AngieSix

I want to come to Orange County just for the playgrounds ...

Amazing work this summer! What a great resource for your community.

Here are our Top 5 Playgrounds:

1. Cyntheanne Park: We love this park because it's unlike any other playground around (it uses the EVOS Play System) and it's challenging for even my 9-year-old.
http://playspacefinder.kaboom.org/playspaces/96641-cyntheanne-park
2. Oaklandon Play Park: The one and only wooden park we found this summer! A great park for hide and seek, and if you're lucky a train or two will go by!
http://playspacefinder.kaboom.org/playspaces/99578-oaklandon-play-park
3. Founders Park: The newest park of the bunch (like less than a month old!). This one is a hit because it has lots of "boulders" to climb and jump from, along with sand play.
http://playspacefinder.kaboom.org/playspaces/99578-oaklandon-play-park
4. Brooks School Park: My 9-year-old said it best: "Lots of things to play on and so much room to run! And it has a creek. And a snow-cone stand, even though you never said 'Yes.'"
http://playspacefinder.kaboom.org/playspaces/16998-brooks-school-park
5. Dr. James A. Dillon Park: Our favorite spray park. Lots of shaded places for parents to sit, and a fairly innovative playground adjacent to the spray park if the kids need a break from the water.
http://playspacefinder.kaboom.org/playspaces/3928-dr-james-a-dillon-park

The worst playground? Hands down the one in our neighborhood, Harrison Thompson Park:
http://playspacefinder.kaboom.org/playspaces/17007-harrison-thompson-park

It's just a bad combination of old and cookie-cutter. There are lots of kids who use the ball fields at this park, so something as simple as a merry-go-round or a large spinning disc would be great. Really any piece of updated equipment would be nice, but something that would allow multiple kids to play on it at once would really enhance this playground.

I also posted a round-up on my blog: "Top 5 Playgrounds in NE Indianapolis"
http://justlikethenumber.com/2011/09/top-5-ne-indianapolis-playgrounds

Thanks so much Jason and Kerala for such a fun and inspiring project to be a part of! It definitely won't end here for us! It's been so fun learning about where and how others play, too. What a pleasure it's been getting to know everyone.

• Founders Park
• Harrison Thompson Park

@playparks: I am so inspired by you! It serves as a wonderful reminder that we can all make a difference. I second the holding off until after Labor Day to wrap up the challenge, too. We still have lots of playing to do!

@floridamom: I'm right there with you on the age thing. My oldest is 9 and my biggest challenge was finding playgrounds that kept her interested and challenged. I'd love to see a playspace that was REALLY designed for 9-12 year olds - it would be so cool. I imagine it would cause some kind of ruckus, though, since it would need to involve some elements of risk and that scares many parents :)

I would say the one thing I've learned that I never realized before mirrors @emeraldperil's thoughts. We are very lucky to have so many parks here in the suburbs of Indy. Not only do we have a lot of nice parks, but we also have a community that's involved in them - nearly every park I visited was at least entered into the Map of Play! I learned that just because you have a lot of very nice playgrounds, that doesn't mean your kids will love them. If they don't have an element that makes them unique, it doesn't take long for them to get bored. What was surprising to me was that it doesn't necessarily take something new and expensive to make a unique park feature, though. A really great hill to run down, a small creek or pond, nooks and crannies to get a good game of hide and seek going, something challenging to climb or balance on - any of these features can add a new element of play and interest.

Very, very cool!

If I'm entering a new playground (vs. just editing/adding info to an existing playground) I would say it takes me 15 minutes as well. The only shortcut I can think of that would shave time off for me would be the ability to upload more than one photo at a time.

Thanks for linking up to this. I plan to take the information with me to the next PTO meeting, as we're adding new pieces to the school playground.

That's awesome! Congratulations!

This is really fascinating to me, because I had kind of an epiphany over the summer. As a stay-at-home mom, especially in the summer, I feel a kind of duty to come up with fun and exciting things for the kids to do. We spent a lot of June running around from one activity to another. Soon, I was worn out and I found that on days when we were at home with nothing planned, the kids were having a really hard time. I needed to get my own things done and they couldn't seem to function without me as their cruise director!

I've noticed that if I hold firm during their ensuing "I'm bored!" meltdowns (complete with whining, lots of flopping around and drama) and refuse requests for screen time or outings, they eventually get really creative on their own. Some of their best play moments of the summer occurred after they complained of being bored. I think many of our children don't really identify with the feeling of being bored. They rarely have the opportunity to be bored, and so when they're faced with nothing to do and nowhere to go, it's uncomfortable.

Some of the things they've come up with when bored? Face painting, building block towns for their cars, unique Lego/K'nex creations, playing "summer camp" in the yard, and my favorite: forming their own band, writing a song, and performing on our very-deserted-at-2 p.m.-on-a-Wednesday street corner.

We've visited a couple of playgrounds that have skateparks, and those are favorites for my kids. If I think ahead and bring bikes, scooters and skateboards, they have fun burning off extra steam at the skate park. Here's a link to my just-turned 4 y/o coming down the ramp on his skateboard:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/angiesix/6011456293/

Brooks School Park got a much-needed update and opened up to the community in June. The new playground, with areas for 2-5 and 5-12 year-olds is ADA accessible. It has many innovative pieces of equipment for playgrounds in this area, including boulders to climb and a super-tall play structure. There is also a shallow creek nearby that is perfect for some wading and rock-skipping. All in all, a great playground for a wide range of ages and abilities.

• Brooks School Park
• Asa Bales Park

There is a similar park near us in Carmel, Indiana. Everyone goes for the splash pad, but if you meander back into the woods on the trail you come across several different small play areas. It feels like an adventure! Love that particular piece your kids are playing with. Looks really fun!

What a cool slide! My son would go nuts for it.

Trying to catch up this week and get information from the parks we've been visiting uploaded. I switched my blog from Typepad to Wordpress last month and I grossly underestimated just how much work that was going to be, so I'm pretty behind. I've enjoyed reading everyone else's post, and might have just a *teeny* bit of envy for some of your cool playgrounds! No matter how busy life gets, though, we always make time to play :)

This is so fabulous! I'd love to just sit there and people watch during the morning commute.

We either go first thing in the morning or after dinner. In the middle of the day we're either at the pool (aka "the sauna," but at least it's wet), or I'm trying to get the kids involved in activities from our Boredom Jar. It's miserable, as I've yet to find a sufficiently shaded playground for these really hot days. I will say, though, an early dinner + after dinner playground run + cool bath = kids that fall asleep early!

As we've traveled around different playgrounds this summer, I feel like my 9-year-old is at the upper end of the kids we've seen playing. I found it really interesting in the article when they mentioned the six categories of risky play, two of them specifically address what it takes to keep my daughter interested in a playground: exploring heights and wandering alone away from adult supervision. She likes to climb (the higher the better), and she likes a space large enough where she can wander off and do her own exploring without me and her little brother in sight. Fascinating article, thanks for sharing.

Fort Harrison State Park is a great place to escape from the city without having to leave the city. The park features trails for walking, biking, running, and horseback riding. In the winter the trails can be used for cross-country skiing. There is an excellent sledding hill.

My kids enjoy the playground across from the sledding hill, especially the slide that looks like it's coming out of the side of a hill. We've also taken advantage of the pony and horseback rides available at the Saddle Barn.

Please note that there is a fee-per-car to enter the park (for Indiana residents this is $5), as well as additional fees for the Saddle Barn.