By Alex McCuaig

Natural playgrounds

Natural playground seeks to brings kids outdoors

Sep 23, 2019 | 5:36 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – Central Park will be the bellwether for a new concept in children’s play – natural playgrounds.

The concept is to engage youngsters by utilizing sensory all of their sensory experiences via various building materials, said Adam Bienenstock of Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds.

“We’ve been invited here to have a conversation with Kiwanis and the community about how do we better connect to everything that nature offers in our urban centre,” said Bienenstock. “Medicine Hat is an unusually progressive group and the people in your parks’ department who really do want to think about those experiences that might be missing from kids’ lives.”

He said the idea is not to have a play structure with a singular method of use.

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“It’s the non-prescriptive view. We don’t have a way you should use this so it isn’t one standard route or one standard game,” he said.

Jennifer Usher, chair of the Medicine Hat Early Childhood Coalition, said the idea is to engage kids in activities which will bring them out into the neighbourhood.

“Natural playgrounds really brings kids back to the outdoors, brings them back to building a really nice childhood memory of being outdoors and exploring nature,” said Usher.

The playground will be located in the southwest corner of the park and replace existing hard structure play equipment current on the site.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2020.