Climbing Frames Are Making A Comeback

There can't be many of us without fond memories of that feeling of conquering a particularly complex looking climbing frame at some point during our childhood. It looks like a mountain and is the cause of many bruises but how does it feel when you reach the top and look down on all the lesser kids who couldn't quite make it?

Doesn't it just make you feel superior? Doesn't it make you want to sit up there for hours and enjoy the view, even if it is out over the local council estate, knowing that what you thought impossible actually wasn't?

You see, a climbing frame is viewed by many as just a plaything for children but it is so much more. It is a whole learning experience in itself. Firstly, it poses challenges – real, physical challenges. You never see the fat kids at the top of the climbing frame! There are physical obstacles to be overcome to conquer this 'plaything'. And these things have to be worked out in the mind – therefore we have mental challenges too.

Judging distance comes into play with spatial awareness. If these aren't on form then more bruises are bound to be coming your way. Children will challenge themselves to reach a certain point and then push it further. Can you imagine how many times in their lives this ability will come in useful?

Every time they come to an obstacle in life they will be adept at working out solutions, mentally and physically, to overcome the obstacle. Ok, this isn't all down to using a climbing frame but it's certainly a good grounding in the basics.

There is also the flip side to this, of course. The one of failing. Failing is part of life, it's one of the things that would spur a positive person on to beat failure. Nobody can get through life without experiencing failure in one form or another yet today's PC world is set up to cushion our children from the feelings that come with failure. God forbid they should ever feel dejected or beaten and have to come up with their own coping mechanisms!

Protecting our children is of course important. But so is allowing them to experience real life, albeit in a protected manner that we can help them through. If this is not the case, they get to adult hood expecting everything to be a walk in the park and without the ability to deal with failure and move on.

It seems extreme but yes, a climbing frame in childhood would help. A simple plaything constructed of anything from old bits of rubbish in someone's back garden to the full on, properly designed combinations of wood, plastic and metal that are deliberately designed to pose problems to a child that can be overcome with a little thought.

If a child feels failure in this way yet finds a way to overcome it, they will then have the basics to cope with similar experiences when they are older.

Another major factor in the importance of children's outdoor toys is the exercise aspect. With all our worries of stranger danger and the advent of electronic toys that our children believe they can't live without, children are becoming lazier. Add to that the convenience of fast food and you have fat kids facing a lifetime of health issues.

Get them out on a climbing frame and they are using muscles that would otherwise be wasting away stuck in front of a computer game. These muscles include the heart and lungs getting a thorough workout, leading to a healthier, productive adult better able to cope with all that life can throw at them.