How to make a children's playground with your own hands from available materials. Crafts for the playground: we equip the children's area of ​​the site with homemade products How to make a children's playground in the country

A children's playground is considered an important element of every modern suburban area if the younger generation lives on the territory. Purchasing swings and similar attributes is not a cheap pleasure.

It is much easier and more affordable to build a playground from scrap materials with your own hands. Let's talk about this issue in more detail.

Design process

The most important condition for creating a playground for children is to carry out the design in such a way that the structure is reliable and also as safe as possible in use.

In addition, when deciding on the construction site of the site, you need to focus on a place with excellent visibility.

In addition, the idea for a playground should not include the installation of wires and various traumatic angles at the site of children’s games. Also, the site should not be located next to a pool or river.

The place for games should be as level as possible, equipped with a soft surface that can minimize the risk of injury during an accidental fall.

When choosing a suitable material for decorating a playground, opt for natural solid wood, which is harmless, practical, and easy to use.

Wood is also easy to process, making it possible to build any structure from it.

By painting wood crafts for the playground in a variety of shades, you can get an attractive area for active play for your children.

It is preferable to initially develop the corresponding drawings on a sheet of paper. In the design documentation, be sure to indicate the expected dimensions of the parts that are planned to be placed on the site. Also determine the optimal inclined angle of the children's slide and, of course, the height.

Optimal ideas

When choosing a suitable design idea for a country playground, it is important to focus on the child’s age, as well as the characteristics of the location of the structure. Basically, the main element of the playground is a swing, a sandbox, and a slide.

In addition, you can build a small fairy-tale house and small slides. Simply put, every element of a children's playground should be interesting for kids.

Setting up a sandbox

When deciding on the location of the sandbox, focus on the following points:

• the area must certainly be open, that is, clearly visible;
• It is undesirable to build a sandbox under the canopy of trees to prevent debris from getting into it;
• be sure to take care of high-quality ultraviolet protection;
• Calculate the dimensions so that kids can move around in it as freely as possible.

As for the shape, the optimal option would be a square sandbox, which can be easily created from wood. To make sure of this, the photo of the playground is proof of this.

When choosing a natural wood, choose pine, which is considered a moisture-resistant material that can withstand solar radiation well, as well as temperature changes. Also, the resin in pine is characterized by antimicrobial properties.

The optimal dimensions of the sandbox are 200 cm by 200 cm. First you need to prepare a special area using pegs and threads. Having finished with the markings, you should slightly remove the top layer of soil. Then you can begin arranging the base in order to fill the sand.

Note!

It is preferable to cover the very bottom of the structure with dense building material. The bottom is covered with a cushion of sandy, plastic tiles.

Remember that the use of plastic film is contraindicated, since after precipitation a lot of moisture can accumulate in the sandbox, preventing the sand from drying out.

However, geotextile materials allow moisture to pass through, but do not allow various insects to enter the sand from the ground.

To cover the sides of the structure, boards should be constructed from boards. For convenience, you need to arrange the sides.

The option of arranging the sandbox with a special mushroom-shaped shelter has not been ruled out. This design will protect the structure from moisture and sun.

Decorating a place for children's games

If you are interested in how to make a playground with your own hands and how to decorate it, then remember that the use of expensive materials for these purposes is not necessary. It is enough to use a couple of cans of paint, as well as available materials.

Note!

An excellent design option is a children's playground made from tires, or plastic bottles, wheels.

So that fabulous palm trees can appear on the site, use plastic bottles, and if there are stumps, create paths. Using tires, build various interesting figures for the garden in the form of animals.

Make every effort to ensure that all parts of the playground for children perform a developmental function. This does not require much effort, just a minimum of imagination and desire.

DIY photo of the playground

Note!

To be close to do-it-yourself kindergarten plots decorated, were interesting for kids, many conditions must be met. But it is equally important that these small corners, filled with entertainment and a place for fun games, are also attractive from the point of view of landscape design, because this way you can develop good taste and a sense of beauty in children. We will not only look at examples and, but also analyze which forms of leisure and entertainment to give preference to.

Do-it-yourself kindergarten plot

Original, different from others do-it-yourself kindergarten plot– rather an exception than a rule. All places for preschoolers to hang out were at one time created as a carbon copy, based on norms and rules. However, these rules can hardly be called incorrect, it’s just that in addition to the mandatory elements, you still need to be a little imaginative, make it conceptual, attractive, so that each group has individual decorations and entertainment.

We need to talk about the rules before we consider certain design examples that relate to individual elements. Structurally, the playground (its dimensions are calculated based on the number of children in the group and ideally there should be 7-9 square meters of playground per child) should be divided into several parts. The largest and central part is occupied by the so-called group training area. Not only are physical education equipment located here, but there is also a special covering, rubber or grass, so that kids can play sports here, play outdoor games, and so on. And along the perimeter of this common area, you can build additional elements, such as a sandbox, sports equipment and horizontal bars, stumps, a decorative vegetable garden and other components required for interesting areas in kindergarten. Do it yourself in summer adults can also add not only a flower garden or a decorative flower bed to the territory, but also make an additional canopy so that the kids are not disturbed by the bright summer sun. A permanent terrace with a canopy and hard floor is suitable for use in cooler seasons.

Do-it-yourself children's areas in kindergarten

In the photographs presented in our article today, you can see how to creatively approach the filling process do-it-yourself children's areas in kindergarten. After all, there is enough space on the territory not only for entertainment, but also for learning, especially in a playful way.

Let's remember the basics and apply our existing knowledge to the process of transforming a children's play area. First you need to draw a plan, marking the size of the territory, its topography and all the permanent buildings that already exist and that will need to be used in the conceptual design. Next, select a theme to which you will adjust all other elements. For example, such a theme could be a favorite animated film, or it could be a maritime, pirate, or football theme. If parents want to please absolutely all children, then they can make a design in a fairy-tale style, filling the area with crafts in the form of fairy-tale characters.

On the plan, in addition to the dimensions of each of the areas and useful objects, you also need to mark the direction of the shadow that is present at those moments when children play on the street. It is best that a long afternoon walk is not overshadowed by excessive sun activity. Therefore, if it so happens that the area is very lit and there is little natural shade on it, you can develop roofs for the sandbox, fabric canopies, and also plant trees and shrubs that will provide the desired shade for the summer period.

You also need to take care of lighting and other utilities, but so that safety comes first. All wires not only need to be carefully insulated, but also generally removed from access and visibility. You also need to check the entire space for sharp corners; if the swings or rides are wooden, then they should not leave splinters, and if they are metal, then all connections should work perfectly and not have sharp edges, chips, pieces of crumpled or rusty metal.

Do-it-yourself kindergarten plots: photo

General appearance do-it-yourself kindergarten plots, photo which you have already seen above is, of course, wonderful, but you also need to think about special cases - about the elements. You can decide by a majority of parental votes whether this or that zone is needed for your children (because it’s simply physically impossible to squeeze in absolutely everything), but there are things that should be placed everywhere. And first of all, this statement is true for the sandbox, beloved by children of all ages.

This element is simple on the one hand, and complex on the other. That is, it’s quite simple to install it, you don’t even have to buy it, but make it yourself, giving it the shape of a boat, a car, a solar circle. It is much more important to ensure the safety of playing in the sand, so in addition to the box itself, be sure to provide a lid with which the sandbox will be covered in between games. It will also be useful to organize benches around the perimeter and inside, on which children can sit while picking. Next to the sandbox, organize a small storage room and a drawer where you can put scoops, molds and other toys for sand art.

The second very useful element is tables and chairs for creative outdoor activities. Here you can not only write, sculpt or draw, but also play games, not active, but logical, developing intelligence and speed of reaction. A canopy is installed over such tables so that classes can be held even when the weather is not very conducive to this.

