Adventure playgrounds break plastic-and-steel mold

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- Barbara McAndrews stood back and watched her four children scramble across a rope bridge and jump onto planks floating in 2 1/2 feet of water. They used long poles to propel themselves, Huck Finn-style, across the manmade lake.

"I'm amazed this still exists. It's old-time basic playing like when we were kids," said McAndrews, 42. "Where else can you raft in muddy water?"

Between breaks from the lake, her daughters worked on a treehouse with hammer and nails.

"My girls are girly-girls. They dress up and play with Barbie dolls. But they love the hammer and nails," she said.

The city's Adventure Playground offers the kind of messy, creative and constructive play that childhood experts say many of today's kids are missing out on.

More than a dozen adventure playgrounds popped up around the country in the 1970s, inspired by a movement that began in Denmark and endures in parts of Europe. In the United States, the fad fizzled.

Parks featuring mud, old tires and lumber looked more like eyesores than playgrounds to many people. Cities were reluctant to pay salaries for the adult supervisors needed to guide adventure play. Some parents wondered whether playing with hammers and nails was safe.

But children need such real-world, hands-on challenges, argues Mary S. Rivkin, chairwoman of the education department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

She noted a famous quote attributed to one of the founders of the adventure playground movement in Britain, Lady Allen of Hurtwood.

"Lady Allen said, 'Better a broken bone than a broken spirit.' You can't make that argument today," Rivkin lamented.

Still, three of the playgrounds remain in California: in Berkeley, Irvine and Huntington Beach.

Affectionately known as Mud Park to residents, the Huntington Beach park is open for nine weeks during the summer, said Mark Hoxie, the park's program coordinator. It costs $3 a child. Although the park is open to everyone, it is intended for ages 5 to 12. Parents must accompany children.

The McAndrews girls say their favorite activity is a water slide that lands them in a giant mud puddle.

"I love going down the water slide, 'cause you get wet," said 8-year-old Shannon.

Her younger sister, 5-year-old Erin, took it one step farther. The best part, she said, is "getting all muddy."