How to use this blog

PlayGround Chronicles takes three commonly used platforms and pulls together most of the information you’ll need to help choose a playground that’s outside of your usual orbit.

Google Maps – The PlayGround Chronicles (HRM) Map is a useful tool to locate playgrounds around the city. We’re just a few hits shy of the 5,000 views mark. There are a lot of playgrounds still in need of plotting.

View Larger Map

Green placemarkers indicate that the playground has been added to the blog and an album of photos in Picasa. They’re ready to go with the exception of updates, or information received from readers.

Yellow placemarkers indicate the playground has been identified but not yet added to the blog or to the Picasa photo albums.

Clicking on a placemarker opens an information box. Each information box for green placemarkers provides the name of the playground, a link to the blog and a direct link to the post for that specific playground. The information box for yellow placemarkers includes the name of the playground and the message, ‘blog post coming soon’.

In the large map mode, all playgrounds are listed alphabetically in a column on the left hand side of the page. Clicking on a placemarker in this mode also provides a street view option under the ‘more’ pull down menu. Many, but not all, playgrounds are visible using street view.

Metro Transit bus stops are embedded in the map. They become visible when the scales in the bottom left hand corner of the map are listed as 200 ft. and 100 m. Clicking on the bus stop icon opens an information box that provides the bus routes that service the stop and an option to get directions. Clicking on ‘directions’ opens a dialogue box at the top of left hand column of the map. There are four options in the box’s pull down ‘directions’ menu one of which is ‘public transit’.

Picasa Web Albums – PlayGround Chronicles photos are available for browsing and downloading at this location. The Gallery main page looks something like this.

Clicking through on a photo in the gallery view brings you to the full album – generally in the range of 15 to 30 photos. They can be viewed individually or as a slide show. Ordering of the albums is limited to a by date function. However, each blog post has a direct link to its corresponding photo album.

I do my best to capture the equipment from a variety of angles with some attention to points of access – steps, ladders, climbing ropes, stairs. Clicking through individual photos within albums enables you to see, near the top of the right hand column, the date a photo was taken. Any feed back on this visual tool is greatly appreciated.

If you have archival photos of Halifax area playgrounds that no longer exist, I would be very interested in seeing them. It doesn’t matter how old, or how recent the photos are simply that the playground or the equipment no longer exists.

The blog – PlayGround Chronicles – The blog brings the other two platforms together and adds a touch of narrative. This is where I, and anyone else who is interested in contributing, gets to prattle on a bit and occasionally editorialize about the importance of imaginative playspaces and regular physical activity from a young age. If you are interested in doing a review, please contact me at playground.chronicles@gmail.com.

Each blog post provides direct links back to the Google map and the Picasa Web Albums. In addition, in the right hand column, there is an email subscription option, links to the Google Map, Picasa Web Albums and other playground bloggers and a directory with an alphabetical listing of reviewed playgrounds with direct links for each playground to photos and blog posts.

I continue to tweak the blog within the parameters of the WordPress template. For example, the tabs below the masthead evolve on an ongoing basis. I’m considering removing the “Local Playground News” tab and sharing related information through a Facebook page.

The municipality has just introduced a major tweak by means of a new online tool that makes finding playgrounds in Halifax a lot easier. A comprehensive list of playgrounds is now available for the first time that is searchable by community. This is an excellent resource for parents and caregivers and will certainly be a big help to PlayGround Chronicles in building the review and photo inventory.

A quick estimate indicates that approximately 75% of the listed playgrounds are mapped. A brief review of this resource shows that some fine tuning may be required in relation to playground plotting on the maps (some of the markers are not exactly where they should be) and inclusion of all playgrounds in given communities. These are small adjustments given the time and effort that has gone into this first ever online list. Although the function for accessing a full HRM map with all playgrounds plotted may be there, I have not been able to find it.

HRM thanks for a great tool.

Happy playgrounding…..