Traditional Playgrounds or Creative Playgrounds? Perhaps an Adventure Playground?

Even when I was in college, I still loved the swings. I used to go down to the playground at Cascade Park and swing. It just felt good and made me happy.

Little did I understand that swinging was just what my brain needed. By stimulating the brain's vestibular system which regulates balance, I got a sense of where I was in space.

The fancy word for that is proprioception, and I had lousy proprioception--always bumping into things, tripping, falling down a lot. So I knew instinctively that swinging was just what my brain-body connection needed.

Swings are an important part of every traditional playground. Money bars are too. The brain loves monkey bars and rings because they require crossing the center mid-line which is essential for reading, writing, math and tons of other skills.

You can even hang upside down on monkey bars--another good thing for the vestibular system.  They help with