Another mandatory element is an area for physical education, active games and competitions. Here you can install horizontal bars, you can make a labyrinth or an area for overcoming obstacles. In principle, such a zone is an excellent way to direct all the irrepressible children’s energy into a peaceful direction, so that after a walk they can calmly fall asleep during their nap.

In modern times you can see such an interesting device as a health track. This is a set of separate zones that are lined with various materials, for example, crushed stone, pebbles, wooden rounds, hard rubber mats, and so on. This is a great addition for do-it-yourself kindergarten plot in the summer. Photo, which you see above, shows variations in the construction of such a path, and how to fill it. It is believed that after walking barefoot for five minutes on such an obstacle course, children will receive a foot massage that is indispensable for their health.

Decorating a site in a kindergarten with your own hands

In addition to the required elements, there are also many other interesting ideas for do-it-yourself design of a kindergarten plot. One of them is especially relevant for the summer period - this is a decorative vegetable garden. Here, on a small plot of land, several beds of vegetables are planted, which can be looked after by children who will enjoy such entertainment. After all, not all children have a summer house to see the process of growing carrots or green onions with their own eyes.

In addition to knowledge of botany and agriculture, a small decorative vegetable garden will teach kids to take care of plants; you can conduct classes telling them what proper watering should be, how plants differ from each other, what their parts are edible, and so on. The appearance of such a small area can be borrowed into a decorative type, for example, by placing boxes or organizing flower beds inside car tires.

Not only plants, but also all kinds of domestic animals attract inquisitive kids, but this is not the reason to start a real barnyard. To satisfy the need for knowledge, you can use not real animals, but crafts in the form of them, made from plaster, plastic bottles, car tires and other things. You need to build a small hut - a house for animals, and place a cockerel and hens, a pig, a cow and others around it.

You can develop the curiosity of children not only with the help of plants and organization, but also by using the theme of car signs, arranging a toy race track on the territory with a very real track, markings, signs and even a gas station. Moreover, it can be made quite original by using empty five-liter eggplants and painting them black. Surely girls will also like this new play space, but boys will be absolutely delighted with it. You can look at examples decorating a kindergarten site with your own hands - photo presented above in our article.

Decorating a kindergarten site in the summer with your own hands

Physical education equipment may not be located within the perimeter of the group exercise area. On the contrary, the more free space there is, the easier it will be for kids to run, jump, move around and play outdoor games. But along the perimeter we advise you to decorating a kindergarten site in the summer with your own hands make other entertainment, but more local.

These could be stumps that need to be overcome like an obstacle course. Of course, it is not enough to simply cut the tree into stumps of the same or different heights and place them next to each other; you need to treat their surface well, make sure that there are no splinters or scratches upon contact with the tree, and even better, cover all the cuts with a special varnish or paint . By the way, such cuts are a great way to learn numbers if you write them on the surface with the same paint. All teachers know that learning through play is the most effective.

To fill the space around the site with beauty, use appliqués on everything you can. This could be the wall of the veranda canopy, a fence, benches, tree trunks. Let there be a lot of fairy-tale and cartoon characters made of plywood and plastic around, looking for them and looking at them will also be one of the exciting games.

Every parent knows from his own example how difficult it can sometimes be to get children interested in something so that they do not interfere with their household duties. For those who spend time at the dacha or permanently live in a private house, there is an ingenious solution - a do-it-yourself playground made from scrap materials. It will captivate your child and contribute not only to physical, but also intellectual development. It's not difficult to build. You can do this from available materials, such as boards and logs, tires, fabrics, etc. Be smart, and your child will not be torn away from the new play place.

Choosing a location and plan for creating a children's recreation area

There are few rules for choosing a place, but their implementation is mandatory for the safety of the child and your peace of mind:

Do-it-yourself playgrounds in the country from scrap materials

Before you start building a playground, you need to decide on the territory and draw up a project.

Site size

The size of the playground depends on the age of the children and their number. For very small children, a small space of 4–5 m2 will be enough. On them you can install a sandbox, a few simple shells and a small pool. It would be nice to fence off such an area so that the children do not run away, and you can calmly go about your business. To do this, you can use improvised (wooden sticks) and purchased (chain-link mesh) products.

You can’t lock older children behind a fence. He will be redundant. They will be interested in something really worthwhile, a more serious projectile, a greater selection of entertainment and, of course, a lot of space. Ideally, 10–12 m2 is needed in order to create a comfortable playground for such children.

Photo gallery: variety of site fencing

A fence with a gate will give parents confidence that the child will not run away from the playground A colored fence that you can trust the children to paint themselves Playground fencing option

Site plan using improvised means

Now draw a general plan of the future site. Think about what will be located and where. To do this, it is not necessary to make an exact geometric drawing.

Photo gallery: layout options

The playground plan can be schematic indicating the dimensions If desired, the playground plan can be drawn You can entrust the drawing up of a playground plan to the child himself.

Preparing the terrain and covering the site

First of all, the place needs to be well cleared and leveled. Then you need to decide what kind of coating you will work with. There are several options:

If you are limited in finances and make everything from scrap materials, then choose the second option.

DIY playground: ideas

What equipment to place on the playground is up to its owners to decide. There are some elements that you just can’t do without.

Sandbox

This is the most common children's fun that can be found in every yard. There is no child who would not be fascinated by the creation of sand cakes and the construction of all kinds of caves. In the sandbox, your child will develop his imagination and learn to create new objects. Previously, they looked like a square box made of unplaned materials. Today the situation has changed, adults are increasingly concerned about the convenience and safety of their children. The main innovation is, of course, the creation of a lid that hides sand from pets.

It is important to choose the right location for a given area. It should not be in the sun, but it should not be placed in an area that is too dark, so that the sand in it is not wet and cold. It is ideal to install it under the canopy of a large tree. But if this is not possible, then you will have to come up with a canopy.

The most common material for making a sandbox is wood. For boys, this could be a hand-made boat or a car for the playground.

A large tractor tire is also suitable for making a sandbox.

Photo gallery: sandbox made from an old tire, in the form of a car and other options

Children's houses

A very popular entertainment for children is the house. This could be a hut made of branches or a simple tent. The children will hide there. This could be their "headquarters". Thanks to this, a children's corner at the dacha made from scrap materials will become very cozy.

You can also build a house on a frame. This is also easy.

1. The frame is erected on a columnar foundation.
2. The lower and upper trims are made for the floor and ceiling, respectively.
3. Then it is sheathed, for example, with boards.

You can show your imagination and make a porch, windows, hang curtains, put an old carpet inside, knock down a couple of chairs and a table. In general, a miniature version of a real house. The more you try, the more interesting it will be for your baby to play there.

Photo gallery: “housing” for children

A fabric hut will protect children from the sun and rain You can build a hut using natural materials together with your children If desired, the hut made of branches can be disassembled and moved to another place A children's wooden house can be a copy of a country house Porch, windows and door are desirable elements of a children's house

Slide

Slides are no less popular among children. They come in straight and spiral shapes. But what is this pleasure made of? There are several options:

• stainless steel is good, but a little expensive, and you shouldn’t leave expensive metal unattended;
• ordinary steel - rusts too quickly;
• a plastic tray is a great option, just try to find the right size;
• wood - it needs to be sanded well or sheathed with something more slippery, for example, a piece of linoleum.

Few people make a separate slide. Most often it is built as part of a complex with ropes, ladders, horizontal bars, etc.

Swing

Swings are the most popular type of entertainment in the children's recreation area. Building them from scrap materials is not difficult. To do this, you just need a chain or rope, as well as a seat (board, wheel).

