the city will be updating it in 2009. We're going to a meeting tomorrow to suggest improvements and we need ideas! The park was developed 19 years ago and has not been updated since then.

The playground in particular needs to be totally redone. What cool playground equipment/features would be in your kids' dream playground? What are things to avoid?

The park also has a soccer field, tennis courts, a half basketball court, picnic tables and grills, a segment of an 11-mile-long walking/biking trail, and lots of beautiful huge old trees. Any suggestions for improvement in these areas is welcome, too.

The park is heavily used - it's in the middle of 2 subdivisions totalling around 500 homes. I know we have at least $100,000 in grant money as well as a chunk of the city's budget, so we can dream big.

Backyard playground setup?

roaring beast — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:21:35 -0800

What do I need to know to set up a backyard playground? I am setting up a playground like this one. It will be used by 20-30 kids weekly. Any tips or tricks, especially with the set-up?

Also, what is the best ground cover for the price? Sand, mulch, artificial mulch? Do I need to create a wooden border?

Do I need to stain and seal annually?

Any suggestions or tips would be much appreciated!

How did you play sports in your neighborhood?

Joey Michaels — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:48:02 -0800

What alternate rules did you follow when you played specific sports as a kid? So, my wedding anniversary is a month and my wife and I are going to treat our friends to a big outdoor party in a local park. We've been talking about activities that would be a little more unusual than the normal summer park activities.

Writing up this comment in the Blue got me to thinking about how much fun I used to have playing three person whiffle/tennis/baseball. I'm thinking it might be fun to abandon the adult rules of some traditional sports and play by playground rules at our cookout thing.

So, when you were a kid, did you have specific rules for playing sports that were, to the best of your knowledge, unique to your town or neighborhood?

What mystical powers do four kids have?

bonaldi — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:29:14 -0800

You know the playground trick whereby four of you can "levitate" a fifth person using just your fingertips (you first hold your hands over his head and count to 20)? How does that work, then?

No boys allowed.

zoomorphic — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 08:50:22 -0800

Help me turn my bedroom into a sweet fort. It's my first time sleeping on a lofted bed, and every time I walk in my room I see the bare bones of a potential fort. I am already on a waiting list to get a slide that will attach at the ledge and extend to the floor, and my roommate has kindly agreed to drill a hole in the wall separating our bedrooms in order to thread a string for our tin-can phones.

So now I'm on to details. I never had a fort as a kid, and our neighborhood was equally bereft of tree houses. What do you remember about those spaces that you especially liked, and what can I do to recreate that in a tiny Brooklyn apartment? Any insights or details you can think of to make this feel authentic, or just look awesome? Unfortunately, I don't have a way to upload any pictures of my bedroom, but my loft is twin-sized and under a relatively high ceiling.

How do I treat play tires so that they dont shed rubber?

whatisish — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 09:40:46 -0800

How do I treat sun weathered tractor tires so my kids dont get so dirty? Just bought a house with a big play area in the backyard. My kids get filthy when they play on the big tractor tires that have been weathered by the sun. Has anyone ever had success with treating play tires so that they dont shed rubber?

Mystery Game

TuxHeDoh — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 10:47:12 -0800

Can someone identify this mystery "game"? My family and I visited Wheeling Park, in Wheeling, W.Va. They playground was super cool. There was this objects without instructions, what I'm guessing is some sort of deduction game similar to Mastermind. Has anyone seen one of these? Do you know how to play?

More pictures in this flickr set.

Bringing the funhouse slide home... without the splinters?

rubberfish — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 12:26:59 -0800

I want to build the ultimate indoor slide [for kids, not adults]... help me plan it out. We're getting new neighbors. They have three kids and want me to design an indoor slide for them to use in a wide stairway. At this point, we're beyond the "Are you freakin' crazy? How safe can that be?" questions, and onto the "How will this work best?" questions. All the online resources I can find are for pre-made, plastic, outdoor, composite-type slides that fit other kits. This is what we are NOT looking for. We want it to fit into the general feel of a 75-year-old craftsman-bungalow-esque house. We want this to be the ultimate kid item to help a 6-, a 4-, and a 2-year-old embrace this new house!
So, I'm hoping the hive mind can contribute to the following: materials to use / design ideas / permanent vs convertible / kewl extras / what-to-watch-out-fors. I've designed and built custom furniture before [that's how i got roped into this] but this project isn't your average piece of carpentry.

