Imaginative play fosters mental growth by creating opportunities for trying out new ideas, ways of thinking and problem solving. In pretend-play, children face a variety of problems which they will solve using important skills that they’ll use throughout their lives.
Many of today’s games for children have rules and a defined beginning and end. There are increasingly fewer opportunities to develop a child’s imagination than in previous generations. A well-designed Jungle Gym can provide just such an opportunity. The child must decide where to start and how to play. The individual poles, swings, ropes and tyres which make up a jungle gym can become whole new worlds. With a bit of imagination, they become anything from castles to spaceships and everything in between. Once the location of the adventure has been decided, it’s back to the imagination to create players in the story and a plot.
The Rustics Tarantula is specifically designed to provide multiple options for movement from one side to the other without ever touching the ground. This lack of an obvious start and end point gives children an opportunity for creative play, problem solving and negotiation with playmates in addition to the more obvious upper and lower body strength, gross motor and balance benefits.
The Tarantula incorporates many different horizontal, vertical, angled and moving elements to provide multiple stimulants for the imagination
• four giant arches
• a tyre tunnel in the centre
• twisty monkey bars of ascending and descending loops
• a set of more traditional straight monkey bars
• a three-meter-long slide
• two fireman’s poles
• three hanging ropes and
• a giant spider’s web
An investment in well-designed outdoor play equipment is an investment in both the physical and mental wellbeing of the children who use it.