Studying children’s play often makes us nostalgic for our own childhoods, but there are times when we get a wee bit jealous of the stuff kids have today.

The most recent item on our list of “Things We Wish We Had When We Were Kids” is a local natural playground, also known as a PLAYSCAPE.

Growing up in the 70s, 80s, and (gasp!) early 90′s, our local playgrounds looked something like this:

Contrast that with a natural playground, and jealousy bubbles up. Our playground looks dull and boring! It’s manicured and tame, lacking biodiversity. It looks like the landscape was conquered and flattened before manufactured plastic was placed atop it. Now, check out a more recent playscape:

Natural playgrounds are built into the landscape, minimizing the use of metal and plastic materials and making  each one unique.

Climbing walls are built into hills with boulders.

Slides are also built into hills.

Furniture is made from natural materials.

Some even incorporate musical instruments!

One school in Vermont deals with rain drainage by having it flow down carved logs into a water table. When the water table gets full, the water trickles down a rock garden into a traditional garden—an ingenious way to devise a low-maintenance garden and fun water play.

Natural playgrounds are the latest in playground design and are popping up all over the country in suburbs as well as cities like Boston, Phoenix, Chicago, and New York.

Laboratory nursery schools, such as Eliot-Pearson Children’s School at Tufts University and Wimpfheimer Nursery School at Vassar College, have built natural playgrounds, recognizing that they offer new play opportunities.

Recently, Head Start Body Start National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play chose to include the Natural Playgrounds Company in its 2010 preferred provider list.

Natural playgrounds are emerging in response to complaints that children aren’t spending enough time interacting with the natural world (a factor involved in rising rates of childhood obesity) and don’t have enough opportunities for open-ended unstructured play.

Traditional playgrounds foster children’s physical development (mostly gross motor skills), but aren’t as successful at facilitating emotional, social, and cognitive development. Since children can only interact with the equipment in a limited number of ways, traditional playgrounds don’t do a good job of promoting creative play.

But natural playgrounds facilitate experimentation, observation, problem-solving, and manipulation as well as gross motor activity. There’s more for children to investigate and experiment with (especially when bugs are intentionally added!) because living things are in a constant state of growth and change.

Eliminating manufactured structures does not hinder physical development. One study found that children who play in natural playgrounds show a statistically significant increase in balance and agility compared to children who play in traditional playgrounds.

Natural playgrounds are also probably safer. Kids get hurt at traditional playgrounds when they are bored and are seeking new ways to interact with the equipment. Natural playgrounds provide a variety of engaging activities so kids exhibit less negative risk taking behaviors. Children are also less likely to have accidents since there aren’t any high structures or equipment with moving parts.

Spending time in nature is beneficial for whole child development as well as health, but it’s also crucial for instilling a love of nature and creating stewards of the Earth.

Now, get outside and go PLAY!

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