Blog Archives

Greenwood Park

7/29/2017

Area: North East Pickering

Age Range: 18 months and up

Parking: large parking lot on site at Greenwood Community Centre

Ground Cover: mulch

Main Equipment:

2 slides
2 swings
2 infant swings
2 rock climbing walls (double sided!)

Accessibility Features: none

Facilities/Other:

small green park space beside the playground
1 softball field with lights
1 tennis court with lights
Greenwood Community Centre
seasonal washroom (portable)

Surrounding Park Area: small green space

Seating: 2 park benches beside the park, a couple of picnic tables beside the community centre

Shade: no shade over the playground itself, some shade provided in the afternoon from the neighbouring trees beside the playground

Overall assessment: This tucked away playground is a great choice for younger kids who like having the playground and swings all to themselves. With no competition for the rock walls with older kids, our little climber loved scaling as high as she could go and then jumping off (a whopping 2 feet off the ground haha). I also felt comfortable just sitting back and watching her run around without any issue. I did however sit with my back to the grassy hill that leads down to the park road entrance as we did visit with some friends and boy do younger toddlers love running down hills! Eloise gave this park a full one thumb up because she was never asked to share the swings, which are her favourite park equipment currently.

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Mississauga Jaycee Park

7/28/2017

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Area: East Mississauga

Age Range: 18 months-12 years (best for 4-12 years)

Parking: limited street parking on Gulleden Drive

Ground Cover: recycled rubber surfacing and mulch

Main Equipment:

2 tall slides, 2 toddler slides
2 swings
1 infant swing
1 bucket swing
1 saucer swing
1 trampoline (yes that's right there is a small in ground trampoline!)
1 gravity spinner
multiple climbing structures and rope bridge
sand pit
music area

Accessibility Features: 1 saucer swing, 1 bucket swing, 2 toddler slides, trampoline, music stations

Facilities/Other:

small green park space

Surrounding Park Area: green space and walking path (connects to other parks via sidewalk)

Seating: multiple poured concrete seating walls, rocks, and some park benches and picnic tables throughout the park

Shade: no shade over the playground itself, but shade provided from the surrounding trees throughout the green space of the park

Overall assessment: This was the perfect sized playground to let our 3.5 year old run wild! She loved the hill between the toddler slides and the larger play structure as it was the perfect slope to run down towards the trampoline. Yes! There was an in ground trampoline and it was amazing! The perfect size for one person at a time (it says ages 5-12 but toddlers loved it too). She needed a bit of help climbing up the rock wall to the larger slides as her legs weren't quite long enough to reach the next climbing rock, but the rope bridge was a great skill builder for her (she went VERY slowly across it). Luckily for us this park isn't too far away from family in Etobicoke and we most certainly will be going out of our way to visit it again whenever we are in the area! Did I mention it has a TRAMPOLINE?!?

This park was chosen as one of Canada's 150 coolest playgrounds

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Toronto Grange Park

7/23/2017

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Area: Downtown Toronto

Age Range: best for 5-12 years (but our 3.5 year old loved it too because it was challenging for her)

Parking: limited street parking in the area, best to look up Green P Parking lots (close to Spadina or north on McCaul; both which require 5-10 minute walk to get to the park)
Can also take the subway to St Patrick station (8 minute walk)

Ground Cover: mulch

Main Equipment:

2 tall slides, 2 shorter slides
2 saucer swings
1 infant swing
1 swing seat
multiple climbing structures and rope bridges
multiple spinners and rockers under the larger play structure

Accessibility Features: 2 saucer swings

Facilities/Other:

splash pad jets in the pavement (between play structures)
fenced leash free dog park

Surrounding Park Area: green spaces, a field, and large shady trees

Seating: multiple park benches around the park

Shade: a lot of shade provided from the surrounding trees over some of the park benches as well as parts of the play structures (depending on the time of day)

Overall assessment: Wow! Talk about a playground that's challenging and builds risk assessment skills! With so many unique and fun structures to climb, including the top of many structures, it's no wonder this park is always very busy! The slides are all metal but don't get hot in the sun and even though the tall slides appear fast, they slow kids down the entire way down and taper off at the end so even our 3.5 year old could handle them (apologies couldn't get any pictures of the larger structure as it was crawling with kids and my belief is our site photos shouldn't include anyone else's kids in the shots). We could have spent hours here but sadly it was lunch time and we forgot to bring a picnic so we had to leave. Whenever we are downtown in the area though we will definitely be heading back to this playground!

This park was chosen as one of Canada's 150 coolest playgrounds

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West Side Park

7/9/2017

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Area: Southwest Bowmanville

Age Range: infant to 5 yrs

Parking:
Weekdays: some street parking on West Side Drive (opposite side of the street from the park)
Weekends: large parking lot at Dr. Ross Tilley public school on West Side Drive

Ground Cover: sand

Main Equipment:

2 infant swings
3 slides

Accessibility Features: none

Facilities/Other:

see West Side Park Splash Pad post
1 Soccer Pitch

Surrounding Park Area: green spaces, fields, and large shady trees

Seating: 2 park benches between the park and splash pad

Shade: shade structure over both park benches, some shade in surrounding trees

Overall assessment: A little toddler park next to a small splash pad post.

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Country Lane Park

7/9/2017

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Area: Northwest Whitby

Age Range: infant and up

Parking:
Weekdays: some street parking off of Randolph Ave just across from the playground
Weekends: large parking lot at Captain Michael Vandenbos Public School on Country Lane beside park

Installed: 2019 *UPDATED Review*

Ground Cover: mulch

Main Equipment:

4 swings
2 infant swings
1 bucket swing
5 slides
1 merry go round
1 music station
2 sand pit diggers
multiple rock walls and climbing apparatus

Accessibility Features: bucket swing in the smaller play structure area, music station, lemonade stand, sand scoop station, seats on merry go round

Facilities/Other:

see Country Lane Park Splash Pad post
2 Baseball Diamonds
seasonal washroom (portable potty) by far ball diamond field
1 Soccer Pitch
1 Basketball court

Surrounding Park Area: green spaces, fields, and large shady trees

Seating: three park benches facing the toddler playground, one facing the sand pit with an entire curved rock wall for additional seating, and two facing the splash pad

Shade: shade in morning over part of the toddler structure, surrounding trees offer plenty of shade, and after we visited they were scheduled to install a sun shade over the sand pit (see the tall posts in my pictures)

Overall assessment: With a lot of trees, paths, and open field space, it is easy to make this playground and adjacent splash pad a picnic spot for a day trip! 2019 UPDATE: a lot of new climbing features and accessible features have been added to this newly renovated playground and it is being used a lot my by the younger kids in the community now (so I am told). They also have put in a few Biba Playground App features which include relay races, scavenger hunts, and some augmented reality games so that the kids will WANT to come back to explore this park some more this summer!