If you decide to use a rope for a swing, then it must be periodically checked for strength, since exposure to sunlight and precipitation has a detrimental effect on it. Chains will be more reliable, but the links may move during swinging and pinch the skin of your hands. The sensations are very painful. That's why in places where you need to hold on, you can put some kind of hose on the chain. The rope can be attached to the crossbar with a carabiner, which can squeak unpleasantly over time, or with the help of a bearing, but it must be welded.

What to give a 4 year old child? Our grandparents decided not to waste time on trifles and build a sports complex at their dacha. Fortunately, our grandfather can do carpentry work with his own hands. I (Lena Pavlova) got involved as a designer, drawing on the experience of the complex that Oleg Skripalev built two years ago at our home. Well, we had to do some supply work: we collected cuttings from shovels for the wall bars and monkey bars from stores all over the area. We found a metal rolling stock to buy galvanized steel for crossbars and poles. Neighbor Volodya helped weld the crossbars. Later, we waited for Oleg Skripalev himself to visit us in order to properly “equip” our frame with shells and create “multiple climbing routes.” So we built our structure “from scratch.” Here's what we got:

Friends, this post aroused so many responses that in 2019 we made a separate website dedicated to the Skripalev sports complexes https://kids-complex.ru/ where we posted a lot of materials about this sports complex, which we called the Chistov-Pavlov complex and others like it, as well as history of complexes and sports corners, individual equipment and a more detailed overview of ready-made solutions on the market. Now this site has become official for Skripalev’s sports complexes. There you can order a sports complex based on an individual project for your home or cottage, or buy individual equipment to independently build a complex similar to ours.

Why weren’t standard sports complexes suitable for us?

The very first question that arises is: why didn’t we just buy a ready-made one? Below is a picture of a typical representative of finished structures. The only advantage (in my opinion) of such (not cheap) complexes is their declared safety. The fastenings are hidden, the corners are smoothed, the tops are inaccessible - you can't fall too far.


It’s cool, of course, the manufacturer won’t have to sue the parents, but the child is unlikely to learn to climb here, there’s nowhere to climb. The shells are inconvenient. A climbing frame with a slope, minimal height and uninteresting (monotonous), a gladiator net - similar. Rings are not useful to any gymnast in any gym - they are small in diameter and plastic (and this is not the worst option seen in our yards). The rocker is also not inspiring - it is not stable for little ones, and not interesting for big ones. There are no questions only about the sailor's ladder - in itself it is normal, but for some reason it does not lead anywhere. It is not clear whether it is possible to move from it diagonally to the house, but since it rests on the climbing wall, you cannot swing on it. It seems that the option of “swinging on a sailor’s ladder” has been excluded by the manufacturer for safety reasons: it is fixed with a support at the bottom (this is often done with ropes). The small (about 5 steps) Swedish ladder leading to the house (at the back) is inclined and insufficient for full climbing. Again, it’s not the worst - usually the rungs of such ladders are so thick that it’s uncomfortable for a child’s hand to grasp, and they are made with such a large step that you can’t really climb on them - only up or down. The house could have been a springboard for climbing if it had been made of pipes rather than timber (of course, then it would not have been made of wood and the complex would have dropped in price by four times). And for a house where you can sit and hide, it is too “lighty”. Everything was done for the control of the security service, and not for real children, not on the street, not seriously. This is interesting only to a three-year-old. And our daughter is already 4 years old. Where will it develop here?

Here is another typical representative, which has an almost convenient wall bars and a set of shells lined up in a row. This complex is far from so bad in terms of its shells (the hammock was not tested, but the rest, except for the rings, looks quite usable). Linear design problem is fundamental: this is a set of projectiles, they are not in the system, they practically do not allow routes (in this case, with the exception of the trajectory: the Swedish wall - the crossbars on its reverse side - the rings). This is one standard route. Even a rat gets tired of running in a circle with three stopping points, but a child has a more complex brain. The child needs to invent, experiment, implement.


What to do? Should we abandon the line and build a square or other structure that will allow transitions from projectile to projectile? Make the shells “real”? Add heights?
If you are ready to give your child such a complication of his “climbing life”, then welcome to our club - “With Your Own Hands”. You will not find a satisfactory ready-made analogue. The aforementioned Oleg Skripalev will make you an excellent design for your house (ours, about 3 meters by 3 meters, cost us about 80 thousand in 2015 - we will write about it separately, when the summer season ends, we love it and it helps us out a lot on long winter evenings). For the house, the price tag suited us: the complex is practically eternal, in the sense that it will withstand the childhood of all our existing and potential children. But such a price tag for the street (where the shells and frame are destroyed faster) “bites” (a self-assembled analogue cost us about 20 thousand in 2017 with all the shells). That is, you should come to us again: “With your own hands.”

Specifics of the street (dacha): what will the frame be made of?

There are no walls on the street (although of course you can “attach” to the house, but for the street this is a limitation, not a benefit. At home we are forced to “cling” to the walls. Here the wall is an extra shadow (we have so little sun) and an opportunity ( unnecessary) to "smudge" into the house when rocking. An empty frame is much more practical. Then what should the frame be made of? Wood or metal? Well, here, of course, “all markers have different tastes and colors.” The tree is warm and alive. Equipment that cannot be tied on (for example, holds for a climbing wall) can be easily attached to it. It is easier to assemble a wall bars or monkey bars from wood with your own hands. Metal has an amazing advantage - it itself “works” like a crossbar, so the frame is built into the system of projectiles, and it will be possible to directly make transitions (climb) on it. A metal frame will not be expensive if you buy regular (not galvanized) pipes, sand them and paint them. We didn't bother with the price (we don't have many metal fragments) and bought galvanized pipes, which we also had to sand (but didn't have to paint). Compared to wood, metal is more convenient to use: it does not rot, is unpretentious and durable. But you need a person with a welding machine. In our case, this turned out to be a neighbor. If you don't have one, it will be more difficult. But there is always a third, in our opinion, optimal option - combined. Some are made of metal, some are made of wood. Then it is potentially possible to do without welding at all ("metal to wood" and "wood to wood" fastenings will be sufficient). The structure will be “living”, but will be enriched with unique equipment that only metal can fully provide - all kinds of crossbars for climbing.

Separate question: how to strengthen the frame so that it does not wobble. For the corner elements, we took a 100 by 100 beam and dug it in about 1 meter (with a complex height of about 2.5 meters). To make the structure “sit” more firmly, 70 cm transverse beams (cross-shaped towards the main verticals) and additional diagonal “slopes” were dug into the ground for each support. This entire foundation structure is not visible in our photographs; it is hidden underground. Above the ground, the structure is additionally “connected” by a wall bars and two metal poles vertically and three boards horizontally (from above). In general, the design turned out to be reliably “connected”, but when used by an adult it gives a slight wobble: apparently, the second time we will prefer to do it on screw piles so that it fits like a glove. We estimate the “potential” of our complex at 10 years (then the timber may begin to be pushed out by the earth), while we believe that this is enough, but again, screw piles increase the cost of the structure slightly - so, as they say, there is no limit to perfection. The main thing is to try.

Selection of shells

In their book “We, Our Children and Our Grandchildren,” the Nikitins talk about three crossbars (they called them “horizontal bars”), which became the first apparatus installed in the courtyard of their house, when their eldest child was one or two years old. The Nikitin horizontal bar system was simple and ingenious: the lower horizontal bar is according to the height of a 2-year-old child, the upper one is for an adult (the child will not practice unless he is shown an example), the middle one is between them. Then a child of any age chooses a horizontal bar according to his strength, and if the structure is connected by a pole, then he climbs a higher and more complex one in order to be “like dad.” We immediately decided that we definitely needed this. The height of the lower horizontal bar was measured for Fun, but it was made not for hanging, but for somersaults (for hanging and “standing up” it would be just right for a child of one and a half years old).


We made the height of the upper horizontal bar maximum for the complex (here one of our adult friends is showing the children a master class on it).

We modified the middle horizontal bar to suit the carpet exhaust system of my childhood: we added another high crossbar at a height of 2.4 meters above the crossbar at a height of 1.30 meters, so that there was an additional hook on top - as a transition to the monkey bars and as a support for mastering the “perch” , into which the crossbar at medium height has turned. Looking ahead, I will say that this projectile immediately became one of the most used for Fun and guests. Built into a large number of transitions (wall bars, monkey bars, poles, ropes, trapeze, rings and climbing handholds), it has become an invariable component of many routes.


Fun later insisted that Grandfather add another “middle” bar to the pole that had previously stood idle (this improvement can be seen on the right in the picture with the three children). It was difficult for her to climb onto the pole, but the crossbar made the pole accessible and loved. I felt a little sorry for “spoiling” the pole, but I reassured myself that I knew the address of the metal rolling base and it was still possible to “repeat”.


According to the diameter of the crossbars (horizontal bars) and poles: we made them different. For crossbars (horizontal bars) we bought pipes with an internal diameter of 25 mm (external - about 28 mm), for poles - with an internal diameter of 28 mm (external - about 32 mm). It was determined by hand fitting: the horizontal bar should be grippy and it should definitely be thinner than what is on most playgrounds (those horizontal bars are thick even for adults). The pole, on the contrary, should be thicker (32 mm is enough) to make it easier to master and more convenient to grip on the ascent and descent. A couple of months after the installation of the complex, we were surprised: such a “simple” (in manufacturing and installation) set of shells as a set of horizontal bars turned out to be truly the most “favorite” for our daughter and all her guests (if love is considered the incredible amount of time that they were ready to spend hanging on it upside down and doing all the possible tricks they themselves invented). We also made sure that we definitely got it right with the diameter of the crossbars - this size turned out to be convenient for both adults and children. It’s surprising that there are so few horizontal bars of a convenient diameter in our yards and none at all in children’s play complexes (where they are much thicker).

These are two shells that we made with our own hands. Why? Again, as a child, I had a wall bars, made by my dad’s hands from the cuttings of shovels. And (for some reason) I have never had anything more convenient. Even in gyms, not to mention outdoor structures. And I did enough sports.
What was so good about her? The "correct" diameter of the bars (32 mm, maximum 34 mm) for a child's hand. Not 40 mm, as in most street structures. The “correct” (not greedy) distance between the crossbars (180-200 mm). In most street designs they are made much further apart. You can climb (up and down) on any, but you can also climb on thicker and farther ones. And for oval ones, which are now very fashionable (and which are used in Belgorod wall bars of excellent quality - we have them at home). But hanging in all sorts of positions... Climbing over one, two or three bars (what a challenge!). Use them for stretching or abdominal exercises. No. So, for my taste, purchased wall bars and monkey bars are inferior (in design, not only in price). Therefore, Zabava’s grandfather (my dad who already did this once) remembered the old days and in one day, together with his neighbor Volodya, assembled both structures. In the left picture below, the same Volodya shows Zabava the “horizons” on the monkey bars, while simultaneously testing its reliability on himself.


For the monkey bars, we took treated (painted) shovel cuttings, and for the wall bars - ordinary ones. Why? We decided to try how to survive the winter. The usual ones, of course, were coated with a protective varnish. And one more important thing: we build all our complexes (both home and country houses) for growth. That is, we didn’t even think that Zabava would master the monkey bars this year. But we are sure that she will easily master it in the next one. She has strong arms (due to the lower apparatus), and older children who come to visit show what and how.

Another everyone’s favorite equipment, without which not a single sports complex can do. You can mock the long-suffering rings in different ways - make them plastic, ribbed, excessively thick or thin, and also “soldered” with an intermediate crossbar into a rigid coupling. You can see all this in our yards. It seemed to me that making an apparatus of normal quality on any site could not be easier - this is an Olympic apparatus and for it there are years-tested standards for gyms for children and adults. But for some reason, it is rings that still receive miracles of ingenuity from manufacturers of all stripes. I was lucky again as a child (a sports dad). I had standard gymnastic rings hanging on belts at home. They hung high (you have to get from the crossbar, you won’t jump), as it should be. They were very popular, not only for hanging, but also for all possible climbing (climbing into them with your feet, standing up, climbing from them to the ceiling on a crossbar, tumbling, etc., etc.) Of course, for Fun I wanted the same. I looked at the manufacturers - no problem, you can buy it. I looked at Zabavi’s hand, I honestly looked like that. And I realized that we would have time with the gymnastics adults.


And I also realized that children love simple non-sports entertainment: hanging from rings (they should hang so that the child barely touches the ground), spinning as hard as possible, tucking their legs in or even throwing them up and... well, in general, to promoted. In my opinion, it’s amazing how useful this exercise is for a 4-year-old (and older). The child hangs for a long time, his arms become stronger, the vestibular system is trained. Why not? Why take away such joy? In short, I decided that this year is enough, next year we will hang two pairs of rings. Some are high (full-fledged), some are low (children's). Some are on the correct fastenings (belts + slings), others are on ropes (let them spin, like on a swing). On this we calmed down. This year, Fun doesn't pass by little children's rings. For the future, we made a crossbar in a good place, where there is room for the second pair of rings - the “adult” one.

Sailor ladders and expanding ladder (Skripalev ladder)

The sailor's ladder in the sports complex is an ingenious projectile. It costs three kopecks. Replaces a swing. Can be a projectile for lifting to a height (for example, into a “nest” or to another projectile suspended above). And it serves as a support (ha ha, it’s hard for an adult to see it as a “support”) for moving onto any projectile suspended within a meter radius.


Plus, the swing on the sailor’s ladder does have some kind of direction (more back and forth than sideways), so you can swing on it both in the middle of the complex and next to the pole (unlike a rope or disk swing, which work 360 degrees - suspension in the center is desirable). Actually, in the first summer we had two such ladders, and in 2018 we added a third (expanding) one - the Skripalev ladder. A sailor's ladder firmly suspended horizontally from both sides at a height can become a "dynamic monkey bars", and fixed vertically - a "dynamic wall bars". Having seen how deftly Zabava climbs the sailor’s ladders vertically, we decided not to attach any of ours. Fathers of smaller children who come to visit us simply “secure” it with their feet for a while to allow the child to climb comfortably. - a completely unique projectile, one of our daughter’s favorites, no matter how it was hung.

This (expanding) ladder is attached from below and from above. In our case, it is attached to the bottom crossbar of the wall bars with a small rope loop through a carabiner, although we tried at least five different suspensions for this ladder and they were all quite successful before choosing the current one. It is difficult to climb, because at the bottom the ladder is quite unstable and it shakes a lot, but stability increases upward. My daughter loves not only to climb up and down on it and use it for transitions, but also to hang and tumble on its individual rungs (photos are below).

A complex and interesting projectile (rubber strand with reinforcement inside, resistant to outdoors and stretching, springy). Unfortunately, it is very little widespread (you will be tired of searching for it on Google), so we are sending everything to the same Oleg Skripalev (the link to his website was above). It costs a little over a thousand. The vine is hung so that the child can barely reach it with his hands. Next are the jumping options: holding with a wide grip with your hands, armpits, sitting. We have two of these at home (thicker and thinner, for adults and children), but they work worse because they are suspended somehow separately from other equipment (there will be a reason to rethink this when we return from the dacha). At the dacha, we hung only one vine, but provided an accessible “approach” to it (from a sailor’s ladder). The child cannot sit on a vine from the ground on his own (if you hang it so low, then when it swings, he will sit with his butt on the ground), but jumping while sitting is the most interesting thing. The child tries to get on it: or asks an adult (we usually don’t fall for it, why - read below). Or climbs over from somewhere.


The entire design is dynamic and requires dexterity. It can spring up and “slam” the body if you get awkward (this is upsetting, but not dangerous). But the “bonus” for successful climbing is the monkey effect. In general, the 4-year-old managed to master this apparatus in 2-3 days with minimal insurance, learned to climb onto it without insurance, and learned to spend some time on it, jumping, swinging and inspiring other children. For guests, the apparatus turned out to be difficult: obviously, in order to get the hang of climbing on it, a little practice was required, and climbing in guest mode with the whole company diverted attention to the apparatus, where it was possible to “depict” something right away.

Another dynamic apparatus that can be used both as a horizontal bar (in the case of a hang) and as a swing (if you sit on top of it). This projectile costs literally three kopecks and can be used several times in combination (we are planning to add one more). The trapezoid allows you to “fly” from projectile to projectile and is therefore valuable for inclusion in complex climbing routes. There will be no repetition, if you hang the trapezoids at different heights, the trapezoids will then “work” differently. We hung the trapeze so that Zabava could not reach it from the ground, but could easily jump from the trapeze to the ground.


In our complex, the trapeze is accessible from a sailor’s ladder, horizontal bar and wall bars, as well as from one of the upper monkey bars, and a disc swing is also available from the trapeze. Older children try to swing harder on the trapeze to reach the rings with their feet. It must be said that the suspension of the shells depends on height and, of course, we made it for our child. Observing children of different heights (the way they use our equipment), we admire their imagination: if something that is difficult for Fun turns out to be too simple for them, then they find some other way to use the equipment and the task as a whole does not become easier for them.

The rope in the complex is used in two three main ways: as a swing (for this you need to tie a loop at the bottom of the rope), as a way up or down (to a monkey bars or a nest and, accordingly, a way to quickly “slide” down from them) or as an intermediate projectile for moving along horizontally (for example, from the rings to the sailor’s ladder). Initially, the rope is difficult for a child. Even a child can climb up a pole only when he has already “gained” some dexterity and hand strength, and the rope, unlike a pole, is also dynamic.


Whether the rope will be used and loved by a child depends on several parameters. Firstly, the material from which the rope is made. In most outdoor playgrounds, the ropes are synthetic - they are not very pleasant for the hands and are not very grippy (slip). Like sailor's ladders, ropes have their roots in ship's rigging, where they were made from hemp. In construction stores we were able to find hemp rope of large diameter - it is rigid, but does not slip and is quite grippy. In our complex we used two ropes made from large-diameter cotton rope, also purchased at a hardware store. The price to finished rope ratio is approximately 1:4 (the rope is obviously cheaper than the finished product). Ready-made rope for children's complexes exists in our diameter (about 30 mm), it can be thicker (32-34 mm) and, in our opinion, thicker would be better. But, knowing that our “homemade” ready-made rope is still poorly used, we decided to experiment. We tied one of the ropes at the end with a loop like a swing, the other with knots along the length for climbing. I myself am against knots, it seems to me that they are more likely to get in the way (after all, a special pleasure in using a rope is sliding down it), but the men of our family convinced me. Another important parameter: where exactly the rope is suspended. From my point of view, since the projectile is complex (requires mastering), its place should be indispensable. That is, it should be included in some route where its use provides many advantages, and not using it creates difficulties (forces you to take a detour). The logic is obvious: if there is something to replace the rope, then it will be replaced. This is what happened with one of the ropes. It hung on one side of the middle crossbar as a "way down" and as such was regularly used. But as soon as we made an alternative path on a nearby beam - climbing holds - the rope stopped being used. Going down the holds may not be easier, but it is more interesting. Older children began to use this rope as a support for jumping down. It was scary for a child about a meter tall to jump from a 1.30 meter crossbar, but when he picked up the rope, he did it easily. Finally, with regard to the rope as a swing, everything is even more obvious. Such a rope should hang away from the support posts, then its main advantage - the ability to swing all 360 degrees - will be used to the maximum.

At the top of our entire structure there is a nesting net, which we also received to order from Oleg Skripalev (to our sizes). The source of the idea was a small net stretched at our house (there it is the size of a hammock, here it is about 1.30 meters by 2.50 meters). The home nest has become our favorite: the children (Fun with Guests) carry toys into it, and Sasha watches movies in it. At the dacha, the idea was similar, but we implemented it, as they say, fundamentally “for growth.”


The fundamental purpose of this net, suspended at a height of about 2.5 meters, is obvious: it is the destination of high-altitude projectiles. You can get into the nest through the side of the wall bars (the path for adults) or into one of the two openings of the manholes from some high-altitude equipment: both sailor ladders, a short auxiliary monkey bars (made specifically to complicate possible paths), climbing holds on poles. Potentially, a gladiator net and an expanding rope ladder will be added, we are waiting for them. In general, so that there is a reason to climb up. The second purpose is also clear. The net is large (several children or an adult with a child can climb in), you can sit in it (grab a blanket and pillow) and read a book or play. At the height, observing the surroundings and the garden. This, of course, is not a “tree house” (we are going to have one), but nevertheless, it is quite a comfortable nest in which you can relax and retire. At the age of 4, we did not provoke Zabava to climb there, at that time her tier was middle and lower. She is careful and neat with us, and we appreciate that. Some children are put online by their parents, but we were in no hurry. But at the age of 5, she began to climb into the nest using all available methods (from all rope ladders, nets and wall bars), even those that no longer seem inaccessible to us (adults).

Climbing holds

The idea of ​​the “inappropriate” use of climbing holds came to the mind of my mother (Zabava’s grandmother) when she watched Zabava holding on to a pole while standing on the crossbar and trying to reach the rope: if only she had something extra to cling to... How What's this for? There are special things for this, resistant to moisture, winter, weather changes, made to be used anywhere, including outdoors. We were stunned and decided to implement the idea.


We bought about 20 hooks and placed them on the posts: here and there. Somewhere to help, somewhere to complicate the route. We looked at where our daughter was trying to push off the posts with her feet or hold on to them with her hands: on the way to the rope, nest or pole. Around a pillar near the wall bars, which she tried to “peel off” in order to find herself in another plane. At the rings, in order to hold on to them, move your feet along the post, lift your legs onto the crossbar, as an alternative “path” to the middle crossbar. In general, we experimented. So far, the simpler shells have “won,” but here and there, now one child, then another, will grab onto these hooks. In general, having studied the market for holds, we realized that for a price close to our complex (about 20 thousand in today’s times) you can make an excellent country climbing wall with your own hands, using an empty wall of the house (naturally, a street one). The topic is cool, and manufacturers of holds provide advice on creating your own climbing walls, and not just sell ready-made ones (the price of a ready-made and your own climbing wall will be comparable, but it’s more fun to make your own). We decided that this is our perspective for a couple of years in the future, when Zabava will develop his body and master his sports complex to perfection.

Does a sports complex even need swings (as such)? The question is controversial, because any child over two years old will be inclined to use anything that can swing as a swing. The favorite “swings” of our sports complex are sailor ladders, vines, a rope with a tied loop and even rings. Anything, anything that is dynamically suspended. Children love to swing: we have hammocks hung all over the garden; a magnificent swing-plate with a diameter of about a meter, which we bought at IKEA a long time ago, never sits idle on the veranda (it entertains our daughter when the adults sit too long at lunch or tea , she wants to be close, but she doesn’t want to sit still) and, of course, there is something to swing on on each floor of our house (in case of bad weather). Key point: all this (for swinging) hangs separately: at home or in the garden. Why sculpt a swing into a complex if they can be used perfectly separately (by themselves), but it is difficult to integrate them into climbing routes? We decided to leave only two swings in the complex, mercilessly throwing away the excess. We left a regular wooden swing for the “little ones” and a disc swing. For what?


