Do-it-yourself children's street complex. Do-it-yourself playgrounds: photos and practical tips. Basic safety requirements

As a child, a favorite place for any of us was a children's playground with a carousel, swings, a sandbox and other interesting devices. Moreover, spending time in this amazing, never boring place was not boring even in solitude. What can we say about a cheerful company of friends, when you can constantly come up with new interesting games and you don’t want to go home. If you have a summer cottage, it is imperative to equip a playground for children on its territory - here the kids will be busy with their own business, without distracting their parents who are busy in the garden. Playgrounds for summer cottages are a great joy for children, and outdoor games will benefit any child.

The site must be created, taking into account the age of the child. It is easy for a kid to equip a place to play - the playground can be made up of ready-made things - an inflatable children's pool, a folding tent house, a small table, a bench for drawing and a beach umbrella.

To create such a playground for a baby in half an hour - just buy an inflatable pool, an umbrella, a tent house, a table and a bench and place them in a suitable place

For an older child, you can add sports equipment - a horizontal bar, various ladders, a rope, a cozy house. You can arrange a small flower garden and allow the child to take care of their plants on their own.

Ready-made great playground for a teenager with a climbing wall, a slide, a swing and a rope ladder

Children's playgrounds for summer cottages should be located in a place that is comfortable for children, where there is both sun and shade. It is good to choose a place that is sheltered from the wind and is large enough to provide space for games.

The playground should not be located far from the house so that the children are always in front of their parents. It should not be equipped near various outbuildings where garden tools are stored - everyone knows children's curiosity.

Perhaps, when creating a playground, such a scheme will help you, where the locations of the playground and other suburban facilities are clearly shown.

The playing area should be located on a level area so that children do not get injured by catching roots sticking out of the ground or bumps. A small area that you allocate for the site must be cleared of debris, small stones, weeds. It is good if the site is covered with soft grass, on which you can run barefoot.

Playground plan - all objects are conveniently located, under the swings and a slide with ladders, you can arrange a sand embankment or make a rubber coating

On a small area, you can arrange something like a gravel garden with small pebbles. Children enjoy playing with gravel just as much as with sand.

The pretty playground is made in the style of a gravel garden, its appearance is enlivened by funny little animals made of tires in the background. The plot is created according to a scheme similar to the scheme for creating a gravel garden

If there is not enough space for a playground in the country, you can create a children's corner. For example, enclose a play area with stumps and fill it with sand or gravel inside. It is good to create such a platform near a reservoir - it looks picturesque, and children will be able to draw water for games

What can be placed on such a site?

The playground does not have to be with a standard set of fixtures; the summer resident has a lot of materials at hand that can be put into action - stumps, logs, tires, boards, from which you can create wonderful and funny things on the playground. Children differ from adults in that any standard item can be used in a non-standard way, so you can ask them for advice.

A necessary element for the baby is a sandbox

A sandbox is a place for creativity, which of us did not like baking sand cakes in childhood, creating secret passages and building castles? For you can use old boards, stumps, digging them along the contour, cut logs. Stumps and logs can be of different heights, in which case children will like to jump and walk on them, and the sandbox will look original and can be a decorative element on the site.

A comfortable large sandbox for a baby made of thick timber. There is also a basin for swimming, and there is enough space for games. Awning protects from the sun

You can well deepen paving slabs into the ground along the contour of the sandbox, choose multi-colored tiles of a beautiful shape.

In the sandbox, you can use both sand and fine gravel. In order to keep this place clean and protect this place from cat tricks, think of a lid to close the sandbox at night or for a while while you are not in the country.

Game vehicles

Such devices, of course, do not move anywhere, but the children's imagination is much more vivid, so the child will get real pleasure from "riding" in an impromptu car or flying in a rocket. The easiest option is to make a car from improvised materials. You can use the steering wheel from an old car, stumps, old boards, tires. It is enough to show imagination, use bright colors, and your baby will become the owner of a wonderful impromptu "car".

The "vehicle" for the child is built from massive stumps, boards, tires and an old steering wheel. Inside, you can also arrange a sandbox, make benches, if there is enough space.

Children's swing for giving

When installing the swing, you need to choose a spacious place for them, taking into account the amplitude of the swing, and install them securely by checking all the fasteners. It is better to buy a swing ready-made, today stores offer a variety of models from various materials.

This is a ready-made playground, where there is everything a child needs for physical development. You can independently make a durable horizontal bar and hang a swing on it with a seat made of a tire or a plastic board

A rope swing attached to a branch of a large tree will be inexpensive, if you have one on your site.

Children's house - a cozy place to play

Children love to keep secrets, create their own secrets. Therefore, a playhouse on the playground will be a great joy for them - there is no more suitable place to discuss secrets.

A skilled craftsman can himself create a children's house from boards and the remains of roofing material, but you can also buy a ready-made house made of plastic, wood or a tent for very young children.

Playground made of plastic, you can buy a house separately. It's inexpensive and the kids will have a lot of fun.

Toddlers will be happy if you arrange for them, but this is a difficult task. Firstly, it is necessary that a large, strong tree with spreading branches grows on the site, and secondly, the house must be built and arranged, thinking about the safety of children.

country pool

- a source of joy for children in the country. Today, there are no problems with its acquisition, a small inflatable pool where you can splash on a hot day, and a light, practical plastic pool are perfect.

Sports equipment

Children's sports equipment made of tires has been known since the times of the USSR, they were often used on the playgrounds of kindergartens. Tires are dug into the ground, it can be at the same level, it can be at different levels, and they are painted with bright paint.

If your children are already teenagers, they will be interested in a sports ground with a rope, horizontal bars and a Swedish wall. Today you can buy such a platform ready-made and install it in the country. You can also make a pole with a basketball hoop, find a place to play badminton, a volleyball court, make a table for playing ping-pong. On such a platform, parents can also warm up.

Today, many companies are engaged in the manufacture of playgrounds, you can buy ready-made or order several elements for a sports ground

If you want to get by with improvised means, you can create such an interesting playground of logs and stumps for teenagers. Children will be able to practice dexterity, play patches, invent many of their own games.

Table for drawing and crafts

It will be easy to build a table for various crafts from a stump and an old board or countertop, a ready-made plastic table is also suitable, but it costs quite inexpensively. Gluing, drawing, sculpting in the fresh air is a pleasure.

What kid would not like such a table in the form of a fly agaric and hemp chairs? And creating them is very easy, you just need to find suitable stumps

Decorative decorations for the playground

With the use of various funny figures, which are not difficult to make, the site will look much more attractive. Images of animals, cartoon characters can be cut out of plywood and painted. Good for decorating a children's corner and large pebbles, which with the help of images can be turned into animals, flowers or mushrooms, and luminous stones that make the site a mysterious fairy-tale corner in the evening. Ready-made garden decor in the form of gnomes, flowers also paints a children's corner.

The children's area can be fenced with such a funny positive fence, where each plank depicts a specific person

Video example of arranging a playground


A do-it-yourself playground in the country can be created by the joint efforts of parents together with their children, for sure your child will have a lot of interesting ideas in this regard.

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D For the normal development of children, they need to actively spend their free time - run, play, have fun. When creating playgrounds, the main attention is paid to their safety and functionality. To build do-it-yourself playgrounds on a suburban area or cottage, the photos of which you will find in this article, you will need some tools, carpentry, construction and locksmith skills.

Homemade playground

The design of playgrounds with their own hands, the photos of which are posted on the Internet, implies the presence of certain equipment. If you do not have something, do not be discouraged, here are a few ideas that will help you equip a playground.



If you donate (at least temporarily) the extreme entrance to the hill house, then in its place you can hang a basketball backboard with a ring. If you have several truck tires, then you can make an obstacle course out of them.


