Little ones are getting a little messy – and maybe even taking a few risks – at the new playground in Moody Park.
Visitors expecting traditional features seen in many other parks were in for a surprise when the playground opened May 20.
“You see sand, you see water, you see sand and water mixing and getting kind of messy, places that have what I would call a perceived sense of adventure to them, perhaps a sense of risk,” said Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks and recreation. “Those are all elements that came through in our conversations with the public.”
While traditionalists prefer playground equipment out of a catalogue, Gibson said others prefer a “free-play approach” that includes lots of opportunities for kids to use their imaginations and use equipment in different ways. He said the latter approach also gets kids making use of the available resources, like sticks, trees and hills.
“Obviously Moody Park is in a very urban part of our city,” he said. “We are not pretending we are in the middle of a forest, but we do have some of those features that harken back to kids being able to play and dabble in a stream, for example.”
Tasha Gandevia visited the park with her son and reports that he “absolutely loved” the playground.
“It was finally something beyond the standard climbers and slides, something beyond the typical sandbox,” she said. “He was a pirate walking the planks, he was a train zooming down the tracks into a mud pit that would stop him, he was a construction worker pouring concrete down the chute of the cement mixer, which was really a big old bucket of wet sand down the slide, and wasn’t too appreciated by some kids – whoops!”
Gandevia, who lives in Surrey, spent many days at Moody Park when working as a nanny in the area. She’s so impressed with the renovations that she intends to return often with her 19-month-old climber and her three-and-a-half-year-old jumper.
“I loved that there were challenges. There were things he had to stand back, look at and try to determine their purpose. There were places for him to climb and jump from that the cookie cutter parks have gated and fenced and baby proofed,” she said. “I loved that the water feature had a clean and dirty section.”
Gibson said the playground includes features for kids of all ages, right from toddlers to teens. It also includes signs to provide some “cues and clues” to parents about the recommended ages of different features.
While some parents have commented that a “wave” feature in the park looks like an accident waiting to happen, Gibson said there’s a difference between real risk and perceived risk. He noted that merry-go-rounds and some other features formerly located in local parks were unsafe because they posed entrapment issues where kids could get stuck or pinch points where hands, fingers and limbs could become pinched, severed or injured.
“It had the perfect amount of risk for a playground,” Gandevia said. “The planks were high enough for jumping but not dangerously high. The slide is steep but wide with a good landing area.”
Along with the new features, the playground includes traditional bucket swings for toddlers. The big tires that have been in Moody Park for years are also part of the new playground.
Gibson said Moody Park playground’s design and features were the result of community input in planning sessions about their priorities for the space.
“We are in the planning stages for a new playground down at Sapperton Park because the old one there is soon to be retied at the end of this summer,” he said. “We have been down there three or four times talking to local residents and the users of the park, including kids, about what is important to them. The plan, as it’s evolving, looks very different than what we have put here in Moody Park. I like to think it has been influenced by the local neighbourhood contexts and the environment itself.”