The purpose of the “baby” swing is obvious: it is mostly needed for babies (and ours hangs very low, so that a child of Funny height (93-94 cm) can climb on it and swing, pushing off the ground with his feet). The argument is clear: many of our guests come with several children, and while those who are already able to climb are climbing on the top of the complex, the kids need to be occupied with something nearby and below. Separate, so to speak, different children into different zones. With a disc swing the situation is different.


The disc swing is an extremely simple and cheap projectile to manufacture. It's just a disc on a string. The disc is not very large (although my adult butt fits on it quite well and I was even surprised that it was quite comfortable). On a rope that is not very thick (it should not replace a rope). Swinging on such a swing turned out to be like nothing else. Firstly, the disc is not stable - you can fall off it, although the height is such that there will be no harm from falling, that is, you need to balance and hold it with your buttocks (in general, not only the vestibular area develops, but the legs and butt). Secondly, like a rope with a loop, this thing has a swing range of 360 degrees - complete freedom to fly. And thirdly, the projectile is so minimalistic and hangs so low that it does not intersect almost anything in its path: having crashed into a hanging rope, you simply deflect it, do not hit, and the disk remains below the point of collision. Hanging a disc swing in a house or on a tree is more difficult: it is necessary that the trajectory does not intersect with either walls or the trunk. It is clear that the place for such a swing is somewhere in the center of the complex. Can it fit into climbing routes? It's difficult, but most likely yes. It’s not that it’s comfortable to climb onto, but the kids are constantly trying – it’s a challenge.

Difficult climbing routes

We have already written so much here about difficult routes that I think everything has become clear. Let's just summarize. The complex will live every day and not get boring if it provides high variability of climbing. Not only equipment for arms and legs, but also “food for the brain.” When the child comes up with a plan (“Mom, come watch me climb from the ladder onto the trapeze, spin there, and then, like a monkey, climb onto the horizontal bar” - this is a level of planning that is already accessible to a 3-year-old). Such small victories, small connections and elements of routes add up over time into an integral system; if you provide 3-4 possible transitions from each projectile, then such a system remains “open” - infinitely variable, not closed. Then you don’t get tired of climbing, even if the child is alone at the complex. As the child grows (and the complex, with modifications of the apparatus, the height and distance of their suspension, can remain relevant until adolescence), the routes, of course, will change, providing the necessary challenge. Oleg Skripalev talked about the great “Magellan Journey” of his childhood: when he had to go around all the projectiles of the complex in a circle, without ever descending to the ground. All these tasks that the child sets for himself become more and more complex. This is the development of the level of aspirations and the development of dexterity and strength. In general, in order to create such a system, you need to think about it, and when the child uses it, he will develop not only muscles, but also thinking, as well as planning and setting adequate tasks. Needless to say, the attempt to simply hang the apparatus in a row is a systemic mistake in this regard: it simplifies the whole idea, reducing it to the level of simple repetitions and motor skills. What attracts us most about the performances of gymnasts and circus performers? Of course, the flow of movements, their connection into a single number, the flow of some elements into others. It's like a dance! I always admire the work of the one who invented this “dance”. Where do such inventors appear? This ability to make a single integral “flow” from elements of movements is not given from birth, it also needs to be developed. Of course, in an environment that allows for variability.

Security at the complex

1. When to start? Many parents are afraid of falls and keep young children away from projectiles. In the picture below, a 2-year-old girl is hanging on our rings; no one hung her there. She came up herself, took out the rings herself (standing on her toes from the ground), hung herself, raised her legs to the rings herself, hung and lowered her legs down herself, safely descending from the apparatus. She repeated this cycle dozens of times. This girl’s mother allowed her to climb as early as she wanted, and since she is growing up with a 4-year-old brother, she had someone to “trace” behind. If you ask me: who has a higher chance of injury (not only on equipment, but also in life), this girl or those whose mothers do not allow them to climb on their own, then the answer is obvious: this girl is remarkably dexterous, knows her strengths, knows how to do it correctly fall.


Pseudo-logical judgments of mothers of 2-year-olds: “Oh, there’s a swing here, it’s just for us, the rest is too early for us!”, “Why does this swing hang so low? Is the child clinging with his feet?”, “My daughter is too heavy.” for this lasagna (about a massive child)." There are hidden contradictions in these judgments. First, if it is too early, how will she know that the time has come if the baby does not develop gradually? It’s easier to start at 2 years old than at 6 (it’s easy to fall lower). Secondly, if a child is always only pushed on a swing, then how can he learn to swing on his own? Of course, a child can and should be pushed higher on a swing. For this purpose, we have hammocks in which it is convenient to both swing on your own and swing from outside. But the skill of swinging, pushing off the ground, is difficult to obtain on a yard playground, because the swing must be adjusted to the height of a particular child. Children just have to learn to swing by moving the center of gravity (which is great in summer conditions, but difficult to do in bulky winter clothes). Thirdly, if a child is loose and (or) heavy, then he just needs to climb (and move more), otherwise how will he become more balanced and stronger? It will be difficult to make him move at 3-4 years old, but at 1.5-2 years old, when he is interested in everything, he is a little upset by falls (from the height of his height, of course) and his natural curiosity has not yet been repulsed; he perceives his (possibly excessive ) weight as a given and tries to cope with it. If you give him this opportunity, then by the age of 3-4 years there will be no excess weight and looseness left, or, if the constitution is such, it will be balanced by the gained strength of the arms and legs. Manufacturers of Early Start complexes suggest starting at 7 months. We bought an “early start” at 8 months and realized that they were right (it could have been earlier), despite the fact that we did not rush our daughter to walk early, there were just some equipment (for example, a slide) that she really loved crawl, and my arms were well trained on the first horizontal bars. The question is that by the age of 2 she had outgrown this complex. In less than 2 years (approximately 1 year 8 months) we made a full-height (ceiling-length) complex in our apartment. Of course, it began to be fully used by the age of three (Zabava had no accelerating provocations), but by this time she had already mastered the lower tier well: her hands were strong and her brains were careful. So, we believe that we need to start early.

2. Less provocation from adults and more good examples of your own.
The second fundamental question: does the child need help at the complex? The answer to this is very subtle. You can help a little, but you just need to try not to provoke the child to do something for which he is not yet mentally and physically ready, and you shouldn’t relieve him of responsibility for his safety. A good example: children were shown how to hang from a bar upside down, holding on with their hands.


The result was the complete mastery of this technique by Zabava and her guests, repeatedly shown above in the section on horizontal bars. A bad example: with the same hanging, they provoked the child to let go of his hands ahead of time (until he himself realized that this was possible and did not understand how to fix his legs). The result was a fall when trying to let go of them on their own (well, if the child is trained, then he manages to twist out of this fall and land on his haunches, and not on his back or head). To avoid such “unpreparedness” and “provoked falls,” I generally avoid helping the child physically. As a last resort (in the case of a direct insistent request from a child who himself came up with this element in advance), I stand and belay nearby (without touching the child) or substitute my shoulder or arm as additional support, without taking on the child’s center of gravity (weight). The best way to show off a new technique is to actually do it yourself - as in the example with the three Nikitin horizontal bars (or have older children do the technique). Children pick up techniques from each other very quickly, but when they do it themselves (without provocation), they usually feel their limitations and capabilities. More precisely, initially children are able to sense them, if this sense is not disrupted.

