Every daycare center needs a good playground where children can play with one another and get some much needed outdoors time. Such activities should always be supervised by a responsible daycare worker who enforces strict safety rules. After all, many parents have entrusted your daycare to look after their children, so it is your duty to ensure they stay safe on the playground.
Here five vital playground safety rules to help keep children safe.
1. Go Down Slides Feet First
Slides are one of the most common attractions at playgrounds. Many children view going down slides as the thrilling reward for the tiring climb they have to make to get up one. However, the thrill of going down a slide feet-first can wear off after repeating this process dozens of times.
It is at this point that some children might attempt to go down the slide sitting sideways or even head-first. Needless to say, this is incredibly dangerous.
Going down a slide in an orientation other than feet-first could result in serious injuries because the child won’t be able to reach a safe stop at the bottom. For this reason, daycare owners should put up a sign on every slide offering a friendly reminder to go down them feet-first.
2. Don’t Stand Near Swings When They Are in Use
Swings are another common playground attraction that children love to ride on. The feel of swinging back and forth quickly and experiencing the rush of speed is something that many children crave. However, this speed can also be the cause of many accidents.
It isn’t uncommon for children to accidentally stand in front of or behind a swing when it is in use. Such children receive a painful reminder about the swing seat’s pendulum-like return motion only once it swings back and hits them.
For this reason, you should teach children to avoid standing near swings when they are in use. This rule will help prevent a large number of potentially serious accidents, so it is one that should be emphasized repeatedly.
3. Don’t Throw Sand or Rocks
Children love to get one other’s attention in different ways. This could be sneaking up behind a friend and startling them. In other cases, they may attempt to gain someone’s attention by throwing sand or rocks at them.
Unfortunately, most children don’t realize the potential physical and mental harm that this can cause. Sand can get into a child’s eyes and cause serious damage. Similarly, being struck by rocks can leave cuts and bruises.
For this reason, it is best to set up a rule against throwing sand or rocks at other children.
4. Wait for Your Turn
Many children learn about the virtue of being patient by waiting to play with toys. However, others may have trouble exercising patience at the playground.
Children who are eager to get on playground attractions such as slides and swings may occasionally force other children out of the way to get to them. In other cases, they may even push other children off these rides when they are in use.
This is troubling behavior because it could potentially endanger a child’s life. For example, a child pushing another child off a slide before they are in the correct sitting position could result in serious injuries.
Therefore, you should implement a rule that tells children to wait for their turn.
5. Never Wander Off
Every daycare should strive to keep track of the children under its care at all times. However, there are only so many children a daycare worker can keep an eye on at any given moment.
For this reason, they might not notice if a child wanders off alone. This could be dangerous as the child may end up leaving the daycare property and get lost. In extreme cases, they may even get abducted by a stranger.
The only way to stop this from happening is to set a strict rule against wandering off.
Keeping Children Safe at Daycare Playgrounds
The playground safety rules described above are important if you want to keep children safe at your daycare. So consider listing them down on a large readable sign and reminding children about them before allowing them to play in the playground. It could be the key to keeping them safe.
Commenti