Revisiting the Playground (historyworkshop.org.uk)

The image of the tall swing looks slightly terrifying but I only recently (as an adult) realised how much obviously more fun a taller swing will be: you’re mostly going to be limited by the angle you can get up to but a lot of the fun comes from the distance/ height of the path of the swing.

When I lived in Sweden I read about the concept of “no permanent damage.” The playgrounds seemed much more dangerous than the ones I grew up with here in the United States. I suppose liability has a lot to do with it. I’ve attempted to incorporate that principle into the activities I encourage my own kids to participate in—allow them to experience and explore things that are somewhat dangerous in order to grow.

The playground without an annual broken arm or ankle is no playground at all.

I appreciated this documentary called “Free Play” about adventure playgrounds where they let kids play with fire and saws and whatnot:

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/04/03/395797459/the-val...

I can’t find it on YouTube, but there was a harrowing scene of a kid sawing a board that sticks with me.