Updated: March 30, 2021
Originally Published: September 14, 2017
Recently, I took my adventurous 6-year-old daughter, Lily, to a new playground that resembled a beige fortress with splashes of blue and orange. Nestled on a soft, forgiving surface and enclosed by a sturdy fence, it featured two slides, a wobbling bridge, and a 5-foot climbing wall. At first glance, it seemed like an ordinary neighborhood play area.
Lily quickly scrambled up the structure, took a few exhilarating rides down the slides, and confidently maneuvered through the low monkey bars. After a couple of rounds, she landed gracefully on the ground, rubbed her hands together, and declared, “This place is boring, Mom.”
I couldn’t argue. Within 20 minutes, she had conquered every inch of that shiny playground. There was no challenge for her physically, and she didn’t need to figure out anything to engage with it — and this was the designated space for kids aged 5 to 12.
Research indicates that allowing kids to take calculated risks is crucial for their healthy growth and development. Yet many playgrounds are intentionally designed to eliminate risk, using softer materials, reducing heights, and limiting challenging activities. This, combined with parental anxiety over injuries, means our children often miss opportunities to push their physical and creative boundaries. Without the chance to master risky skills — like jumping from a slightly uncomfortable height — they might develop anxiety that extends beyond physical challenges.
Reflecting on my childhood, I remember roaming freely around my neighborhood and nearby woods with friends. We played hide-and-seek, gathered fallen branches, and dared one another to cross decaying logs. We trekked through mud, sampled unknown berries, and raced through the brush completely unsupervised. By dinner, we would arrive home out of breath, dirty, and perhaps a bit scratched up. Those experiences were ours alone.
While I may be romanticizing my past, encouraging independence, creativity, and exploration in children is undeniably beneficial. Is it possible to let our children experience more risk and autonomy during playtime? Communities across the U.S. certainly think so. Inspired by free-form playgrounds around the globe, many are creating environments that foster the types of engaging, play-based experiences children naturally seek.
These newer playscapes don’t harken back to the simpler, potentially hazardous metal playgrounds of the past. Instead, they strive to balance safety with risk, blending harmoniously with their surroundings, providing various loose parts, and focusing on coordination and collaboration skills. While the bright colors and rigid structures of traditional playgrounds won’t vanish entirely, a shift toward more thoughtful design, respect for nature, and support for children’s innate curiosity is on the horizon.
Here are seven fantastic — and free — playgrounds across the country that embrace natural child development, even if they make some parents feel a bit uneasy.
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Adventure Playground, Berkeley, California
This half-acre playground along the San Francisco Bay is brimming with movable parts. Kids use wood, hammers, nails, and paint to continuously enhance this creative space, learning to collaborate without parental interference. Staff members are available to assist when needed, and the area includes climbing structures, hiding spots, rolling barrels, and even a zip line. -
Imagination Playground, New York, New York
The flagship location of the Imagination Playground brand features a treasure trove of large loose blue foam blocks. Piled in various states of construction, these blocks encourage endless creativity. Plus, there are interpreters present to supervise and facilitate communication among children about their projects. -
Woodland Discovery Playground, Memphis, Tennessee
Located in Shelby Farms Park, this playground was designed with input from its primary users: children. It includes six distinct play “nests,” each dedicated to different types of play, as well as a giant tree house, flowering arbor, grassy areas, and a net climbing structure. -
Natural Playground, Westport, Connecticut
Spanning 10,000 square feet in a meadow, this natural playground is crafted entirely from materials sourced from the surrounding environment. It features an elf village with pinecone dolls, numerous sticks for fort-building, and several trails to explore. Many structures are made from local red cedar. -
Riverview Park, Mesa, Arizona
While this modern playground’s bright colors might clash with its desert surroundings, it compensates with an impressive 50-foot Genesis climbing tower that accommodates up to 250 children at once. If your kiddos are looking for a challenge, this is the place. It also boasts a large mesh-rope climbing structure for coordination-building and a splash pad for those hot days. -
Alexander W. Kemp Playground, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Constructed from natural wood and integrated into a series of hills and valleys, this playground features water and sand play, wooden branches, stumps, and blocks for building. Swings and slides are incorporated into the hills, along with seesaws and a wheelchair-accessible merry-go-round. -
Rural Studio Lions Park Playscape, Greensboro, Alabama
This maze-like playground consists of 2,000 recycled 55-gallon steel drums designed by Auburn University’s Rural Studio students. Kids can run, climb, leap, and hide among the drums, which also include sound tubes and sensory rooms throughout the maze, plus plenty of shade from the overhead drums.
In addition to these incredible playgrounds, there are unique spaces focused on specific experiences, such as the Musical Playground in Moab, Utah, where children can interact with enormous working instruments; Harry Thomas Sr. Playground in Washington, DC, featuring a math theme with Fibonacci sequence-inspired designs; and Brooklyn’s Playground in Pocatello, Idaho, which includes high-back swings and accessible ramps for children of all abilities.
Encouraging risk-taking, skill-building, and independent exploration are vital components of healthy child development. By giving kids the chance to run wild and test their abilities, we foster growth. All we need to do is learn to step back and allow it to happen.
Summary
This article explores seven incredible playgrounds across the U.S. that promote exploration and creativity while allowing children to experience healthy risks. These spaces encourage independent play and skill development, supporting the notion that kids thrive when given the freedom to explore their surroundings.
Keyphrase
playgrounds that encourage exploration
Tags
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