Fun vs Safety for toddlers - My plan...

Evening all.

My back garden project is well under way. No pics yet, sorry:(

Part of the garden is going to be a dedicated play area for our 2 year old lad. It is sunken, by about 1ft relative to the rest of the garden. That's deliberate.

Next to that, I've got a bit of a mound, which is about 2ft higher than the rest of the garden, so has a 3ft descent into the play area. Again this is deliberate. The top of the mound will be flat and level, in the part of the garden that gets the best of the mid morning sun. That's where the wife can put her deck chair while our son plays.

My son will no doubt want to ride his trike down the slope of the mound. And so he should, I used to do things like that (and still would given the chance)

Inevitably, sometimes he will fall off his trike while descending said slope.

Now here's a question for you all.

Roughly, how steep should I make the descent, so that it is fun to ride down, while at the same time not allowing too hard a fall if/when he comes off?

I was thinking about 30 degrees from the horizontal at the steepest (midway) point. What do we reckon?

 

Thirty degrees seems a bit steep for a trike to zoom down and stop safely in a limited space. It might be a good idea to take a plank or even a bit of string and experiment with different slopes to see what looks safest.

Great that you are creating a dedicated play area. A lucky lad !

 

Start off shallow then increase it as he gets bigger, time he gets to my age, it'll be upside down.

 

Thanks chaps. 30 degrees was just me sort of tilting my forearm and guessing

The lad rode his trike into a trench tonight. I'd say that was somewhere between 30 and 45 degrees. It was quite funny, and I was really proud of him. Rather than simply crashing as I would have done when I was little, he very quickly realised it wasn't going to plan and bailed off backwards letting his trike crash without him on it. That descent, although not at all deep (only about a foot), was totally unsuitable to be ridden, given that it is right at the edge of the garden immediately in front of the fence. I must fill it it this weekend and crack on with the proper mound and the play area.

The landing area in the play area will be large enough for his trike to come to a safe stop before hitting anything, and the floor will either be turfed or covered in bark chippings.

 

As a Grandad with a 2.5yr old "helper", I can tell you that the Terrible 2's is a proven expression.
I wouldn't worry too much about what angle he can ride the trike about.
I would be more inclined to be wary when he is standing quietly and, sort of , looking towards you.
Its shortly followed by a quick leap into the flowers, or your just dug patch of something.
As for passing the ball. It all goes to plan for a while, until he gets tired and then he gives a charming grin - and hoys it into next doors garden.
My lawn has a bald patch around the table where he runs in circles. I tried moving the table but the running track stays put.
Still, you wouldn't be without the little devil.:D

 

Not sure about the bark chippings Clueless. If he's coming off the slope into those on his bike he will come to a dead halt and probably be tossed off over the handlebars.

 

That's a very good point. I'll have to rethink the landing area. An idea has just occurred to me. I saw inch think rubber play mats last time I was at the toy shop. They were especially for outdoor use. I wonder if that would do the trick.

 

I think the rubber mats are a good way to go as long as they are firm.

 

If your little 'darlings are 'into' trampolining (not keen myself) but i heard a good idea on Radio 4's GQT a couple of weeks ago...instead of the trampoline taking center stage in the garden it was suggested that a trench could be dug and the trampoline put in it so it was on a level with the surrounding area.The trench need only be a foot or so deep and then you could plant up round the edges with thymes or camomlie for a softer landing ! Just an idea ....

 

Thats not a bad idea lolimac. I take that on board. I may well do that. In fact the more I think about it, even as I write this, the more I like the idea

 

It's a cracking idea!...At work we set one in the lawn but after a while we had to install a soak away because the hole held water and began to pong ,and a solid base to stop the tramp's legs from sinking into the soil.
Oh...by the way, what ever you construct DON'T ever tell Ofsted about it....they'll make you write up a safety Policy and charge you for the privilage!:D

 

I wish OFSTED itself was so faultless...

 

Dear OFSTED

I am writing to inform you of my intention to build my son a play area in our private garden.

Inspired by memories of my own youth, which I somehow miraculously survived despite public and private play areas having solid concrete floors, bicycle helmets being unheard of, swings often made of a half rotted length of very frayed old rope being tied to a half rotten branch of a tree, and bicycle and skateboard jumps being made of some scavenged discarded timber raised at one end with old bricks, lumps of wood, or even another kid laying flat on his back on the concrete pavement holding the board against his chest while other kids, including myself, rode bicycles with no brakes and a very dubious maintenance history at speed along the concrete pavement to jump said ramp.

Inspired by all these things, plus exploring derelict buildings and abandoned mine entrances, repeated (failed) attempts at triggering the first speed cameras using only my push bike, building bridges across fast moving, deep streams using only the tree branches that were sufficiently rotten to have fell from the trees, built islands in the sea as the tide advances, using the rocks washed up on shore (and never actually beating the advance of tide, but that never stopped us trying).

Inspired by all these things and more, I intend to designate an area of my garden as a play area for my son.

My safety policy is therefore this:

The floor will not be concrete.
Any play apparatus will not be rotten/rusted ready to collapse at any moment.
There will be no abandoned mine shafts or raging torrents of water
If at any point it comes to my attention that my son or any of his friends have tied a rotten, frayed piece of rope to an overhanging branch of the neighbour's tree, I will observe the proceedings for a short while, and if the kids don't fall off, and nobody appears to be watching, I will load test their construction by applying a weight of approximately 14 stone to it before propelling it as hard as I can.

 

I've got the teeshirt! :yess:

I've thought about contacting Injury Lawyers For You with a retrospective claim for RSI due to the form filling involved in H&S evaluations.