How can you knock down this natural sense of your strengths and capabilities? Elementary. We all constantly see mothers on the playgrounds lifting their one-year-old son up a two-meter slide in their arms, and then catching him at the bottom with hooting. This is accepted everywhere. When a child is lifted, rolled and caught like a thing, he gets used to the fact that he will always be caught, the instinct of self-preservation breaks down. If a child a year learns to slowly climb the steps of this same slide on his own (two steps up - one down, often he just climbs up and down endlessly), then at every moment he feels what is available to him. Thus, the fun of riding from high slides came at the age of 2, and I never pushed her up, I waited until the ascent and descent from the stairs became accessible to her and when she wanted to slide down herself. Several times I caught myself with envy when I saw that Zabavina, who was the same age, was boldly climbing somewhere up. And she immediately realized her mistake when the same girl the same age fell from a height on the descent and, for example, twisted her leg. Then I was glad that my daughter was not “without brakes,” although her brakes were internal: we not only did not provoke her to climb to heights, but also did not “cut us off” when she finally decided to do so.


Thus, we did not relieve our daughter of responsibility for safety. Now she is more careful than most children; for example, in our complex she does not climb into the nest or on the monkey bars. We don’t provoke: when the time comes, she will climb on her own, let her first train on the bottom.

This principle would seem obvious. The swing should not crash into anything hard. If possible, several swinging projectiles should be allowed to be used at the same time. Apparently those who designed linear complexes thought about this (children will not crash), but they underestimated the needs of the child and the capabilities of the complexes. There is no need to try to ensure that the trajectories of the projectiles never intersect; you need to think about where 3-4 children can climb or swing at the same time without crashing into each other, while other projectiles (requiring space) wait their turn.


Many things, for example, whether the trajectory of a swinging vine will intersect with a sailor's ladder suspended diagonally, are visible better in place than in the sketch. Our design was three-stage: sketch, implementation (checking), adjustment. Several shells were moved by us as we used them.

All this concerns, of course, more shoes than clothes; children's country clothes are usually quite comfortable. Above there are photos of Zabava swinging on a disc swing in rubber boots. This is definitely an exception. It was a rainy day and Fun just swayed as it passed by. On a home complex, the principle of “climbing barefoot” is obvious. In 99% of cases, we adhere to this principle at the dacha. If children come in sandals with thick straps, this is still acceptable, but, of course, no rubber slippers like Crocs or flip-flops. By the way, there is almost never a need to talk about this: as a rule, children themselves take off their slippers and run to climb. It is more difficult for them if the weather outside is cold and rainy and they are still wearing socks and tights under their boots. In this case, of course, sneakers or boots are better than rubber boots (we cut the grass lower under the complex). The child should feel his feet well and the shoes should not slip on the apparatus. Well, on a normal warm summer day, comfortable clothing at the country sports complex is minimal. As our Zabava says: “Today the circus performer forgot to put on her costume, but that’s okay, the performance will still take place!”

6. If whims begin, it is better to change your occupation. All parents know that sometimes children play, and sometimes they flirt. This is especially noticeable when several children are playing at the same time. Any parent feels that the happy screams have given way to hysterical ones: just a little more and they will start to hurt themselves and each other. At this moment, children need to be distracted from the complex and switched to another activity, this is obvious to us.

7. Learning to fall. The Nikitins wrote about this so well that I don’t even want to repeat it. When is a child best adapted to falling (from their own height)? Oddly enough, at the age of about a year, when he learns to walk. His body is set up for the fact that he will have to fall many times every day and endures falls without injury, his psyche is also set up for this, he hardly gets upset, he just gets up and moves on. Similarly with low implements, such as low horizontal bars or low-hanging rings: when a child is 1.5-2 years old and he does only what he can do, he will fall, but will not be injured (I do not consider cases when the child “flies away” "from the slide that his mother put him on 80% of the time). The child will gradually discover heights on his own and gradually train in the correct falls. If my daughter falls off the horizontal bar at 4 years old (from an average age, she doesn’t climb high ones), then she bends in the air and lands like a cat. This may be followed by tears, but these are tears of annoyance, not pain: she doesn’t like it when something doesn’t work out for her (of course, 3-4 year olds are already very suspicious in this regard). Similar to heights, speeds increase very slowly and gradually. When a child learns to fall, he only walks, when he jumps, rushes and runs, his falls, as a rule, are already physiological. Moreover, jumping from heights, which older children love so much. We cannot isolate, protect or prohibit (some parents can - we cannot, I would be scared, then he will not be prepared for the amplitudes of adult movements and falls from adult height). But we can allow you to train from scratch. Is it obvious? Unfortunately no. Otherwise, we would not see children on playgrounds who are led by the hood (so as not to fall) or constantly pulled by the hand (it is not the child who holds his mother’s hand or finger, but the mother who holds him tightly with her girth so that he does not stumble or slip). The Nikitins (“We, our children and grandchildren”) also have a lot about this, but all of this was clear to us even without the Nikitins. Do you need a soft mat in a sports complex? Controversial question, but the answer is similar: “As a rule, no.” The ideal surface for country sports complexes and their “working radius” is grass or sand. Naturally, this is not stone, crushed stone or concrete. A coating that you won’t get caught on and won’t scratch. The covering of urban playgrounds does not seem ideal to us for a summer residence: in the city it performs other functions; there it is necessary to maintain an oasis of cleanliness during the dirty and slushy season. The summer season, as a rule, ends long before the autumn dirt and winter slush. We chose grass.

Kindergarten in our dacha

Of course, the complex attracted neighbors and friends to our dacha. “Kindergarten” in our case is a figurative concept, because schoolchildren also climb with great pleasure at the sports complex, thus expanding the social environment of our Fun.


As for me, it seems to me that dacha children rushing around the territory and from site to site: here is a sandbox, there is a “climbing room” (that’s what they themselves call the sports complex), here is a house, there is a pond or a trampoline - this is childhood . So come, friends, before the warm summer days are over, we’ll show you, tell you, just relax together and let the kids climb! Fun and I will be delighted!

Sports complex at the dacha: second season (continued, summer 2018)

A year has passed. The shells, packed in a container for the winter, were again taken out and hung on the sports complex. We also bought a trapeze, rings, an expanding ladder and a gladiator net. Optimized suspension. We added a parent hammock to the side (not inside the structure) to spend time nearby while the children climbed.


As a result, we have a design for at least 24 projectiles (if we count the climbing holds scattered across the supports as one projectile, and each crossbeam or pole separately). So now we have: five crossbars, two poles, two monkey bars, one gladiator net, one wall bars, two monkey bars, two ropes, two trapezes, two rings, two swings, one expanding ladder, one large nest net, at least 20 climbing holds and on the side hammock. Our daughter turned five and a son was born. The games have also become more complex. Today, my daughter has mastered all the apparatus and the full height of the complex, with the exception of the monkey bars (she hangs on them, but is still afraid to go through the monkey bars, although she has already begun to pass the monkey bars on playgrounds - she has enough arm strength, but ours hangs higher and she is cautious).

We now have two favorite “long-playing” games:
1. Voyage of Magellan. Alone and in company. This is a “round-the-world trip” during which you need to go through all the shells without ever descending to the ground. The difficulty lies in the fact that the complex is, in principle, better passable for a child whose height is suitable for the projectiles, while it is difficult for taller children to pass the rings, for example, which are suspended lower and “provoke” them to touch the ground. That is, Zabava easily copes with this task (but only after she was able to rise to the maximum height of other projectiles), and older children actually get pierced in the same way, although some other projectiles are easier for them to pass. The solution is to either hang the projectiles at a compromise height, or to end with a low-pass projectile. You can complicate the problem endlessly, for example, by introducing conditions that a projectile cannot be reused more than twice, or no more than 5 projectiles can be reused, or nothing can be reused. Or that you need to leave each shell not the same way you came. Perhaps in some of these types the problem will turn out to be unsolvable, but children will find their own loopholes or optimize its rules.
2. Circus. You can play alone with spectators. Tickets are being sold, seats and desserts are being prepared. We sit and watch our daughter climb, who must hold out for a certain time without falling to the ground or stopping. For some reason she likes the hour time. Surprisingly, for her this hour passes quite unnoticed, and we have time to calmly drink tea nearby if we have stocked it in advance. The daughter has her favorite paths and has new numbers (calls), which she is not too lazy to shout about in advance in order to attract our attention. If I need to “add some courage,” then I turn on the commentator mode (as in Magellan’s Voyage). Instead of a “commentator,” you can turn on music for movement improvisation; this goes well with us after dance classes. Overall, there is a feeling that the daughter has made a dramatic leap in her agility and climbing ability and that there is still a lot of room for improvement. And, so that she has room to grow endlessly, from time to time we go to a real circus and show her real gymnasts and acrobats.

