Tree Climber: A How-To Guide
My kids seem to have always been climbers. My theory is partly that we live next to a nice big park with natural areas and playgrounds and go there every day, giving the girls a LOT of practice in their few short years, but it also just seems innate in them to go up, up, up. They both started scaling the big-kid monkeybars at a young enough age that other parents would occasionally snatch them down and start to give me a lecture before realizing that no, lady, I am NOT the babysitter, and we are about to have ourselves a little talk.
My girls seem to feel, however, (and I have to say that I agree), that trees are MUCH better for climbing than your general, run-of-the-mill playground monkeybars. Trees are more challenging, in that the layout of their branches and the way you can climb them is different for every tree, often different for the same tree as the seasons pass. Trees are real, as opposed to the manufactured play of the monkeybars, allowing children to test their actions in the real world, as opposed to the world made for them. And trees are natural, allowing my daughters, every time they climb, to learn everything from the texture of the bark to the way branches sway in the wind to the power contained in the height of any simple tree, and the power of being in that tree for yourself.
