If you're concerned about your child's health, check how frequently she is active. By incorporating an activity that combines fun and fitness, you not only get your child moving, but also begin her journey to lifelong fitness. Rock climbing is an activity that provides a constant challenge to kids as well as engaging them in a fitness activity. By having a rock climbing structure in your backyard, you can ensure your kids have access to equipment that increases their well-being.
Types
You can install a variety of climbing structures, from standalone equipment to walls that you incorporate into your landscape design. Incorporating color into your design alleviates boredom as children can use the different colors to mark multiple paths in their climb. In addition, incorporate more than one means of ascending and descending. Besides handholds, add ropes to make the rock climbing structure more interesting to children.
Expert Insight
Columbia University students engaged in a redesign of a nursery school that included rock climbing. They recommend a climbing structure as part of an overall playground design. They point out the climbing structure should meet a variety of children's ages, both in terms of height and developmental capacity. They also recommend rock climbing structures that will survive long-term and allow more than one child on the structure at a time.
Benefits
By having a rock climbing structure in your backyard, you create a playground that offers a continual challenge to kids. Once kids have learned one route to get to the top, you can challenge them by suggesting they ascend using a new route. This helps them stay engaged and keeps them outside and active, minimizing their TV or screen time and ensuring they get some exercise.
Considerations
Your child may be yearning for a backyard rock climbing structure resulting from an introduction at her physical education class. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that PE teachers are searching for new ways to get kids active. As a result, yoga and rock climbing are increasingly part of what proponents are calling the "new PE" of the 21st century.
Warning
When kids climb, they fall. Outline rules for safe use of the rocking climbing structure in your backyard, such as taking turns and not standing below a climber. Install fall mats or buffering surfaces, such as rubber chips under and near the climbing structure to ensure that if a child falls, he falls into something that absorbs the shock of the fall. Larger structures require harness, ropes and helmets to ensure the safety of a child. Inspect these regularly to minimize the potential for harm should a child fall.
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