A sandbox can be made not only from boards, but also from wooden stumps or tires from a car. If you decide to make it from tires, then you will need at least 5 pieces. Enclose the space of the sandbox with tires, putting them in two pieces (one on top of the other). The main thing is to attach the tires to the ground. This can be done with metal pins (3 per tire) and then filled with sand. After that, tires can be painted in any color.

In addition to the slide-house on the playground, you can build an ordinary house, only small in size. If you're good at woodworking, make models of airplanes or ships for kids to climb on. It is not necessary to make them perfectly similar, because the children's imagination can turn any clumsy craft into a masterpiece.

Video: do-it-yourself ideas for children's complexes to give

Playground using ready-made kits

A do-it-yourself playground, the photo and ideas of which are found on the Internet, can also be made from purchased simulators. In stores you will find all kinds of plastic and metal slides, wooden houses and other essential attributes of a playground. To install them on the playground, you need to prepare the base for each simulator. Since the base requirements for different devices are different, please carefully read the manual that comes with the equipment. In most cases, such equipment looks more beautiful than homemade, but lacks the charm that is inherent in everything that a child helped build.

Self-made playground

All do-it-yourself playgrounds whose photos are posted on the Internet always include a slide. Such a simulator is the basis of any playground. It can be made from various materials such as:

Making a slide-house

A do-it-yourself playground in the country, a photo of which you can find on the Internet, always includes a slide or a slide-house. The base of the slide is a frame of 4 vertical posts. You can use only 2 racks, but then the possibility of creativity is reduced and the slide will be limited to one slope and one lift. On a frame of 4 racks, you can make a slide with one slope and several lifts. Make one lift in the form of a ladder, the other with normal steps, and the third with a rope.

This design seriously diversifies children's leisure. For a slide with a straight slope, it is undesirable to make the angle of the slope more than 30 degrees relative to the ground in order to avoid excessive acceleration and injuries.

Helpful advice! If possible, use a plastic ramp sold in stores. With it, children will have more fun than with a straight wooden ramp.

What to make a slide-house

For this you will need:

Foundation preparation

Find a place for the slide and prepare a hole for the frame foundation. We recommend making a square frame with a distance of 1 meter between the posts. The size of the side of the pit should be 1.5 meters, the depth should not be less than 20 cm. Seal the bottom of the pit and pour a layer of crushed stone (fraction 15–25 mm) 10 cm thick there. compact it. You can also get by with small holes for each bar. In this case, the depth of the pit should be at least 50 cm. Soak the lower edge of the timber with diesel fuel and molten bitumen, the treated part should rise 1.5–2 cm above the ground. Pour a crushed stone pillow on the bottom of the pit - fraction 15–25 mm, thickness 5–10 mm. Insert the posts into the pit, level and ensure they are properly oriented - their edges should be parallel to each other (this is not required with logs or round bars). Then pour concrete.

Helpful advice! The less water in the concrete, the stronger it will be. To make thick concrete more mobile, add plasticizers to it, which can be bought at a hardware store.

Bottom harness and slope

Tie the bars with a 50 mm thick board at the floor level of the house, and also install one longitudinal jumper. Fasten the boards to the bars with self-tapping screws at least 100 mm long. From a board with a thickness of 25 mm, make a tray for a ramp. To do this, cut 2 boards, the length of which is slightly greater than the length of the slope. Mark the angles of contact with the frame strapping and the ground, then cut the board with a circular saw or jigsaw. Attach the boards to the harness to make sure you did everything right. Then cut jumpers from the same board. The length of the jumpers is equal to the width of the slope. Lay the long boards on the ground and, using self-tapping screws, attach jumpers to them from the bottom side.

The distance between the jumpers is not more than 30 cm, and install the first and last jumpers 5 cm from the edge. Make such a cutout in the upper edge of the board so that the slope rests on the harness as if on a shelf, and the jumpers are flush with the harness. Attach the ramp to the harness using the corners of the bolts with nuts and self-tapping screws. Set the corners so that children do not get scratched. Fasten the corners to the slope with bolts and nuts so that there is nothing protruding or sharp from the side of the slope. Sew up the slope with plywood using self-tapping screws. They must be recessed by 0.5–1 mm, then puttied and sanded. Secure the bottom edge of the ramp with pins driven into the ground or anchor bolts.

Ladder

Cut two pieces of board 50 mm thick, the length of which will be slightly greater than the length. Mark and cut the corners of contact with the strapping and the ground. Cut 24.5 mm wide grooves in these boards for the installation of steps, then cut the steps to the required width and assemble the ladder. Fasten the steps to the side boards with self-tapping screws. Attach the ladder to the harness and the ground on the side opposite the ramp. Attach supports and railings to both sides of the stairs. They can be made from a board with a thickness of 25 mm. Supports and railings must be processed using a manual or electric planer to eliminate sharp edges, and then carefully sanded. The upper edge of the railing must be attached to the uprights.

Additional entrances, top trim and roof

On one of the sides, make a ladder from the same bar that went to the racks. Process the cut bars with an electric planer to slightly round the edges. Attach these bars to the posts at a distance of 20-30 cm from each other. Screw the first bar at a distance of 20-30 cm from the ground. Prepare an extreme ascent to the house. To do this, make the same tray as for the ramp, but set at an angle of no more than 20 degrees with respect to the uprights. Tie the posts at the level of the ceiling of the house with a board 50 mm thick. From the side of the extreme entrance, reinforce the strapping with steel corners. Cut and lay the plywood on the floor, then hem the plywood on the ceiling. Sheathe the house with plywood on the outside, making round or oval entrances. Determine the size of the entrances / exits yourself so that the child is comfortable. To make the roof, cut 4 rafters from a 25mm board. The angles of the rafters are determined based on the height of the roof. Attach the rafters to the corners of the frame and connect them together from above using metal corners. Cut the plywood into pieces of the required size and sew up the roof.

Cutting plywood with a jigsaw

Final works

When finished, be sure to sand all the places where the child can drive a splinter. Then treat the slope, steps and extreme rise with parquet varnish. Attach a rope 10-15 mm thick to the top harness on the extreme side and tie knots on it every 20 cm. Paint the house so that it looks beautiful.

Every parent knows by example how difficult it is sometimes to captivate children with something so that they do not interfere with household chores. For those who spend time in the country or live permanently in a private house, there is an ingenious solution - a do-it-yourself playground from improvised materials. It will captivate your child and contribute not only to physical, but also to intellectual development. It's easy to build. You can do this from improvised means, such as boards and logs, tires, fabrics, etc. Be smart, and your child will not be torn off from a new playing place.

Choosing a place and a plan for creating a children's corner for relaxation

There are few rules for choosing a place, but their implementation is mandatory for the safety of the child and your peace of mind:

Do-it-yourself playgrounds in the country from improvised materials

Before you start building a playground, you need to decide on the territory and draw up a project.

Playground size

The size of the playground depends on the age of the children and their number. For very small ones, a small space of 4–5 m 2 will be enough. They can install a sandbox, some of the simplest shells and a small pool. It would be nice to fence off such an area so that the children do not scatter, and you can safely go about your business. To do this, you can use improvised (wooden sticks) and purchased (chain-link mesh) means.

You can't close older children behind a fence. It will be redundant. They will be interested in something really worthwhile, a more serious projectile, a greater choice of entertainment and, of course, a lot of space. Ideally, 10–12 m 2 are needed in order to create a comfortable playground for such children.

Photo gallery: a variety of site fences

A fence with a gate will instill confidence in parents that the child will not run away from the playground Colored fence, the coloring of which can be entrusted to the children themselves Playground fencing option

Site plan from improvised means

Now draw a general plan of the future site. Think about what and where will be located. For this, it is not necessary to make an exact geometric drawing.

Photo gallery: layout options

The playground plan can be schematic with dimensions The plan of the playground, if desired, can be drawn You can entrust the planning of the playground to the child himself

Site preparation and site coverage

First of all, the place must be well cleared and leveled. Then you need to decide what kind of coverage you will work with. There are several options:


If you are limited in finances and do everything from improvised materials, then stop at the second option.

