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The only anecdote I can share about this comes from the time my family was touring a local day camp. On the tour, they showed us everything: archery, fishing,

The only anecdote I can share about this comes from the time my family was touring a local day camp. On the tour, they showed us everything: archery, fishing, swimming, ropes, and everything else you could think of. At one point, we came to a massive, 10 foot high pile of dirt. The kids immediately ran for the dirt pile and the parents' reactions were a 50/50 mix of "Awesome" or "What are you building here?" I knew this was the camp for my kid when they explained, the pile of dirt was just that. A big pile of dirt for the kids to play in. It complemented the big pile of rocks that they also had.

function_seven 7y ago
I remember when I was 7 years old and my dad was working on our back yard. Up until that point, the yard was just weeds and dirt. But now we were going to get sod to cover it all. First step was to bring in a mountain of good soil. That soil mountain was piled 6' high for a week, and I spent a lot of time playing on it. (My brother: "You know that pile is half cow shit, right?" ... Me: "Don't care")
- rags2riches 7y ago
  The large piles of firewood before it had been stacked were great fun. The hayloft is of course a classic playground. And a gravel pit (the site where gravel is mined) is quite exciting...
  - function_seven 7y ago
    Ha. Now you just reminded me of my other favorite playground. The rock quarry by our house. It was private land full of ravines and (in the winter/spring) small streams. In wetter seasons, one of the pits would flood with muddy water. When we were younger we'd climb the fence and go adventuring. As we got older, it was bolt cutters to get the gate open and ride our ATCs out there. If you saw a truck in the distance, it was time to scatter. I'm pretty sure the cops/security back then were content with us running away.
  - frosted-flakes 7y ago
    > The hayloft is of course a classic playground. I can feel the itching already.
GaryNumanVevo 7y ago
probably my favorite childhood memory: my grandfather ordered a large dumptruck of sand for our tiny hand dug pond in our backyard, in an attempt to make a beach. needless to say, as a younger boy, seeing a towering (maybe 8-10ft. height) pile of sand was amazing, I put on my swimming trunks, sunscreen and grabbed a bucket and shovel. i spent hours just digging holes and making sand castles in the hot sun of a kansas summer, I think my parents were relieved that I was off the computer for a significant portion of time.
- Mirioron 7y ago
  That's what me and my friends used to do when we were young. We had a construction sites that just sat there for years. We'd build entire towns from sand, when playing outside.
twic 7y ago
Me and a mate used to go out into the local woods, find little streams, and dam them.
- learc83 7y ago
  That was by far my favorite childhood activity. I must have built dozens of dams on various creeks over the years.
  - cmrx64 7y ago
    I only fell through the ice once going over our makeshift bridge/dam... great times indeed :)
- fatnoah 7y ago
  Very nice. I was also into amateur civil engineering as a kid.
- rags2riches 7y ago
  I am often more excited than my children when we find a good stream to dam.
taneq 7y ago
That sounds like a good camp. From the kids' perspective, that big pile of rocks would be equally good whether it was stable and safe to climb on, or some 1-ton rock was teetering ready to crush the first child to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's up to the playground designer to make sure it's the former and not the latter. The playground should feel a little dangerous and let kids climb things, fall off, get bumps and scrapes. It shouldn't contain genuine life-threatening hazards.

function_seven 7y ago

I remember when I was 7 years old and my dad was working on our back yard. Up until that point, the yard was just weeds and dirt. But now we were going to get sod to cover it all. First step was to bring in a mountain of good soil. That soil mountain was piled 6' high for a week, and I spent a lot of time playing on it. (My brother: "You know that pile is half cow shit, right?" ... Me: "Don't care")

rags2riches 7y ago
The large piles of firewood before it had been stacked were great fun. The hayloft is of course a classic playground. And a gravel pit (the site where gravel is mined) is quite exciting...
- function_seven 7y ago
  Ha. Now you just reminded me of my other favorite playground. The rock quarry by our house. It was private land full of ravines and (in the winter/spring) small streams. In wetter seasons, one of the pits would flood with muddy water. When we were younger we'd climb the fence and go adventuring. As we got older, it was bolt cutters to get the gate open and ride our ATCs out there. If you saw a truck in the distance, it was time to scatter. I'm pretty sure the cops/security back then were content with us running away.
- frosted-flakes 7y ago
  > The hayloft is of course a classic playground. I can feel the itching already.

GaryNumanVevo 7y ago

probably my favorite childhood memory: my grandfather ordered a large dumptruck of sand for our tiny hand dug pond in our backyard, in an attempt to make a beach. needless to say, as a younger boy, seeing a towering (maybe 8-10ft. height) pile of sand was amazing, I put on my swimming trunks, sunscreen and grabbed a bucket and shovel. i spent hours just digging holes and making sand castles in the hot sun of a kansas summer, I think my parents were relieved that I was off the computer for a significant portion of time.

Mirioron 7y ago
That's what me and my friends used to do when we were young. We had a construction sites that just sat there for years. We'd build entire towns from sand, when playing outside.

twic 7y ago

Me and a mate used to go out into the local woods, find little streams, and dam them.

learc83 7y ago
That was by far my favorite childhood activity. I must have built dozens of dams on various creeks over the years.
- cmrx64 7y ago
  I only fell through the ice once going over our makeshift bridge/dam... great times indeed :)
fatnoah 7y ago
Very nice. I was also into amateur civil engineering as a kid.
rags2riches 7y ago
I am often more excited than my children when we find a good stream to dam.

taneq 7y ago

That sounds like a good camp. From the kids' perspective, that big pile of rocks would be equally good whether it was stable and safe to climb on, or some 1-ton rock was teetering ready to crush the first child to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's up to the playground designer to make sure it's the former and not the latter. The playground should feel a little dangerous and let kids climb things, fall off, get bumps and scrapes. It shouldn't contain genuine life-threatening hazards.