A Learning Process on the Playground

Thesis: From my observation, I learned letting children face their fears when climbing walls in a children’s playground allows them to develop problem-solving skills and risk management. The place I will be describing is a children’s playground as an intriguing environment that fosters children’s skills and learning abilities at their younger ages. The playground was an amusement park that had various equipment designed for kids, such as climbing cliffs, roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, ghost houses, and scary clowns. The amusement park was located in a central park in the middle of a city. Through observation, I learned some insights on how the children’s playground enhances their skills. Upon visiting the place, I noted it was different from what I had anticipated. There were tall cliffs for children to climb, which I thought were designed to help children learn by engaging through thrilling activities. When children played with dangerous toys, they seemed to learn to stay safe and develop problem-solving skills to avoid falling or play safe the second time. I saw other beautiful scenes at the playground, which included merry-go-rounds, tall slides, and seesaws. Children were not afraid to play with them, but instead, they seemed comfortable and safe because they were more careful to avoid falling than I had imagined. However, there were still safer play toys for preschoolers at the playground, and instructors were watchful to prevent toddlers from accessing endangering playgrounds. I saw a castle set toy inside the kids’ tent, which they used to test their creative and imaginative skills.

As I observed children playing on the tall cliff, I noted there were climbing handholds and a DIY board on which children they were attached. The board could tilt to form steep inclines to give children a challenge to climb to the top. This was a challenging activity that forced children to take a long time to make it to the top of the cliff. I observed the fear of height forced children to be more careful as they made steps up the hill. They value safety more than kids playing on safer grounds because some incurred fewer while others no injuries at all. What surprised me was that children who fell from the cliff’s top made more attempts to prove that the game did not challenge them. I started believing that it might be true that when children leave with a few broken bones, they learn from risks that allow them to overcome fear on playgrounds.

This was an important lesson because children learn to avert risks when they become adults by getting injuries. There were also tall and steep slides and monkey bars, which children screamed as they slid down them and led to a water pool. I believe the setting was suitable for children’s playground because the thrilling experience was more fun than boring, comfortable playgrounds. I observed other risky places for children, including kids exploring heights on a mountain nearby and others participating in high-speed kids’ motorcycles. Even others engaged in wrestling games while hitting each other with plastic sticks in the absence of their parent’s supervision. I realized climbing equipment in the children’s playgrounds should be steep and very high since this provoked their determination to make it to the top. While some fell just after making a few steps up the hill, others climbed to the top. This was a progressive development of children’s cognitive skills because they overcame challenges to reach the top. Children’s playground might seem like a play of giving joy to children, but it also seemed to increase their social interaction and cognitive development skills. These skills might be why people become successful by taking risks while others make safe choices less rewarding. To children, I learned it did not cause emotional or physical injuries to change their learning approach. I thought children that fell off the cliff developed a phobia for heights. On the contrary, they were determined to succeed, perhaps due to feeling ashamed that others would laugh at them. Children who refused the climbing game were afraid of heights because they developed the habit that taking risks was unsafe. I thought the strategy of helping children deal with fear is also used to treat adults suffering from traumatic experiences. Therapists believe they avoided playing risky games when they were kids and never had the time to face their fear when playing childhood games. Each risk game had a reception where parents could be asked questions by an attendant before their kids were allowed into the playground. For example, there was a reception with an attendant inside to assess if a child was having any physical or mental problems before being allowed to climb the cliff or board the roller coaster.

There was that excitement that the site gave children happiness they could not experience at home. Kids playing with the toys in ‘safe zones’ were between four and six years of age. There were parents assisting children when they needed help to climb ladders as they played with them. Preschoolers arranged objects to create patterns, cut images from paper, and return them to their original position. Both boys and girls could play with toys, which led to increased social interaction. The playground walls were painted with varying bright colors to make the site more engaging to children. While I left the place, I was convinced there should be a playground with thrilling experiences to help children learn life skills. Seeing children interact with each other in the garden was the best way to help them learn. The more they faced the dangers while playing, the more they learned to overcome challenges. The playground’s most striking aspect was the cliff and wrestling games because I saw children fighting while others are crying from the fall. I believe my visit to the play reminded me how important it was for children to face their fears during their developmental stages.