DIY playground: ideas

What shells to put on the playground - it's up to its owners. Some elements are indispensable.

Sandbox

This is the most common children's fun that is in every yard. There is no such kid who would not be fascinated by the creation of “little sand” and the construction of all kinds of caves. In the sandbox, your child will develop their imagination and learn to create new objects. Previously, they looked like a square box of unplaned materials. Today the situation has changed, adults are increasingly concerned about the convenience and safety of their children. The main innovation is, of course, the creation of a cover that hides sand from pets.

It is important to choose the right location for this zone. It should not be in the sun, but it should not be placed in a too dark area so that the sand is not wet and cold in it. It is ideal to install it under the crown of a large tree. But if this is not possible, then you have to come up with a canopy.

The most common sandbox material is wood. For boys, this can be a boat made or a do-it-yourself car to the playground.

A large tractor tire is also suitable for making a sandbox.

Photo gallery: a sandbox from an old tire, in the form of a car and other options

Children's houses

A very popular entertainment for children is the house. It can be a hut made of branches or a simple tent. The children will hide there. It could be their headquarters. Thanks to this, a children's corner in the country from improvised materials will become very cozy.

You can build a house on the frame. This is also easy.

  1. A frame is erected on a columnar foundation.
  2. The lower and upper trim is made, for the floor and ceiling, respectively.
  3. Then it is sheathed, for example, with boards.

You can show your imagination and make a porch, windows, hang curtains, put an old carpet inside, knock down a couple of chairs and a table. In general, a miniature version of a real house. The more you try, the more interesting it will be for your child to play there.

Photo gallery: "housing" for children

A fabric hut will protect children from the sun and rain Huts from natural materials can be built with children If desired, a hut made of branches can be disassembled and moved to another place A wooden children's house can be a copy of a country house Porch, windows and door - the desired elements of the children's house

Slide

Slides are no less popular with children. They are straight and spiral. But from what to make this pleasure? There are several options:

  • stainless steel - good, but expensive, and you should not leave expensive metal unattended;
  • ordinary steel - rusts too quickly;
  • a plastic tray is a great option, just try to find the right size;
  • wood - it needs to be sanded well or sheathed with something more slippery, for example, a piece of linoleum.

Few make a separate hill. Most often, it is built as part of a complex with ropes, ladders, horizontal bars, etc.

Swing

Swing is the most popular type of entertainment in the children's recreation area. It is not difficult to build them from improvised materials. To do this, you only need a chain or rope, as well as a seat (board, wheel).

If you decide to use a rope for a swing, then it must be periodically checked for strength, since exposure to sunlight and precipitation adversely affects it. The chains will be more reliable, but the links can move during swinging and pinch the skin of the hands. Feelings are very painful. That is why in places where you need to hold on, you can put some kind of hose on the chain. The rope can be attached to the crossbar with a carabiner, which can creak unpleasantly over time, or with a bearing, but it needs to be welded.

What to give a child for 4 years? Our grandparents decided not to waste time on trifles and build a sports complex in the country. Fortunately, our grandfather can do carpentry work with his own hands. I (Lena Pavlova) joined as a designer, drawing on the experience of the complex that Oleg Skripalev built two years ago at our house. Well, I had to work out the supply: we collected cuttings from shovels for the Swedish wall and hand-handling to the shops of the entire district. We found a metal-rolling base to buy galvanized steel for crossbars and poles. Neighbor Volodya helped weld the crossbars. Later, we waited for Oleg Skripalev himself to visit us in order to make a competent "rigging" of our carcass with shells and create "multiple climbing routes". So "with the world on a string" and we built our own design. Here's what we got:

Friends, this post caused so many responses that in 2019 we created a separate website dedicated to the Skripalev sports complexes https://kids-complex.ru/ where we posted a lot of materials about this sports complex, which we called the Chistov-Pavlov complex and others like it, as well as the history of complexes and sports corners, individual equipment and a more detailed overview of ready-made solutions on the market. Now this site has become official for Skripalev's sports complexes. There you can order a sports complex according to an individual project for your home or summer cottage, or buy individual equipment to build a complex similar to ours on your own.

Why didn't standard sports complexes suit us?

The very first question that arises is: why didn't we just buy a ready-made one? Below is a picture of a typical representative of finished structures. The only advantage (in my opinion) of such (not cheap) complexes is their declared safety. The fastenings are hidden, the corners are smoothed, the tops are inaccessible - it is not high to fall.


Cool, of course, the manufacturer will not have to sue the parents, but the child is unlikely to learn to climb here, there is nowhere to climb. Projectiles are inconvenient. Climbing wall with slope, minimum height and uninteresting (monotone), gladiatorial net - similar. The rings are not useful to any gymnast in any gym - they are small in diameter and plastic (and this is not the worst option observed in our yards). The rocker is also not inspiring - it is not stable for the little ones, not interesting for the big ones. There are no questions only to the sailor's ladder - in itself it is normal, but for some reason it does not lead anywhere. It is not clear whether it is possible to move diagonally from it to the house, but since it rests against the climbing wall, you will not swing on it. It seems that the option of "swinging on a sailor's ladder" for safety reasons is excluded by the manufacturer: it is fixed with a support below (this is often done with ropes). A small (about 5 steps) Swedish ladder leading to the house (at the back) is tilted and not enough for full climbing. Again, it is not the worst - usually the rungs of such ladders are so thick that it is inconvenient to grab a child's hand and they are made with such a large step that you can’t really climb on them - only up or down. The house could have been a climbing ground if it had been made of pipes rather than timber (of course, then it would not have been wooden and the complex would have dropped in price by a factor of four). And for a house where you can sit and hide, it is too "translucent". Everything is done for the control of the security service, and not for real children, not in the street, not seriously. This is interesting except for a three-year-old. Our daughter is already 4 years old. Where will it develop here?

Here is another typical representative who has an almost comfortable Swedish wall and a set of shells lined up in a row. This complex is far from bad in terms of its projectiles (the hammock was not tested, but the rest, except for the rings, looks quite usable). Line design problem fundamental: this is a set of shells, they are not in the system, they practically do not allow routes (in this case, with the exception of the trajectory: Swedish wall - crossbars on its reverse side - rings). This is one standard route. Even a rat doesn't get enough of running in circles with three stopping points, and a child has a more complex brain. The child needs to invent, experiment, embody.


What to do? Abandon the line and build a square or another structure that will allow transitions from projectile to projectile? Make shells "real"? Add heights?
If you are ready to give your child such a complication of his "climbing life", then welcome to our club - "With Your Own Hands". You will not find a satisfactory ready-made analogue. The aforementioned Oleg Skripalev will make you an excellent design for the house (ours, about 3 meters by 3 meters, cost us about 80 thousand in 2015 - we will write about it separately when the summer season ends, we love it and it helps us a lot on long winter evenings). For the house, the price tag suited us: the complex is practically eternal, in the sense that it will withstand the childhood of all our existing and potential children. But such a price tag for the street (where the shells and the frame collapses faster) "bites" (an analogue assembled with our own hands cost us about 20 thousand in 2017 with all the shells). That is, you still come to us again: "With your own hands."

The specifics of the street (dacha): what will the frame be made of?

There are no walls on the street (although of course you can "attach" to the house, but for the street this is a limitation, not a boon. At home, we "cling" to the walls by force. Here the wall is an extra shadow (we have so little sun) and the opportunity (unnecessary) to "smash" into the house when swinging. An empty frame is much more practical. Then what to make the frame from? wood or metal? Well, here, of course, "the taste and color of all felt-tip pens are different." The tree is warm and alive. Projectiles that cannot be imposed (for example, holds for a climbing wall) are easily attached to it. It is easier to assemble a Swedish wall or a hand walker from a tree with your own hands. Metal has an awesome advantage - it "works" like a crossbar by itself, so the frame is built into the projectile system, it will be possible to directly make transitions (climb) on it. The metal frame will not be expensive if you buy ordinary (not galvanized) pipes, sand and paint. We did not bother with the price (we do not have many metal fragments) and bought galvanized pipes, which also had to be sanded (but did not have to be painted). Compared to wood, metal is more convenient to use: it does not rot, is unpretentious and durable. But you need a person with a welding machine. In our case, this turned out to be a neighbor. If you don't have one, it will be more difficult. But there is always a third, in our opinion, the best option - combined. Some metal, some wood. Then it is potentially possible to do without welding at all (metal-to-wood and wood-to-wood fastenings will be sufficient). The design will be "alive", but will be enriched with unique shells that only metal fully gives - all kinds of climbing bars.

Separate question: how to strengthen the frame so that it does not stagger. For the corner elements, we took a beam 100 by 100 and dug it in by about 1 meter (with a complex height of about 2.5 meters). In order for the structure to “sit” more firmly, 70 cm transverse beams (cross-shaped towards the main verticals) and additional diagonal “slopes” were dug into the ground for each support. This whole foundation structure is not visible in our pictures, it is hidden underground. Above the ground, the structure is additionally "connected" with a bar of the Swedish wall and two metal poles vertically and three boards horizontally (from above). In general, the design turned out to be reliably "connected", but when used by an adult, it gives a slight stagger: apparently, the second time we prefer to do it on screw piles so that it sits like a glove. We estimate the "potential" of our complex at 10 years (then the ground can start pushing the timber), while we believe that this is enough, but again, screw piles increase the cost of the structure slightly - so, as they say, there is no limit to perfection. The main thing is to try.

Shell selection

In their book We, Our Children and Our Grandchildren, the Nikitins talk about three crossbars (they called them "horizontal bars"), which were the first projectiles installed in their yard when their eldest child was a year or two. The Nikitins' system of horizontal bars was simple and ingenious: the lower horizontal bar for the height of a child of 2 years old, the upper one for an adult (the child will not work out if he is not shown an example), the middle one is between them. Then a child of any age chooses a horizontal bar according to his strength, and if the structure is connected by a pole, then he climbs to a higher and more difficult one to be "like dad". We immediately decided that we definitely need this. The height of the lower horizontal bar was measured under Zabava, but they made it not for hanging, but for somersaults (for hanging and "standing up" it will be just for a child of a year and a half).


We made the upper horizontal bar the maximum height for the complex (here one of our adult friends shows the children a master class on it).

We modified the middle horizontal bar to fit the carpet exhaust system of my childhood: we added another high bar above the crossbar at a height of 1.30 meters, at a height of 2.4 meters, so that there was an additional hook from above - as a transition to the handlebar and as a support for mastering the "perch" into which the crossbar turned at an average height. Looking ahead, I will say that this projectile for Fun and guests immediately became one of the most used. Built into a large number of transitions (to the Swedish wall, hand walk, pole, rope, trapeze, rings and climbing hand holds), it has become an invariable component of many routes.


Zabava later insisted that Grandfather add another "middle" crossbar to the previously idle pole (in the picture with three children, this improvement can be seen on the right). It was difficult for her to climb onto the pole, but the crossbar made the pole accessible and loved. I was a little sorry to "spoil" the pole, but I reassured myself that I knew the address of the metal-rolling base and it was still possible to "repeat".


According to the diameter of the crossbars (horizontal bars) and poles: we made them different. For crossbars (horizontal bars) we bought pipes with an inner diameter of 25 mm (outer - about 28 mm), for poles - with an inner diameter of 28 mm (outer - about 32 mm). It was determined by the method of fitting on the arm: the horizontal bar should be grippy and it should be definitely thinner than what is on most playgrounds (those horizontal bars are thick even for adults). The pole, on the contrary, should be thicker (32 mm is enough) to make it easier to master and more convenient to grab on the ascent and descent. A couple of months after the installation of the complex, we were surprised: such a "simple" (in manufacture and installation) set of shells as a set of horizontal bars turned out to be the most "favorite" for our daughter and all her guests (if we consider the incredible amount of time that they were ready to spend hanging on it upside down and doing all the possible tricks invented by them). We also made sure that we definitely "hit" with the diameter of the crossbars - this size turned out to be convenient for both adults and children. It is surprising that there are so few horizontal bars of a convenient diameter in our yards and not at all in children's play complexes (where they are much thicker).

These are two shells that we made "with our own hands". Why? Again, in my childhood, I had a Swedish wall, made by the hands of my father from cuttings of shovels. And (for some reason) I have never had anything more convenient. Even in gyms, not to mention street structures. And I did enough sports.
What was so good about her? The "correct" crossbar diameter (32mm, max 34mm) for a child's handle. Not 40 mm, as in most street designs. "Correct" (not greedy) distance between the crossbeams (180-200 mm). In most street structures, they are made much further apart. Climbing (up - down) is possible on any, you can climb on thicker and far standing ones. And for oval ones, which are very fashionable now (and which are used in Belgorod wall bars of excellent quality - we have them at home). But hanging in all sorts of positions... Climbing over one, two or three bars (what a challenge!). Use them for stretching or abdominal exercises. No. So, for my taste, the purchased Swedish walls and hand-rails lost (by design, not only by price). Therefore, Zabava's grandfather (the same dad who had already done this once) remembered the old days and in one day, together with his neighbor Volodya, assembled both designs. In the left picture below, the same Volodya shows Zabava the "horizons" on the hand walker, at the same time checking its reliability on himself.


For the handicraft, we took processed (painted) shovels, for the Swedish wall - ordinary ones. Why? We decided to try how to winter. Ordinary, of course, covered with a protective varnish. And one more important thing: we build all our complexes (both home and country) for growth. That is, we did not even think that Zabava would master the hand-handling this year. But we are sure that she will easily master it in the next. She has strong arms (due to the lower shells), and older children who come to visit show what and how.

Another favorite shell of all, without which no sports complex can do. You can mock long-suffering rings in different ways - make them plastic, ribbed, excessively thick or thin, as well as "soldered" with an intermediate crossbar into a rigid hitch. All this you can see in our yards. It seemed to me that it was as easy as shelling pears to make a projectile of normal quality at any site - this is an Olympic apparatus and for it there have been proven standards for years for gyms for children and adults. But for some reason, it is the rings that still get the wonders of ingenuity from manufacturers of all stripes. I was lucky again as a child (sports dad). At my house, standard gymnastic rings hung on belts. They hung high (you have to get from the crossbar, you can’t jump), as it should be. They were very loved, not only for hanging, but also for all possible climbing (climb into them with your feet, get up, climb from them under the ceiling to the crossbar, tumble, etc., etc.) Of course, for Fun, I wanted the same. I looked at the manufacturers - there are no problems, you can buy. I looked at Zabavina's pen, honestly looked like that. And I realized that we would still have time with gymnastic adults.


And I also realized that children love simple non-sports entertainment: hang on the rings (they should hang so that the child barely touches the ground), spin as much as possible, tighten their legs or even throw them up and ... well, to spin. Exercise, in my opinion, stunned how useful at 4 years of age (and even older). The child hangs for a long time, his hands are getting stronger, the vestibular is training. Why not? Why take away such joy. In short, I decided that this year is enough, next year we will hang two pairs of rings. Some are high (full), some are low (children's). Some are on the correct mounts (belts + slings), others are on ropes (let them spin like on a swing). On this they calmed down. This year Fun does not pass by small children's rings. For the future, they made a crossbar in a good place, where there is a place for the second pair of rings - "adult".

Sailor ladders and expanding ladder (Skripalev ladder)

The sailor's ladder in the sports complex is an ingenious projectile. Worth three kopecks. Replaces swing. Can be a projectile for lifting to a height (for example, into a "nest" or to another projectile suspended above). And it serves as a support (haha, it’s hard for an adult to see a “support” in it) for moving to any projectile suspended within a radius of a meter.


Plus, swinging on a sailor's ladder has some kind of direction (rather forward-backward than sideways), so you can swing on it both in the middle of the complex and next to the pole (unlike a rope or a disk swing, which work 360 degrees - a suspension in the center is desirable). Actually, in the first summer, we had two such ladders, and in 2018 we added a third (expanding) one - Skripalev's ladder. Strongly suspended horizontally on both sides at a height, a sailor's ladder can become a "dynamic hand walk", and fixed vertically - a "dynamic Swedish wall". We, having looked at how deftly Zabava climbs the sailor's ladders vertically, decided not to fasten any of ours. Dads of younger children who come to visit us simply “fasten” it with their foot for a while to give the child a comfortable climb. - a completely unique projectile, one of the favorites of our jerker, no matter how it is suspended.

This (expanding) ladder is attached from below and above. In our case, on a small rope loop through a carabiner, it is attached to the bottom rung of the Swedish wall, although we tried at least five different suspensions of this ladder and all of them were quite successful before choosing the current one. It is difficult to climb it, because at the bottom the ladder is rather unstable and it talks a lot, but stability increases upward. The daughter loves not only to climb up and down on it and use it for transitions, but also to hang and somersault on its individual crossbars (photos are below).

A complex and interesting projectile (rubber cord with reinforcement inside, resistant to street and stretching, springy). Unfortunately, it is not very common (you are tormented to look for it in Google), so we refer everything to the same Oleg Skripalev (the link to his site was above). Worth a thousand or so. The vine is hung so that the child can barely reach it with his hands. Further jumping options: holding on with a wide grip with your hands, armpits, sitting. We have two of these at home (thicker and thinner, for adults and children), but they work worse because they are suspended somehow separately from other shells (there will be a reason to rethink this when we return from the dacha). At the dacha, we hung only one liana, but provided an accessible "approach" to it (from a sailor's ladder). The child himself cannot sit on the vine from the ground (if he hangs it so low, then when he swings, he will sit on the ground with his booty), and jumping while sitting is the most interesting thing. The child tries to get on it: or asks an adult (we usually don’t follow, why - read below). Or climb somewhere.


The whole construction is dynamic and requires dexterity. It can spring back and “slap” the body if you let it get awkward (this is upsetting, but not dangerous). But the "bonus" for successful climbing is the monkey effect. In general, the 4-year-old mastered this apparatus in 2-3 days with minimal insurance, learned to climb it without insurance and learned to spend some time on it, jumping, swinging and inspiring other children. For the guests, the apparatus turned out to be difficult: obviously, in order to get the hang of climbing it, one had to practice a little, and climbing in the guest mode with the whole company diverted attention to the shells, where something could be "depicted" right away.

Another dynamic projectile that can be used both as a horizontal bar (in case of hanging) and as a swing (if you sit on top of it). This projectile costs literally three kopecks and in the complex you can use it several times (we plan to add one more). The trapezoid allows you to "fly" from projectile to projectile and is therefore valuable for inclusion in difficult climbing routes. There will be no repetition if you hang the trapezoid at different heights, then the trapezoid will "work" in different ways. We hung the trapezoid so that Zabava could not get it from the ground, but could easily jump from the trapezoid to the ground.


In our complex, the trapezoid is accessible from the sailor's ladder, the horizontal bar and the Swedish wall, as well as from one of the upper handrails, and the disc swing is also available from the trapezoid. Older children try to swing harder in the trepeze in order to reach the rings with their feet. I must say that the suspension of the shells depends on the height and, of course, we made it for our child. Watching children of different heights (how they use our projectiles), we admire their imagination: if what is difficult for Fun turns out to be too simple for them, then they find some other way to use the projectile and the task as a whole is not simplified for them.

The rope in the complex is used in two main ways: as a swing (for this, you need to tie a loop from the bottom of the rope), as a way up or down (to the handle or nest and, accordingly, a way to quickly "slide" down from them) or as an intermediate projectile for moving horizontally (for example, from the rings to the sailor's ladder). Initially, the rope for the child is difficult. Even a child can climb up a pole only when some dexterity and hand strength have already “gained up”, and the rope, unlike the pole, is also dynamic.


Whether a rope will be used and loved by a child depends on several parameters. First, the material from which the rope is made. In most outdoor playgrounds, the ropes are synthetic - they are not very pleasant to the hands and not very grippy (slip). Like sailors' ladders, ropes have their roots in ship rigging, where they were made from hemp. In construction stores, we were able to find large diameter hemp rope - it is stiff, but does not slip and is quite grippy. In our complex, we used two ropes made from a large-diameter cotton rope, also purchased at a hardware store. The ratio of price to finished rope is approximately 1:4 (the rope is obviously cheaper than the finished product). A ready-made rope for children's complexes exists in our diameter (about 30 mm), it can be thicker (32-34 mm) and, in our opinion, a thicker one would be better. But, knowing that our "homemade" ready-made rope is still poorly used, we decided to experiment. We tied one of the ropes at the end with a loop like a swing, the other with knots along the length for climbing. I myself am against knots, it seems to me that they rather interfere (after all, a special pleasure in using the rope is sliding down it), but the men of our family convinced me. Another important parameter: where exactly the rope is suspended. From my point of view, since the projectile is complex (requires mastering), its place should be indispensable. That is, it should be included in some route, where its use gives many advantages, and not using it creates difficulties (makes you climb around). The logic is obvious: if there is something to replace the rope, then it will be replaced. We did just that with one of the ropes. It hung on one side of the middle bar as a "way down" and, as such, was regularly used. But, as soon as we made an alternative path on the beam standing next to it - climbing holds - the rope ceased to be used. Going down the hooks is not easier, but more interesting. Older children began to use this rope as a support for jumping down. It was scary for a child about a meter tall to jump off a crossbar of 1.30 meters, but taking a rope in his hands, he easily did it. Finally, with regard to the rope as a swing, it is still more obvious. Such a rope should hang away from the pillars, then its main advantage - the ability to swing 360 degrees - will be used to the maximum.

At the top of our entire structure there is a nest net, which we also received on order from Oleg Skripalev (to fit our sizes). The source of the idea was a small net stretched in our house (there it is the size of a hammock, here it is about 1.30 meters by 2.50 meters). The home nest has become a favorite for us: the children (Fun with guests) drag toys into it, and Sasha watches movies in it. At the dacha, the idea was similar, but we embodied it, as they say, in principle "for growth."


The principal purpose of this network, suspended at a height of about 2.5 meters, is obvious: this is the way to assign high-altitude projectiles. You can get into the nest through the side from the Swedish wall (the path for adults) or into one of the two holes of manholes from some high-altitude shells: both sailor ladders, a short auxiliary hand-way (made specifically to complicate possible paths), climbing hooks on poles. Potentially, a gladiatorial net and an expanding rope ladder will also be added, we are waiting for them. In general, so that there is a reason to climb up. The second purpose is also clear. The network is large (several children or an adult with a child can climb in), you can get settled in it (grab a blanket and a pillow) and read a book or play. On high, watching the countryside and the garden. This, of course, is not a "tree house" (we will have it), but nevertheless, a rather comfortable nest in which you can relax and retire. At the age of 4, we did not provoke Zabava to climb there, at that time her tier was middle and lower. She is careful and careful with us, and we appreciate it. Parents put some children on the net, but we were in no hurry. But at the age of 5, she began to climb into the nest by all available means (from all rope ladders, nets and wall bars), even those that already seem inaccessible to us (adults).

climbing holds

The idea of ​​"inappropriate" use of climbing holds came to my mother's mind (Zabava's grandmother) when she watched Zabava holding on to a pole, standing on the crossbar, and trying to reach the rope: now, if she had something to cling to additionally ... How is it not for anything? There are also special things for this, resistant to moisture, winter, weather changes, made to be used anywhere, including on the street. We were stunned and decided to implement the idea.


