Imagination Playground™
“As they play,” declared one other signal, “[kids] are exploring new spaces, using their senses, and collaborating with others.” But all that trumpeting of play (there was tons more of it) didn’t exactly match the design of the place. It felt like every little thing within the kids’s museum had been designed not for dangerous, self-directed play, like the junk playground, however for aesthetics, order, and safety. “Parents must accompany kids of any age,” mentioned a pleasant voice on the PA system. The day after our journey to the junk playground, I visited a Connecticut kids’s museum with our two children.
A skilled methodology called “playwork” was established in the United Kingdom, during which educated adults (“playworkers”) would run these environments. One of the world’s most famous journey playgrounds at present—generally known as “The Land”—is located in Wales. In fact, Hanna Rosin, a nationwide correspondent for The Atlantic, …
