of natural playgrounds. In turn, he credits that growing popularity to the valuable lessons and connections available to children in the natural world – lessons and connections that young people are becoming more distant from as population centres become more urbanized. “We’re building playgrounds now that probably look a lot like the playgrounds that were built when we were kids,” Mike says, “but they got left behind for reasons of safety. Now they’ve come back because we’ve made our playgrounds too safe, and kids are missing out on really great learning opportunities.” “When it became risky to build wooden playgrounds, playground designers just abandoned it completely,” Steve elaborates. “They started designing playgrounds out of steel, out of plastic and rubber, and they became very, very scripted, which reduced the learning opportunity for the kids. Now when you examine playgrounds, you will see them become increasingly less-used because kids are not engaged. They’re not challenged. There’s no creativity to them.” “In response to the waning use of playgrounds, natural play has come back as a way to reintroduce risk as a learning opportunity for kids,” Steve continues. “They also have a great environmental statement to them, in that they use really natural materials. They are reintroducing children to the play environment in the natural world.” “This movement of natural play has really driven the demand for companies like us to step up to the plate and start designing and building these things,” Mike says. Within this growing natural play AUGUST 2022
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