Slide

Triumph! I got right to the top!

When I was expecting my younger son we thought about things son-number-one might be able to do to entertain himself while I was tied down with the new baby. We got various bits of garden entertainment from local freecyclers, including a slide. I imagined sitting peacefully in the shade feeding the baby while Zac mucked about happily burning off some of his toddler energy. It didn't work out quite like that. When Danny was less than three weeks old Zac decided to demonstrate to his new baby brother how he could climb up and slide down all by himself (something he was usually very good at.) The climbing up was indeed good, but the sliding down didn't happen, as he did a big "Ta dah!" at the top and toppled off head first, fracturing his wrist.

Coming up.

At that point I suppose I could have got considerably more anxious about kids risk-taking, but actually it taught me that you just can't anticipate everything that might go wrong, accidents will always happen. In fact, the more you let them take the risks in a relatively controlled environment, the safer they become, because they have the experience, co-ordination and self-control to work out which physical challenges they can safely attempt. Although he was in plaster for 3 weeks, Zac was pretty much straight back on the slide and he has never fallen since. In fact both boys have had lots of fun on it, both climbing up and sliding down in as many ways as it is possible to imagine.

Stunt Pooh takes a leap!

And the slide hasn't only been used for sliding. The boys loved to drive their wheeled toys down it, propping up the end to make a launch ramp, and making toys leap the gap to a landing ramp. We also rolled balls down it to try and get them to land into a bucket or to knock over skittles.

Slide paintings.

We've used it for painting- by covering it in wallpaper lining and rolling paint-covered balls and wheeled toys down it to make tracks and patterns.
Zac once occupied himself for ages when he discovered that some little polystyrene balls which had leaked from a garden bean bag, moved in very strange ways on the slide due to the static electricity. He could "magically" make them travel up the slide by putting his finger just below them.

Homemade water slide.

The boys liked to run the hose down it and let things whizz down the "stream," even the ducks would water ski down it and into the paddling pool at the bottom, although it made it a bit too fast and slippery for the kids to try it themselves. We made a better water slide by running the hose down a big sheet of plastic on our grassy mound.

White duck enjoying herself!

So although our slide doesn't have 100% happy memories, it has given lots of enjoyment and is a good piece of equipment for thinking a bit laterally about how it can be used. We've just got it out of the shed again as we actually got some spring-like sunshine this weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing what the boys decide to do with it this year.

Here's a clip of baby Dan getting up the nerve to slide: