Country Abuzz With A Swing Set

When Barack and Michelle Obama installed a swing set for their daughters at the White House, it set the country abuzz, and prompted a lot of people to reconsider what they thought was most important for their families.

What the nation saw, watching the footage of the two young girls racing across the south lawn toward this play set, and realizing that the new First Family were trying to give them as normal a life as possible in their new circumstances, said a lot about what could be accomplished if simple family life was kept paramount.

The play set in the park has rather overshadowed the ones in the backyard for a while, making play time something more involved than just sending the kids out into the yard and watching them through the kitchen window.

But the swing set out behind the house has always remained in the background, waiting for the rebirth of both parents' and kids' imaginations, and the chance to offer a simpler form of play that involves both body and mind.

The swing set kit chosen for the Obama children is like many of the new incarnations of this kind of play assembly. The girls and their friends can climb a wall up into a fort and peek out through "bubbles" in the wall, play on the ropes, and of course use the traditional swings as well.

Attached to the swing set is a picnic table, which again demonstrates Barack and Michelle Obama's commitment to a healthy family environment. This set speaks to parental involvement and safe play; an example the nation can take to heart.

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Adding Extra Play Areas With Swing Set Accessories

This isn't your father's swing set any more. That is, the most recent incarnation of the outdoor swing set has a lot more going for it than the original metal tripods of the mid-20th century.

The very basic swing sets still exist, but are hardly ever seen any longer, given that there are so many extra swing set accessories that can be added. If you're ready and able to pay for these extras, then there are an almost infinite number of permutations you can create for a backyard set.

Leaving the mechanical fastenings aside, the real joy of swing set accessories comes when you begin to add the extra play areas. You can create a swing and slide combination at one end, and balance it on the other end with a fort reached by a ladder or climbing wall.

Throw in a wall of ropes between the two, add a punching bag or a hanging tire, and you've only just started to create a play set that still has room for further additions. If you have a mind to do it, you can make this a swing complex, rather than a mere swing set.

This is the great feature of the newest generation of swing sets; you can expand them beyond the simple "swing set" category and turn them into virtual swing sets and gyms.

Make them varied and interesting, and your kids will hardly realize they're exercising and getting into good physical shape. The basic swings have always been excellent exercise, but it's now the swing set accessories that raise them to another level entirely.

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Entertaining Your Children With Swing Sets And Many Accessories

One might use the phrase, "This isn't your father's swing set," to describe the newest incarnation of both swing sets and their accompanying accessories, because these are certainly nothing like what you or your own parents played on as kids.

The old outdoor swing sets with the metal frames and the basic swings and slide have for the most part left the scene, except in a few remaining playgrounds. What has taken over the field is a virtual wonderland of accessories to augment the original activities of swinging and sliding.

You might think of the newer type of set as a sort of "inadvertent gym" for your children. The wood swing set in particular now comes with so many accessories, like the climbing wall or the ropes, a wooden type of monkey bars or even a trapeze, that the kids almost can hardly help but get more than enough exercise as they play.

These swing sets and all the extras that come with them provide both physical and mental stimulation.

Swing sets and all their new, innovative accessories have taken play time far beyond the old, more passive days of just sitting on a swing and then sliding down a slide. These sets are now physical activity centers that have made exercise a fun experience.

How does that old saying go? "Don't tell them it's good for them." As they play and climb all over their outdoor swing set, your kids will hardly even realize they are getting a good workout while they're having a great time.


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