At the park

I have a mixed age group and I'm wondering how you keep little ones (12 months) occupied at the playground, when the equipment is geared for older kids. Ideally I would be able to go to a playground that had equipment for every age, but there is not one near us.

I bring toys for the little ones to play with in the grass, but they want to play on the climbers, which I don't think is safe for them at that age. Especially when there's more than one that age, I can't be watching each one every second, and it only takes a second to fall and split your lip. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hmm that is tough when you have more than one 'wee' one cause it gets hard to spot them all than specially if they have not spent a lot of time climbing and do not know the 'safe way' to use the climbers ~ I guess in that case I would either have them taking turns 'confined' so that I could spot them one at a time ... so put the others in a swing or in the stroller with some tray toys and than rotate them out to take turns to get competent in climbing?

It is amazing how quickly kids become competent when they are given time to practice though .... personally just let my little ones do their thing and just 'shadow' to spot when they are on climbers ~ generally with regards to playgrounds every infant I have had was already competent at the stair style ladders and crawls across, turns around and slides down slides by 13 months of age ~ they learned quickly that you do not dawdle at any 'openings' in the climber or you get REMOVED from it and so forth and I just 'redirect' them from certain areas that I do not feel comfortable with them using yet by telling em 'you need to grow a little taller to reach those' cause in reality the areas they 'should not be' they cannot reach without your help anyway and I have a rule if you cannot get up on it or down from it by yourself you need to grow some more before you can use that area ... but I only ever have one infant and the rest are all over 18 months and competent at climbing and so forth so I am comfortable with allowing them to just 'go' ... I have 18 months old who use the entire climbers competently and can climb the monkey bars and so forth because they have been spending every day for 6 months building their muscles and coordination and were determined to do it and I have 3 year olds who are content to play in the sand because well they are not interested in those 'risky' climbing things ~ all kids are different for sure.

I have a park bag filled with sidewalk chalk, balls, little shovels,several types of bubble makers and a spray bottle filled with water for cooling us down, but the 4 year old girl thinks it's the best toy yet. I let the babies go on the climbers as soon as they are brave enough to try but keep a very close eye on them at all times of course. The sooner they experiment with climbers the less fear they will have. But don't get me wrong, I don't take any chances with safety.

I currently have three under 18 months and I do not let them go on the climbers yet. I cannot safely watch them all while keeping an eye on the others. They play in the sand with sand toys etc until sometime after 18 months when I feel they are ready. It also depends on which park we go to because some parks are better for little ones than others. The one closest to us has lots of gaps so I don't let them up until the are older because it is too easy for them to get bumped off. I figure parents can let them climb when they ahve just one to watch and can go up with them. They learn the learn the rules pretty quickly and still have lots of fun :)