How to Design Better Water Playgrounds for Kids
Like any playground, a water playground doesn’t exist behind a fence and gates. There’s no need for tickets, you just walk up, get underneath a water toy and get splashed! Water playgrounds can be part of municipal parks and community centers, hotels and resorts, condominium developments or as part of larger water parks.
So how do you make something where children of all ages can run and jump, all while getting splashed with water from colorful splash pad equipment? The answer goes back to the “playground” part of the name, and the idea that, very often, the less structured your play is, the more fun it can be.
3 Ways to Make a Water Playground More Fun
Of course, considering it’s made up of water play structures, it’s not like you can offer a completely “unstructured” play experience. But what you can do is give your guests more options for play and the space to come up with their own ideas.
Take Care in the Design Phase – You can start to solve problems and increase the use and enjoyment of your playground as soon as you start its design. Always with safety as a priority, make sure each play feature has enough room around it including to line up at its entrance and to avoid crowds at the exit—like at the foot of a water slide.
Create Different Play Areas – If you can section the space into different play areas, it can help the whole space feel larger and more interesting. You can create different areas accordion to the types of features in that area, like a spray park area and a splash pad area. If you have a wading pool, it can be a section by itself.
Use Themes – A bright, colorful and fun way to add another dimension of enjoyment is to create areas with different themes. Getting sprayed by creative storybook characters and then climbing onto a candy-themed spray boat is just more fun.
3 Tips to Choose Water Playground Features
One of the biggest problems in choosing water park features is, once everything is safe to use and built to code, the rest is limited only by your imagination. But, when you learn how to choose your equipment, you’ll start to make the problem of having too much choice a smaller one.
Budget & Park Size – Of course, whatever features you choose, you need to know they fit within your budget and that you have space in your design. If budget is an issue, consider financing options, including sponsorships. Regardless of the size of your park, it’s important to include a mix of features to create a more interesting experience for your visitors. So be careful not to include too many of one type of feature within the space you have.
Ease of Installation & Maintenance – Even if you have the perfect mix of features in mind, installation and maintenance headaches and costs can make them the wrong choice. Some water playground features, like Aquatoys Plug n Play, include their own water pumps to eliminate the need to install water lines to every feature. And their lifetime corrosion warranty means fewer maintenance headaches too.
Pick a Theme – Whether it’s pirates, farm life or space exploration, choosing a theme for your water features can influence your entire park design, look and feel. If you think that having a theme will help you deliver a better experience, you should plan for it sooner than later.
Contact Premier Park & Play for more information about water play equipment now!
This post was originally posted in https://www.watertoys.com/uncategorized/how-to-make-water-playgrounds-even-better-for-kids/ and https://www.watertoys.com/tips/how-to-choose-features-for-your-water-playground/