We bought about 20 holds and placed them on poles: here and there. Somewhere to help, somewhere to complicate the route. We looked to where the daughter tried to push off with her feet from the posts or hold on to them with her hands: on the way to the rope, nest or pole. Around the pillar at the Swedish wall, which she tried to "peel off" in order to be in her other plane. At the rings, in order to hold on to them, moving your legs along the pole, lift your legs onto the crossbar, as an alternative "path" to the middle crossbar. In general, we experimented. So far, the shells have "won" in a simpler way, but here and there, then one child, then another, let them grab onto these hooks. In general, having studied the market of holds, we realized that for a price close to our complex (about 20 thousand at present), you can make an excellent country climbing wall with your own hands, using an empty wall of the house (of course, street). The topic is cool, and hold manufacturers advise on creating their own climbing walls, and not only sell ready-made ones (the price of a ready-made and your own climbing wall will be comparable, but making your own is more fun). We decided that this is our perspective for a couple of years ahead, when Zabava develops the body and masters its sports complex to perfection.

Does the sports complex need swings at all (as such)? The question is debatable, because any child over two years old will be inclined to use as a swing in general anything that can swing. The favorite "swings" of our sports complex are sailor's ladders, creepers, a rope with a tied loop and even rings. Anything, anything that is dynamically suspended. Children are very fond of swinging: we have hammocks all over the garden, a magnificent swing-plate with a diameter of about a meter, which we bought a long time ago at IKEA, is never idle on the veranda (she entertains our daughter when the adults are sitting too long at dinner or having tea, she wants to be near, but does not want to sit still) and, of course, there is something to swing on every floor of our house (in case of bad weather). The key point: all this (for rocking) hangs separately: at home or in the garden. Why sculpt a swing into a complex if they can be perfectly used separately (on their own), and it is difficult to integrate them into climbing routes? We decided to leave only two swings in the complex, mercilessly throwing the excess out of it. We left the usual wooden swing for "kids" and a disk swing. For what?


The purpose of the "baby" swing is obvious: it is needed mostly for kids (and we hang very low so that a child of Funny height (93-94 cm) can climb on it and swing, pushing off the ground with his feet). The argument is clear: many of our guests come with several children, and while those who are already able to climb climb the tops of the complex, the little ones need to be occupied with something nearby and below. Divide, so to speak, different children in different zones. With a disc swing, the situation is different.


The disc swing is an exceptionally simple and cheap projectile to manufacture. It's just a disk on a string. The disc is not very large (although I fit it with my adult booty and was even surprised that it was quite comfortable). On a rope that is not very thick (it should not replace a rope). Swinging on such a swing turned out to be like nothing else. Firstly, the disk is not stable - you can fly off it, although the height is such that there will be no harm from falling, that is, you need to balance and hold on to the buttocks (in general, not only the vestibule develops, but the legs and buttocks). Secondly, like the looped rope, this thing has a 360-degree swing range - total freedom to fly. And thirdly, the projectile is so minimalistic and hangs so low that it does not intersect with almost anything in its path: crashing into a hanging rope, you simply deflect it, do not hit it, and the disk remains below the collision site. Hanging a disc swing in a house or on a tree is more difficult: it is necessary that the trajectory does not intersect either with walls or with a trunk. It is clear that the place of such a swing is somewhere in the center of the complex. Can it fit into climbing routes? Difficult, but rather yes. It’s not that it’s convenient to climb on it, but children are constantly trying - this is a challenge.

Difficult climbing routes

We have already written so much here about difficult routes that, I think, everything has become clear. Let's just summarize. The complex will live every day and not bother if it provides a high variability of climbing. Not only shells for the arms and legs, but also "food for the brain." When the child comes up with a plan (“Mom, come watch me climb from the ladder to the trapezoid, I’ll spin there, and then, like a monkey, I’ll climb onto the horizontal bar” - this is the level of planning that is already available to a 3-year-old). Such small victories, small combinations and elements of routes eventually add up to an integral system, if you provide 3-4 possible transitions from each projectile, then such a system remains "open" - infinitely variable, not closed. Then climbing does not bother, even if the child is alone at the complex. As the child grows (and the complex, with the modification of projectiles, height and distance of their suspension, may remain relevant until adolescence), the routes will, of course, change, providing the necessary challenge. Oleg Skripalev talked about the big “Magellan Journey” of his childhood: when he had to go around all the shells of the complex in a circle, never going down to the ground. All these tasks that the child sets for himself become more and more complex. This is the development of the level of claims and the development of dexterity and strength. In general, in order to create such a system, one must think even when the child uses it, he will develop not only muscles, but also thinking, as well as planning and setting adequate tasks. Needless to say, an attempt to simply hang shells in a row is in this regard a systemic error: it simplifies the whole idea, reduces it to the level of simple repetitions and motor skills. What attracts us the most in the performances of gymnasts and circus performers? Of course, the flow of movements, their connection into a single number, the flow of one element into another. It's like a dance! The work of the one who invented this "dance" is always admired. And where do such inventors appear? This ability to make a single integral "flow" from the elements of movements is not given from birth, it also needs to be developed. Of course, in an environment that allows for variability.

Security at the complex

1. When to start? Many parents are afraid of falls and keep young children away from projectiles. In the picture below, a 2-year-old girl is hanging on our rings, no one hung her there. She herself approached, she took out the rings herself (standing on her toes from the ground), she hung herself, she herself raised her legs to the rings, hung and lowered her legs down herself, too, safely descending from the projectile. She repeated this cycle dozens of times. This girl's mother allowed her to climb as early as she wanted, and since she grows up with a 4-year-old brother, she had someone to "reach for". If they ask me: who has a higher chance of injury (not only on equipment, but also in life), this girl or those whose mothers do not allow climbing on their own, then the answer is obvious: this girl is remarkably dexterous, knows her strength, knows how to fall correctly.


Pseudo-logical judgments of mothers of 2-year-olds: “Oh, there is a swing here, this is just for us, the rest is too early for us!”, “Why is this swing hanging so low? Is the child clinging with its legs?”, “My daughter is too heavy for this climbing (about a massive child)”. Contradictions are hidden in these judgments. First, if it's early now, how will she know it's time if the baby doesn't develop gradually? At 2 years old, it’s easier to start than at 6 (it’s elementary to fall lower). Secondly, if a child is always only swinging on a swing, then how can he learn to swing himself? Of course, the child can and should be rocked higher on the swing. We have hammocks for this, in which it is convenient to swing on your own, and swing them from outside. But the skill to swing, starting from the ground, is difficult to get on the yard, because the swing must be adjusted to the height of a particular child. It remains for children to learn to swing by moving the center of gravity (which is great in summer conditions, but difficult to do in voluminous winter clothes). Thirdly, if a child is loose and (or) heavy, then he just needs to climb (and move more), otherwise how will he become more balanced and stronger? It will be difficult to make him move at 3-4 years old, but at 1.5-2, when he is interested in everything, he is a little upset by falls (from the height of his height, of course) and his natural curiosity has not yet been beaten off, he takes his (possibly overweight) weight for granted and tries to cope with it. If you give him such an opportunity, then by 3-4 years of excess weight and friability will no longer remain, or, if the constitution is nevertheless such, it will be balanced by the gained strength of the arms and legs. Manufacturers of "Early Start" complexes offer to start from 7 months. We bought an "early start" at 8 months old and realized that they were right (it could have been earlier), despite the fact that we did not rush our daughter to walk early at all, there were just some shells (for example, a slide), on which she really liked to crawl, and the handles trained well on the first horizontal bars. The question is that by the age of 2 she had outgrown this complex. In less than 2 years (about 1 year 8 months) we made a full-height (to the ceiling) complex in our apartment. Of course, it began to be used in full growth by the age of three (Zabava did not have any accelerating provocations), but by this time she had already mastered the lower tier well: her hands were strong, and her brains were cautious. So, we think we should start early.

