The early evening air has just the right sweep of fresh as we enter Landrace Park located in Dartmouth’s Woodlawn area (map). Nellie and Noah make a beeline to the baby swings. I alternate my pushes until their arcs are cutting high – Noah pushing forward, Nellie falling back, Noah pushing forward, Nellie falling back like giant shears suspended from the cross bar. This is the standard, get started routine for us at playgrounds everywhere. The swings are like old companions, familiar, safe and fun. Sitting comfortably there is the thrill of tracking higher and higher and momentarily defying gravity at the topmost point of each up beat. At this playground (photos) their location, a little off to the side, provides a perfect vantage point to contemplate the rest of the equipment.
What distinguishes Landrace from other playgrounds we’ve visited is an emphasis on climbing apparatus. In addition to the hemisphere rainbow splash monkey bars there is also a four column, square perimeter climbing challenge. This latter course would be an extreme sport for me but the older kids who can reach the bars zip through it with the greatest of ease. There’s a snake rail, standard bars with a hilly bump, straight across bars and a spiral corkscrew. They all require hand over hand agility and coordination not to mention upper body strength to pull and swing from grip to grip with torso and legs dangling.
Data from the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program show that monkey bars are a piece of playground equipment associated with a high incidence of injuries. Nearly one-third of 
events in public playgrounds are monkey bars related. This is not surprising given that body contortions and hotdogging are frequent components of aerial escapades. Our two little ones are not yet monkey bars ready. I’m sure we’ll experience our share of heart stopping moments when they start hanging upside down with their legs hooked over a bar. This kind of play is valuable in a child’s development as Barbara Burrington from the University of Vermont writes in her article, A View from the Top.
The view from the ground tonight is a lot of racing and running, Noah has a new friend Emma. She’s about three or four years older and is looking for a play chum. They start to race around the perimeter of the playground and Noah is giving it all he has streaking by with a huge grin on his face. Emma calls out to her brother who’s playing three-a-side baseball on the just mowed field, “Look at this little guy, he’s really fast.” Noah’s smile, now on high beams, expands another six inches. He and Emma are so happy with each other’s company, I’m half expecting them to run off into the sunset.
Nellie partakes sporadically in the races but her heart isn’t really in it. She leaves the competition to the older ones and runs from the bottom of the whee! point on the slide to the stairs where she can start her climb back to the top and slip slide her way down again. Nellie-Rose is a slide girl as much as Noah is swing boy. She is as at home in the toddlers’ zone as she is on the slide equipment for the older kids. As long as there are steps, our girl will get to the top.
I strike up a conversation with Richard who is here with his daughter Alexia. She’s about the same age as Noah. They do a little parallel play dance together – a giggle here, a race to the slide there, a general sticking to the same space. Nellie watches Alexia intently like there is some learning from the older girl that she can just drink in. Richard tells me about the Eastern Passage parade and his insulation businss. When it’s time to go, Alexia doesn’t want to leave. He eases her out after a few more slides. This is their neighbourhood playground, maybe we’ll meet them again when we’re back this way.
So here’s what we’ve got at Landrace Park Playground the former 19th century farm. All equipment is surrounded by pebble infill and the park itself is fenced.
1 modular unit for the toddlers with 2 slides – 1 single and 1 double, plastic cog gears, abacus and revolving animal puzzle;
1 modular unit for the older kids – 1 corkscrew, 1 bumpity-bump slide, 2-level platforms leading to the slides with plexiglass ‘window on the playground’, a climbing spring and musical bells:
1 hemisphere monkey bars;
1 square perimeter monkey bars challenge;
2 regular swings and 2 baby swings.
There are a number of spots in the neighbourhood to check out – Woodlawn Public Library , Cole Harbour Rural Heritage Farm as well as numerous shopping and restaurant locations.
If you’re arriving by car there is unmetered parking on the surrounding streets. If you’re taking public transit, the 56, 59, 61 and 58 buses all ride along this section of Portland Street.
The contents of this post may be hyperlinked, excerpted or reproduced by non-profit and not-for-profit groups. Please credit PlayGround Chronicles. Commercial reproduction of this content is prohibited without written consent from the editor.
