I’m taking Saturday off and just passing along some links.
First, I wrote about our adventures in Lake Placid, including checking out some Olympics facilities and going to the super-fun Wild Center in Tupper Lake, over at Kids Out and About. Incidentally, the page has a photo of me–think I should add it to my About/Backstory page? Oh, no, wait! Maybe I should put two pictures, one of me looking really pathetically and post-partum, and then that one, looking like a normal and reasonable human being?
While I was at the pool yesterday, I read an interesting New York Times Article called Can a Playground Be Too Safe? Short answer: umm, yeah.
Free George has an article recommending the mountain Sleeping Beauty in Lake George as a good family hiking/camping destination.
Meanwhile, DelSo visited Thompson’s Lake (near Thacher Park) and makes me want to go right now even though I’m still suffering a sunburn from my visit to Collins the other day (yes, I should have re-applied).
Happy Saturday, everyone!
Janis
I love that playground article, thanks for posting! I have found many playgrounds here to be really boring, and despite “safety first” have seen all sorts of accidents, because really, you can child-proof your whole house and your kid is going to break his nose tripping over his own feet walking on a flat floor. Most playgrounds are not just safe, but sterile, taking away the imaginative and explorative aspects. I find it so interesting my last trip home that Singapore is considered a safe and boring country but the playgrounds totally ROCK there, my kids had so much fun there. I hope we have more open-ended playgrounds here.
Jen
I enjoyed the review of the Wild Center. Do you think it’s a good place to visit with a 4 year-old and a 2 year-old?
Katie
Jen, I really thought that it was great. When they’re toddlers of course there’s plenty of stuff that will go over their heads almost anywhere, but there’s a lot that they’d enjoy, too. Seriously, I was imagining that my daughters as toddlers would open every single drawer that they had in their classroom–don’t be shy about opening drawers. And check the schedule for animal encounter stuff–they might be more impressed with nice old-lady volunteers showing off turtles than my kids were. The pines outside was really fun–they had a little stage, too, which is the sort of thing that could occupy kids for a long time.
Katie
Janis, I don’t know how I missed this comment before. My least-favorite playgrounds are those ones where they’re basically these hallways to walk through, b/c they’re so afraid that the kids are going to fall off of something. I’m always letting my kids play in defiance of safety rules, like climbing on the outside of the tube slides.