Links

1. Skripalev V.S. Our family stadium
2. Pavlova E.N. Do-it-yourself home sports complex or to order
3. Skripalev sports complexes. Sports complexes based on individual projects. Do-it-yourself and to order

Individual consultations

The best place to relax from the hustle and bustle of the city is your own dacha or country plot, where the whole family can find something to their liking. Adults most often prefer activities that the younger generation will either not yet be able to do or are uninteresting. This leads to the fact that children are unoccupied, mischievous and only interfere with serious work. To solve this problem, all you need is an idea, a tool and some work with your hands. It is necessary to build some kind of children's corner on the site where the child will be really interested. It’s not difficult to equip a children’s playground from scrap materials, and it will be much cheaper than buying a ready-made one.

Project stage

At the very beginning, it is important to think through all the details that must be taken into account during the implementation of your project. At the design stage, it is very important to take into account the main points on which the usefulness of this building and, of course, the safety of children depend.

• The playground should be located in an open space where children will be completely accessible to the eyes of adults - this allows you to keep the younger generation under control.
• All parts and objects of the site must be completely safe, without sharp corners, ends, or jagged edges.
• It is better to build buildings at an average distance from the work area, outbuildings and vegetable garden, that is, so that during work you can monitor the child’s activities and location.
• It is better to choose the soil at the location of the playing area that is completely or partially unsuitable for growing any crops; this is necessary in order to save fertile land as much as possible.
• You can also place the playground near a fence, only in this case you will have to take care of the complete safety of small children.
• There must be a canopy over the children's corner that will prevent the child from getting heatstroke or getting wet from sudden rain.

Thus, the design stage and preliminary creation of a layout is an integral part of building a playground with your own hands from scrap materials. Of course, we should not forget about the main functionality of the children's corner - the entertainment and development of children, which is a more important aspect of its construction. Therefore, you need to approach the work with ready-made ideas and enthusiasm, planning to install not only banal swings and a sandbox on the playground, but also add something else of your own to them. Only then does the work become interesting and can please not only the children.

At the design and main – implementation – stages, the younger generation can also be involved in joint activities, but, of course, according to their physical abilities. Working together will help strengthen family understanding and develop children's creativity.

Site preparation and selection of materials

At the end of the design stage, you should definitely know the location and content of the children's corner. The site has been selected, all that remains is to process it and prepare it for new buildings. The preparation work takes place in several stages.

• It is necessary to clear and level the ground to the required area.
• You need to decide on a coating that will serve as the basis for the entire site. Most often, a mixture of crushed stone and sand is used, as it is the most budget option. You can also cover the ground with artificial grass or special rubber.
• Then you need to take measurements and purchase all the necessary materials. The main thing is not to forget that all this is necessary for small children, so all materials must be as safe as possible and comply with all norms and standards.
• After this, you need to make sure that you have a standard set of tools for the job: nails, screws, self-tapping screws, a screwdriver, a screwdriver, a hammer, a hacksaw, a grinder, a painting tool and paint. If something is missing, you need to buy it in addition, as it will all be useful throughout the construction.
• At the very end of the preparatory stage, all inaccuracies in the plan should be corrected.

Now you can get to work.

Arranging a children's corner

When choosing play elements for your playground, it is worth analyzing what your child likes to do most and focus on this. Some children prefer to spend a lot of time swinging on swings, some like to spend their leisure time making sand figures in the sandbox, and some prefer slides. All this needs to be taken into account before you start building something with your own hands.

Manufacturing of individual elements

Sandbox

One of the most common children's entertainment, which helps the creative development of the younger generation and can captivate them for several hours. Sandboxes in their modern form have been greatly transformed and look quite aesthetically pleasing, so you have complete freedom of ideas in shapes, painting and various details. But such entertainment is not suitable for everyone and this is also worth taking into account. Therefore, it is better to coordinate the construction of a sandbox with the child.

Swing

The most favorite element of children's playgrounds is the swing, and not only children, but also many adults love to swing on them. There is no child who would not love a swing, so it is necessary to install them, but it’s up to you to choose the type, shape, size and color. Swings can be either hanging or regular. Using available means, it would be better to make a hanging swing, which will be attached to the top crossbar on ropes or chains. The second option is less safe for children, as the chains can pinch the skin and spoil the child's fun. When choosing ropes, you should remember that over time they can wear out and fray, so they need to be periodically checked and replaced.

Gorki

Almost all children also like this type of entertainment, and it also gives absolute freedom in creative terms. Slides can be made of different materials:

• metal is not the best material, as it rusts very quickly;
• Stainless steel is a better option, but it is one of the most expensive, so using stainless steel is unprofitable;
• wood is a material that requires careful processing and polishing, and in the future it will have to be covered with something slippery.
• plastic is the best option, as it is inexpensive, wears out for a long time and does not require special treatment.

The important part is the size of the slide, as it should be comfortable for your child and have enough capacity for 2-3 years in advance. Often slides are built in combination with some additional elements.

Children's house or hut

There are many options for this structure - from the simplest and fastest to build to complex structures made from small logs and poles. Of course, it is better to create a real house for your child, which will look like an ordinary house with a porch, doors and windows. If this is not possible, then you can create a small tent or wigwam, the main thing is not to forget about the safety of children. The structure must be stable and not collapse at the first strong wind. In such separate houses and huts, children like to set up so-called headquarters. If the child likes the building, then he will spend more time there.

Sports section

Such a corner will help your child's physical development and allow him to conduct his own sports activities.

Additional items

The most popular elements of the playground are outlined above, then you can rely on your imagination. On the site you can place an infinite number of different elements and parts from improvised means - tires, tires, pallets and other things. Here the choice is already up to you and your child.

Placing elements on the site

The area of ​​land required for construction depends on your wishes, age and number of children. Usually this is a square corner with an area of ​​8-10 square meters. In such a site, the arrangement of elements can be very diverse. Most often, a slide in combination with swings and other equipment is located in the center, a sports corner and some creative elements like a drawing board should be located in the corner near the fence. The rectangular area is a little more complicated; there the elements will most likely have to be installed in a row, one after another. You also need to remember about safety, especially if you have more than one child. Due to the circumstances of a large family, you cannot place a swing next to the sandbox.

Options for decorating the area

A children's corner can be decorated in completely different ways, everything also depends on you and your child, on your wishes, creative ideas and imagination. The area around the perimeter can be planted with flowers or you can create some thematic figures and place them in different places of the site, the bright color of the main buildings will also be a decoration, they can be covered with different bright colors or with a coating in the same style, there are no boundaries.

Design ideas

The design of a playground depends on creative ideas, the volume of plans, style, materials used and the time that the owner is willing to spend on this event. It is better to coordinate all steps with the children; they should highlight the details that they like and what can be improved, because the main thing is that they have fun and comfort. Since children are often bored at the dacha, the main idea of ​​​​creating such a children's corner is to provide children with a fun and interesting activity, which means that everything should be decorated in an interesting and colorful way.

Absolutely everything can be combined on the site, and ideally all the main elements of entertainment should be built. If there is not much space, then you can install only the most interesting and important things for the child, for example, a swing and a sandbox, a slide and a sports corner, and so on.