Blog

2 Sep
New Child’s Dream playgrounds in Nth Thailand.
Posted by Marcus Veerman

Tha Wah has been working flat out on his new job with Child's Dream, building a whole raft of new playgrounds in Northern Thailand. Huay Hang school is the latest to be finished and it looks just great.

This was a compact little number to fit into the space we had. Instead of the Zig-Zag design you will see in other playgrounds Child's Dream has built, this one has been curled inwards like a snug little caterpillar…. Again the community have been an enormous support and the quality of the playgrounds is just getting better and better.

Nice work Tha Wah and thanks to Child's Dream for continuing the playground building work in SE Asia. Scroll down this page to see their other work.

Get some rest!

New playground.

New Child’s Dream playgrounds in Nth Thailand.
2 Sep
New ‘Importance of play’ VIDEOS
Posted by Marcus Veerman

Polar bear bays with husky dog.

This could end up being nasty by instead the two begin to play.

 

In our constant attempt to inform and educate about the importance of play we have just added 2 new videos HERE. scroll to the bottom of the page to view them

Play is challenging to define and I believe that these two videos serve to highlight this fact but also to mount a very strong argument as to the educational, theraputic, and positive power that it has in a humans life.

New ‘Importance of play’ VIDEOS
2 Sep
New photos of Phillipines playground just in…
Posted by Marcus Veerman

Mark Booker has just recovered his precious photos of the playground he help the Pula community to build. Mark gathered funding, volunteers, and the community around this projects and stuck it out for a beautiful result. Nice work Mark! See HERE for his photostream.

 

Pula Playgrounds beautiful hand-made cubby house.

 
New photos of Phillipines playground just in…
2 Sep
World’s oldest slide?
Posted by Marcus Veerman

worlds oldest slide

Is this the world's oldest slide? take a look and you decide…

In respose to the article about the 'worlds oldest slide' on the incredible and inspiring 'Playscapes' blog, I believe a friend has found a slide that may be significantly older by far than any western slide. Thankyou to Elizabeth Moreno from Gulu, Uganda for sharing these incredible photos.

Nestled in the wild north-eastern corner of Uganda only a few hours from our most recent uganda build (pics here) is a small dusty town called Karamoja. I will let Elizabeth explain from here:

"Due to conflict and regional animosities, the area (Karamoja) has been largely cut off from the rest of the country for many years. This has resulted in a region with little government services and infrastructure, but an incredibly intact sense of culture and history. Interesting place. Anyway, one of the big landmarks in the town I was in, Kotido, is a place called 'Sliding Rock.' It is a formation of bolders that lie next to a small lake. On one of the rocks, a path has been worn down into a slide that leads down to the lake. You can actually get going pretty fast! Talk about low maintenance play equipment – that slide isn't going anywhere. At the top of the rock, there is also a mancala board that has been carved into the stone. Cool to see natural expressions of play in unexpected places."

It is hard to imagine how long it would have taken for feet to wear such a smooth groove in solid stone but I imagine it has been many, many years. I am not a geologist or a historian but I would humbly like to put Kotido forward as having the world's oldest slide (and perhaps, one of the worlds most interesting).

As it also has a mancala board as a second element, does this also put it in the running as the oldest playground too?

I was so excited when I saw this and began to wonder if others might have pictures or stories of other ancient playspaces as I am sure myself and other would find them facinating.

I think it also points again to the fact that play is not a recently constructed 'need' created by excess leisure time and commercial interests but an ancient and essential tool that all children have for healthy development, wellbeing and happiness.

Here is the original link to the 'Oldest slide' Blog http://playgrounddesigns.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/worlds-first-playground-slide-says.html

is this the worlds oldest slide
World’s oldest slide?