2. Fewer adult provocations and more good examples of your own.
The second fundamental question: does the child need help at the complex? The answer is very subtle. You can help a little, but you need to try not to provoke the child to do something for which he is not yet mentally and physically ready, and you should not relieve him of responsibility for his safety. A good example: the children were shown how to hang upside down on the bar, holding on with their hands.


The result was the complete mastering of this technique by Zabava and her guests, which was repeatedly shown above in the section on horizontal bars. A bad example: with the same hanging, they provoked the child ahead of time (until he himself realized that this was possible and he himself did not understand how to fix the legs) to let go of his hands. The result was a fall when trying to let them go on their own (well, if the child is trained, then he manages to wriggle out of this fall and land on his haunches, and not on his back or head). In order to avoid such "unpreparedness" and "provoked falls" I generally avoid helping the child physically. In extreme cases (in the case of a direct insistent request of the child, who himself invented this element in advance), I stand and belay nearby (without touching the child) or substitute my shoulder or arm as an additional support, without taking on the center of gravity (weight) of the child. The best way to show a new move is actually to do it yourself - like in the Nikitins' three horizontal bar example (or have the older kids do the move). Children learn from each other very quickly, but when they do it themselves (without provocation), they usually feel their limitations and possibilities. More precisely, initially, children are able to feel them, if this sense is not brought down.


How can one bring down this natural sense of one's strengths and capabilities? Elementary. We all constantly see mothers on the playgrounds who lift their one-year-old boy up a two-meter hill in their arms, and then catch him below with hooting. This is accepted everywhere. When a child is picked up like a thing, rolled and caught, he gets used to being caught always, the instinct of self-preservation breaks down. If a child learns a year to slowly climb the stairs to this very hill on his own (two steps up - one down, often he just climbs up and down endlessly), then at every moment he feels what is available to him. The fun, therefore, came to riding high hills by the age of 2, and I never put her up, I waited for her to go up and down the stairs and when she herself wanted to slide down. Several times I caught myself envying when I saw that Zabavin's age was boldly climbing somewhere up. And she immediately understood her mistake when the same woman of the same age fell from a height on the descent and, for example, twisted her leg. Then I was glad that my daughter was not "without brakes", although her brakes were internal: we not only did not provoke her to climb to the heights, but we did not "crack" her when she finally decided on it.


Thus, we did not relieve our daughter of responsibility for safety. Now she is more careful than most children, for example, in our complex she does not climb into the nest and onto the handrails. We do not provoke: the time will come, she will climb herself, let her first train on the bottoms.


This principle seems to be obvious. The swing should not crash into anything hard. If possible, several swinging projectiles should be allowed to be used at the same time. Apparently, those who designed linear complexes thought about this (children will not crash), but they underestimated the needs of the child and the capabilities of the complexes. You don't have to worry about the trajectories of projectiles never crossing, you need to think about where 3-4 children can climb or swing at the same time without crashing into each other while other projectiles (requiring space) wait for their turn.


Many things, for example, whether the vine's swaying path will intersect with a sailor's ladder suspended diagonally, are better seen in place than in the sketch. Our design was three-stage: sketch, implementation (verification), adjustment. Several shells were moved by us as we used them.


More all this concerns, of course, shoes than clothes, children's country clothes are usually quite comfortable. Upstairs there are photos of Zabava swinging on a disc swing in rubber boots. This is definitely an exception. It was a rainy day and Fun just swayed as it passed by. At the home complex, the principle of "climbing barefoot" is obvious. In 99% of cases, we adhere to this principle in the country. If the children came in sandals with tight straps, this is still acceptable, but, of course, no rubber slippers like Crocs or slates. By the way, it is almost never necessary to talk about this: as a rule, children themselves take off their slippers and run to climb. It is more difficult for them if the weather outside is cold and rainy and socks and tights are still worn under the boots. In this case, of course, sneakers or boots are better than rubber boots (we cut the grass under the lower complex). The child should feel his foot well and the shoes should not slip on the projectile. Well, on a normal warm summer day, comfortable clothing at the dacha sports complex is minimal. As our Zabava says: "Today the circus performer forgot to put on her costume, but it's okay, the performance will still take place!"

6. If whims have begun, it is better to change the occupation. All parents know that sometimes children play and sometimes they flirt. This is especially evident when several children play at the same time. Any parent feels that satisfied cries have been replaced by hysterical ones: a little more and they will start to fill themselves and each other with bumps. At this moment, children need to be distracted from the complex and switched to another activity, this is obvious to us.

7. Learning to fall. The Nikitins wrote about this so well that I don’t even want to repeat it. When is a child best adapted to falling (from their own height)? Oddly enough, at the age of about a year, when he learns to walk. His body is set up for the fact that he will have to fall many times every day and endure falls without injury, his psyche is also set up for this, he is almost not upset, he just gets up and goes on. Similarly, with low projectiles, like low horizontal bars or low hanging rings: when a child is 1.5-2 years old and he does only what he can do, he will fall, but will not be injured (I do not consider cases when a child "flies away" from a hill, on which his mother put him 80%). The child on his own will discover the height gradually and gradually train in the correct falls. If my daughter falls off the horizontal bar at 4 years old (from the middle one, she does not climb to the high one), then she bends in the air and lands like a cat. After this, tears may follow, but these are tears of annoyance, not pain: she does not like it when something does not work out for her (of course, 3-4 year olds are already very suspicious in this regard). Similarly to heights, speeds increase very slowly and gradually. When a child learns to fall, he only walks, when he jumps, rushes and runs, his falls are usually already physiological. Especially - jumping from a height, which older children love so much. We can't isolate, protect or forbid (some parents can - we can't, I would be scared, then he won't be prepared for the amplitudes of adult movements and falls from adult height). But we can let you train from scratch. Is it obvious? Unfortunately no. Otherwise, we would not see children on the playgrounds who are led by the hood (so they don’t fall) or constantly pulled by the hand (it’s not the child who holds the mother’s hand or finger, but the mother holds him tightly with her girth so as not to stumble and slip). The Nikitins also have a lot about this (“We, our children and grandchildren”), but we understood all this even without the Nikitins. Does a sports complex need a soft mat? A debatable question, but the answer is similar: "As a rule, no." The ideal surface for suburban sports complexes and their "working radius" is grass or sand. Naturally, this is not stone, gravel or concrete. A coating that you won't get caught on and won't crawl through. The coverage of urban playgrounds does not seem to us ideal for giving: in the city it performs other functions, where it is necessary to maintain an oasis of cleanliness in the dirty and slushy season. The summer season, as a rule, ends long before the autumn mud and winter slush. We chose grass.

Kindergarten in our country house

Of course, the complex attracted neighbors and friends to our dacha. "Kindergarten" in our case is a figurative concept, because schoolchildren also climb with great pleasure, thus expanding the social environment of our Fun.


As for me, it seems to me that country children, rushing around the territory and from site to site: here is a sandbox, there is a "climb" (as they themselves call the sports complex), here is a house, there is a pond or a trampoline - this is childhood. So come, friends, before the summer warm days are over, we will show, tell, just relax together and let the children climb! We will be delighted with Fun!

Sports complex in the country: the second season (continued, summer 2018)

A year has passed. The shells, packed for the winter in a container, were again taken out and hung on the sports complex. We also bought a trapezoid, rings, an expanding ladder and a gladiatorial net. Optimized suspension. We added a parent hammock to the side (not inside the structure) to spend time nearby while the children climb.