The stairs are about 5 feet wide, 7 inches tall, and 11 inches deep [rough]. Wooden staircase. 17 total stairs.
Where do i go from here?

You've hit it on the head...

acoutu — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 22:27:04 -0800

Toddler capabilities. What are 14- to 18-months old capable of doing with regard to physical safety? I probably haven't worded the question above very well, so I will attempt to explain what I'm getting at.

I'm the parent of a 17-month-old and I seem to be at odds with some of the other parents of children my child's age. I am not generally concerned with how other people parent and I respect their right to choose. However, I have been surprised by some of the decisions made by other parents and the statements they have made in support of those decisions. For example, some of the parents I know allow their 15- to 17-month-old children to go on stairs, 3 to 5 foot high open-sided playground equipment designed for children over 5, park benches, short concrete walls, gym benches, slides, and other structures without assistance. The parents will sometimes be 5 to 10 feet away or, in the case of playground equipment, will be several arms' lengths away.

I know that there are many parenting styles and that it's appropriate to parent according to your child's needs. I'm not a perfect parent and I don't expect that of other people. However, some other people have approached me about one child's safety and I became a little more concerned, too, after that child fell down stairs, off playground equipment, etc.

Are children in this age rage mentally capable of being safe in these situations? It seems to me that playground equipment designed for children over 5 is a bit of a giveaway. And I would have thought people would think the equipment for children under 5 means that it is not automatically safe for any child under that age. However, other parents say that falling and navigating equipment is a natural part of learning and that holding your child's hand or going up on the equipment with them equates to hovering and will have lifelong repercussions in terms of the child's ability to take risks. They talk about their child's ability to assess danger and mitigate risks.

(Note that I'm not worried about kids walking along and tripping over their own feet on the ground. I guess I'm interested in climbing and structures.)

Are there any studies or sites that indicate what *most* children in this age range can safely manage? Are children this age generally in possession of cognitive abilities that allow them to understand and manage these kinds of danger? I'd be interested in learning what injury happens to the child's brain when they fall down stairs or off a bench, but I am probably veering off topic. I suppose I'm generally interested in learning about safety guidelines for this age group, along with any studies that point to how that appropriateness was determined.

I'm not meaning this as an attack on other parents or parenting styles. I just would like to know about guidelines and actual readiness for these kinds of risks. Everything in life is risk, of course!

Where can I find "regulation" measurements for marking playground games like hopscotch and four-square?

ooklah — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:08:20 -0800

Does anyone know where can I find free plans for marking games onto a playground surface? We're working on revamping the playground at my kid's school. We want to paint some games like hopscotch and four-square onto the surface but I'm having trouble finding standard measurements to do this. Does anyone have a suggestion or a link that would be helpful?

Help me find old military hardware on playgrounds

extrabox — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 19:05:26 -0800

When I was a kid, my playground (Van Dyke Park in Northern, VA) had a decomissioned military jet (T-133) in the playground...it was a lot like the picture on this guy's site. Did anyone else have any old military hardware as part of the playground? Any pictures? I'm interested in researching this further....

Where can I buy a compression spring?

stupidsexyFlanders — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 03:46:19 -0800

Where the heck do you buy a spring? Surprisingly interesting details inside. I built a zipline for a kids playground, and because of the terrain, it's so steep that the kids slam into the end. Yeah, this is funny and all, but I'm thinking if I put a big spring at the end, or series of springs, it will soften the landing and enable kids to maintain their grip on the bar after "landing" so they can drop safely to the ground. So I need a spring at least 1' long, at least .5" inside diameter, and as few coils per inch as possible, for maximum boingboing-iness. Technically this is called a compression spring, as opposed to an extension spring.) All searches take me to manufacturers, where price for a run of one is prohibitive. Can you help me think of retail uses for a such a spring (car parts, etc.) so I can search retailers?