Kids can slide into learning?

In so many ways, yes, a slide helps your children slide into learning! When your children climb the ladder and grab ahold to steady themselves, before carefully sitting down at the top of their slide, then they let go to feel that thrill before setting their feet to catch themselves is a huge experience of sensory stimulation!

We all remember what it’s like.  You grasp the ladder, lift one foot at a time onto the rungs.  You pull up as you move your feet feeling your body move higher and higher off the ground.  When you reach the top, you orient yourself and sit down.  You look out over the slide surface and anticipate pushing off and letting go. That feeling of making yourself let go, the thrill that overtook your stomach and head as your feet hit the ground always too soon.  We went down the slides on our bottoms on our stomachs, feet first, headfirst, we even loved to walk up the slide.  And just the thrill of going down a slide helps us with learning?

Our bodies learned so much just from playing on slides. We coordinated our feet to walk up the ladder to the slide and use our gross-motor skills.  For many of us a slide ladder was the first time we had to do this.   We learned about our left and right sides, and we learned about directionality with up and down.

We used our fine motor skills as our hands grasped rungs of the ladder then the top of the slide.  Our fingers and hands became strengthened as we played.  A child needs to have a strong and steady grasp and it is important to develop.

We learned about spatial awareness. When is it my turn, do I go now?  If I go now, I might run into that person still at the bottom of the slide.  We learn to relate to other objects and people when we slide.  We need to orientate our bodies in that space and in our world.

Yes, to slide we must organize our bodies to sit or lie down on the slide, this requires the unification of visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular information! Proprioceptivity is knowing the position and movement of your body.  You can move your feet, legs, and body without looking to prepare it to slide.  Your Vestibular System gives your body a sense of balance when it’s in motion.  This teaches you how to feel and use your sense of balance and physical orientation. So, using a slide helps you learn to coordinate your movement with balance!

I know, I know, sure is a lot of bodily functions to hear about, just to show how wonderful slides are lol. But it is incredible how much our bodies can learn about itself just from sliding down a slide. And hey, can you think of anything more fun to teach your body to move than a slide?

Well, we can’t either!

Call us today at Backyard Fun Factory to make sure your kiddos are learning all the above with the simple thrilling ride of a slide in your own backyard.  We can’t wait to help you design and customize a playset especially for the needs of your family.

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