As a result, we got a design for at least 24 projectiles (if we count the climbing holds scattered over the supports as one projectile, and each bar or pole separately). In total we now have: five crossbars, two poles, two handrails, one gladiatorial net, one Swedish wall, two handrails, two ropes, two trapeziums, two rings, two swings, one expanding ladder, one large nest net, at least 20 pieces of climbing hooks and a hammock on the side. Our daughter "knocked" five, a son was born. The games have become more difficult. To date, the daughter has mastered all the shells and the full height of the complex, with the exception of the hand walkers (she hangs on them, but she is still afraid to pass the hand walkers, although she has already begun to pass the hand walkers on the playgrounds - she has enough arm strength, but ours hangs higher and she is cautious).

We now have two favorite "long-playing" games:
1. Journey of Magellan. Alone and in company. This is a "round the world trip" during which you need to go through all the shells without ever going down to the ground. The difficulty lies in the fact that the complex, in principle, is better passed for the child to whom the shells are suitable for growth, and it is difficult for taller children to pass the rings, for example, which are suspended below and "provoke" them to touch the ground. That is, Zabava easily copes with this task (but only after it was able to rise to the maximum height of other shells), and older children actually pierce in the same way, although some other shells are easier for them to pass. The solution is either to hang the projectiles at a compromise height, or to end with a difficult projectile. You can complicate the task endlessly, for example, by introducing conditions that you cannot reuse a projectile more than two times, or you can reuse no more than 5 shells, or nothing can be reused. Or that you need to leave each projectile not in the same way that you came. Perhaps in some of these types the task will not be solved, but yes, the children will find their loopholes or optimize its rules.
2. Circus. You can play alone with the audience. Tickets are on sale, spectator seats and desserts are being prepared. We sit and watch how our daughter climbs, who must hold out for a certain time without falling to the ground and without stopping. For some reason she likes the time "hour". Surprisingly, for her, this hour passes quite unnoticed, and we have time to drink tea quietly nearby, if we stocked it up in advance. The daughter has her favorite paths and there are new numbers (call), which she is not too lazy to shout about in advance in order to attract our attention. If you need to "add courage", then I turn on the commentator mode (as in the Magellanic journey). Instead of a "commentator" you can turn on music for motor improvisation, this goes well with us after dance classes. In general, there is a feeling that the daughter has made a cardinal leap in her dexterity and sluggishness, and that there is still much room to grow. And in order to have room to grow endlessly, from time to time we go to a real circus and show her real gymnasts and acrobats.

Links

  1. Skripalev V.S. Our family stadium
  2. Pavlova E.N. Do-it-yourself home sports complex or to order
  3. Sports complexes Skripaleva. Sports complexes on an individual project. With your own hands and to order

Individual consultations

Playgrounds in the country - photo ideas for inspiration

If you have children, then be sure to arrange a playground for them in the country with your own hands. The play space will be the most favorite place for children to stay, where they can feel in charge, feel responsible for their property, and just play without interfering with your summer activities.

Thus, a children's play corner or playground will also be an opportunity for you to realize your creative ideas, plus win additional sympathy from a child.


Children's playground - fort with a slide

In today's selection, I would like to introduce you to interesting playground ideas that you can do yourself with your children. by involving a child in construction, you develop his skills in handling tools and thinking.

Playground with sandbox


Playground with sandbox

A kind of children's play area for growth - while the child is small, he will play in the sandbox, in the shade under the house. Then, when he grows up, it will be possible to launch him upstairs, first under the supervision of adults, and then on his own.

Playground of stumps and branches


Wooden playground

If you accidentally have an old tree that needs to be uprooted on the site, then it can be used as a base for a children's playground. Children are very fond of climbing trees, so you can develop hand motor skills, such a playground will always be in demand with your child. This design can also be used as an element of a larger platform.

Swing platform option


Playground with swings and a house

An interesting version of the playground with a house, swings and a sandbox. The house is located near the border of the site, near the fence, behind which there is already a forest. This is an interesting adventure for the child, he will have the opportunity to have his own nook for games, and even watch the neighborhood, looking out of the window of the house. Optionally, you can make one swing and a climbing rope next to it.


Children's playground for games in the country

Another interesting idea for a playground with a house, a swing, a sandbox under the house and a plastic slide.

Playground from old pallets


Pallet playground

Even from pallets you can make a very beautiful house with your child. In the future, it can be painted and it will not be inferior to other houses. The main value of the building for the child will be that he took part in its construction.

Children's playhouse - drawings and plans

How to make a children's playhouse in the country with your own hands

If you want to make a children's playhouse in the country, I offer a drawing and plans for its construction. A house with a slide, a sandbox and a swing made from a car tire. All dimensions are in centimeters and inches. Having built a playground, you are guaranteed to get free time, and your children will always be busy.


Playhouse Dimension Plan - Top View Playhouse drawing - view of side A and side B Drawing of a children's playhouse from side A with a wall installed Drawing of the playhouse from side B Plan drawing of a children's playhouse view from side C Plan drawing of a house for playing children in the country - view from side D Drawing of the floor in the playhouse for children
Step by step guide to building a playhouse for kids

Playground with sandpit and slide by the terrace


Playground with sandbox and slide

At the terrace, you can make a corner for a playground, providing it with a slide and a sandbox. If you are afraid for overheating of children, then you can additionally make a canopy over the sandbox.

Natural playground


Natural playground on the slope

An interesting solution is a natural playground with a slide on the slope. A good option for sloping areas.

Playgrounds in the form of a ship


An interesting playground - the ship will bring the spirit of the seas and wanderings to your site. An adventurer lives in every man and boy, so such a structure will be received with a bang by the male half.


Children's play house ship

Children's playground - gym


Children's playground

The playground can also be equipped with sports elements. In the photo we see a playhouse with a climbing wall, a rope, a horizontal bar, rings and a net. Children will have both fun and physical development.

Children's playhouse under the terrace


Playhouse for children

If your terrace allows, then under it you can build a playhouse. Children will be able to play literally under your feet, and you can always keep an eye on them.

How to make a playground near the house


Children's playground in front of the house

Another interesting idea for a children's playground in front of the house, next to the terrace. There is also a slide and a sandbox and even a playhouse.

Children's playground with a canopy


Children's playground with a canopy

Beautiful, comfortable playground with a canopy that protects from the sun. The house has a slide, a sandbox, and a furniture play area.

DIY bright playground


Children's playhouse for giving

By painting the playground in bright colors, you will add a positive mood and emotions. Don't be afraid to use open strong colors - kids love it!

simple wooden playground


simple wooden playground

I also offer budget options for decorating a children's playground made of wood in the country. Using winding branches, you can make an original children's play area.


Simple wooden playground for kids

Playground tree house


Another interesting and creative idea is a children's tree house. Even adults would be happy to sit in such a house, if, of course, the children allow it ... Such a structure can be made even on an old fruit tree, or on a tree next to the site, if there is a forest nearby.

How to make a tree house


Children's playhouse on a tree

Even if your tree is simple, without winding branches, you can mount a platform on it and build a house.


Installation of a platform for a tree house

The photo shows the process of building a site for a treehouse. The frame is mounted on two boards, a safety pin is made under the boards. The design is quite strong and reliable, in addition, you can make a mount from a bar at the corners.

How to make your own playground

Children's playground in the form of a tractor

Of course, one should be realistic and not immediately take on some grandiose projects, sometimes a simple sandbox, with a house or a canopy, is enough. There are many ideas for children's playgrounds and you can find something you can afford.

Simple children's playground

For example, this idea can be supplemented with a sandbox from below and children will be able to play even during the day - the sun will not shine on them. The structure is built quickly and easily.

Playground - universal option

This playground is universal - it has a house for games, and a sandbox, and ladders, and a net, and swings and many levels to climb. One such building on the site will allow you to occupy the child for the whole day, and at night your treasure will sleep without hind legs, playing enough and running.


Children's play space in the country

I hope that you liked the presented playground project ideas and you have chosen something for yourself and your child. A do-it-yourself playground will delight your baby, give you moments of peace, decorate empty corners in the country.


Beautiful children's playhouse
Design option for a children's playground in the country or in suburban housing