childMemories of Backyard Free Play
I have so many wonderful memories of playing in backyards as a child. The friends with a swing set in their backyards always had the most activity. Who didn’t love to swing as a kid? You would be invited into the backyard and see it. Oh, they have a swing set! Ooooo, the excitement you’d feel. You would ask, “Can we swing?”, “Sure.” And the footrace would begin. Little legs digging in to reach their fastest speed.
It was the closest feeling to flying we could get. Oh, the wind on our faces as we went up then back. Our feet being used to move us, always striving to go higher and higher. We would stand in the swing and lay face down in the swing, twist the chains of the swing and even straddle the swing. Do you remember jumping out of the swing? Taking a chance and pushing your body off the seat to a jump on the ground and sometimes to a fall. Such a feeling, to make yourself let go, risk it and jump. We tested it all. We even learned that we could make the whole metal swing set tip back and forth when we swung in-sync, when Mom wasn’t looking. Oh, and we loved being up high. Climbing trees or standing at the top of the slide to look down on the world was so thrilling!
Fun is Our Middle Name
I remember my best childhood friend had a sandbox. Great times building sandcastles with a moat and other times we made mud pies. She had gone somewhere on vacation and brought back a bunch of seashells. We would take them and bury them then dig them up, over and over again. Sometimes I found the most and other times I didn’t. We were awed by the different ones we found. We would use the various shells as our eyes and roar like monsters and laugh.
Oh, OH, and do you remember wanting a fort? We ALL wanted a fort! We had big dreams of building our own. The old Little Rascals show was always on reruns, and we wanted a meeting place like theirs! Finding discarded boards and large boxes to latch together so we could have our own little meeting place, but that never really worked out. Building is hard. We used to construct tunnels with refrigerator, and other large boxes, Mom would get us from behind the stores. But they never lasted long.
Free play can benefit your child’s development.
We learned so many valuable lessons with our outdoor (mostly unsupervised) Free Play. We learned how to respect other people’s things, such as their outdoor equipment like swing sets and sandboxes. Whoever’s backyard you were in made the rules, which was usually a given. We learned when swinging, how to take turns and to co-operate. You swing and I’ll push then I’ll swing, and you push. We learned about gravity and how it works from jumping off the swing in mid-air. We learned to move our bodies in so many ways. Isn’t it incredible we all learned to swing? We learned to grasp the chains on a swing and lean back and forth. We learned we could cause the swing to go higher by pushing our legs forward then back as we leaned with our bodies. It’s kind of complicated but we all learned how to do it.
Play is not just about having fun but about taking risks, experimenting, and testing boundaries!
As children, we learned how to take turns, how to pick who goes first (one potato two potato), we learned how to co-operate, and how to fix our own disagreements. We learned how to build sandcastles and dig tunnels. We learned about the life present in the backyard from ants to spiders, from grass stains to stickers. Play is not just about having fun but about taking risks, experimenting, and testing boundaries. We learned so many things.
When scheduling your children’s activities, remember that active child-centered play is a time-tested way of producing healthy, fit young bodies. And teaches them so much about life, body movement, social skills, science and living in this world.
Our playsets will turn your backyard into an amazing place for your children to experience unstructured free play. Kids can’t get out in the world and roam the streets like some of us did as kids. The world has become too dangerous.
Backyard Fun Factory can turn your backyard into a SAFE, whimsical area for your child/ren to experience Free Play at its finest. We would love to collaborate with you to find the perfect set for your home. Give us a call today!
Schedule Time With A Playset Designer
Fort Worth/White Settlement Showroom Frisco Showroom
7600 White Settlement Road 301 King Road Suite 1
Monday – Saturday Hours 9-4 Monday – Saturday Hours: 9-4
Phone: 940-479-2439 Phone: 940-479-2439
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