Geometric Dome Climbers Build Skills
A geometric dome climber is an excellent backyard play structure that helps your child’s development in several ways. Children playing on a geometric dome playground develop confidence, balance, strength, agility, and courage. The geometric dome is perfect for children between the ages of 3 and 10 and there are several different versions to match the needs of your family.
All kids seem to love to climb as soon as they can walk a little bit, they immediately start climbing next. From about 18 months on little toddlers are climbing everything. Most geometric dome climbers are designed for kids as young as 3 years old with close adult supervision. By the time they are 5 years old expect to see them climbing the whole thing forward and backward with ease. Parental supervision still highly recommended.
Benefits of Climbing on Geometric Dome Climber
Kids love climbing it is super fun. It can help develop many important skills in young children and at the same time being an excellent outlet for physical exercise. These domes are excellent for physical activity for kids and help improve many important qualities that will help them be successful as they get older.
- Climbing builds confidence in children
- The activity enhances hand, foot, eye coordination
- Picking where to go develops problem-solving skills
- Climbing improves overall strength, endurance, and flexibility
Confidence Builder
A geometric dome climber is an excellent outdoor play structure to help your child build confidence through play. Climbing up and around a geodesic dome play structure is not as simple as a regular climbing structure. They require a lot of good decision-making while being active and navigating a route to where the child wants to go. A climbing dome is fun with friends for cooperative play. It also can be used independently or when spending buddy time with dad outside in the backyard.
Improve Balance
Learning to have complete control of the body’s position is a good skill for children to develop. The unique shape of a geometric dome climber means there are lots of ways for your child to push their balancing capabilities further. Due to the curvature of the dome, the body of the climber is immediately put into new and unusual positions that muscles must work in ways they do not normally operate. This is excellent for improving body awareness, hand-eye coordination, posture control, and the ability to sense changes in balance and maintain control.
Build Strength
A geometric dome climber helps your child build muscle strength as they climb with their legs and arms and use all of their core stabilizing muscles to maintain balance and control. A geometric dome climber can be climbed from the outside or the inside and even with the child upside down. Your child will be immediately building muscle strength and muscular endurance when the play on a geometric climbing dome. By holding on and dangling from the frame your child will improve their grip strength in their hands. This is in the same sense as the classic playground monkey bars which hanging from the top of the dome is like.
Improve Agility
Like balance, agility is the capability of being in motion and have a controlled stop, change direction, and continue moving. The geodesic dome design is perfect for agility training in young kids. Kids will naturally climb all over the dome-like spider going from one connection hub to the next as they scale up and down working on their agility the entire time. As a child improves their overall balance and strength their agility will also improve. These types of play structures heighten that focus of agility over just balance like a balance beam.
Instill Courage
The geometric climbing dome while generally a very safe play structure especially when installed on a soft grassy lawn has an element of danger with the openings in between all the bars. These are large enough that they can fit a child and they can fall through. It is also possible to miss a hand grab or slip a foot on a geometric climbing dome and get a little scared from the uneasy footing. Overcoming these fears and hesitations is important in your child’s development and being willing to be courageous and have fun. With a little bit of encouragement and practice, most kids can learn the basics of climbing on a dome quickly. This is an excellent backyard play structure for independent play and fun with groups of friends alike.
Build Social Skills
A climbing dome generally can withstand anywhere from 600 to 1000lbs of weight depending on the brand and model. These are excellent play structures that can be enjoyed with a group of kids all at the same time. Climbing domes let kids take physical risks together and enjoy the social bonds that develop from pushing yourself to physical limits with good buddies.
Let Their Imagination Run Wild
Geometric domes are a ton of fun aside from being such a great climbing structure they also serve as a quick fort and a way to let your child’s imagination run wild. Buying a dome with an attachable canopy or designing a homemade covering turns the geometric dome into an instant fort. Geometric dome forts are perfect places to let your child’s creativity and imagination play by themselves or with friends. Setting up a canvas shade between a few trees is an alternative way to provide shade to the play structure for a covered play area. This keeps the dome open for climbing on the outside.
Kid Ninja Skills
Dad’s that are looking for a unique structure to incorporate into their kids’ ninja training. Should consider this kind of backyard structure for their course. A geometric climbing dome is awesome for climbing and crawling through. Having a geometric dome to move around in your backyard ninja course is a fun way to change a course. These domes are lightweight and can be moved from place to place to try different designs. A geometric climbing dome can take a lot of weight. Even if you have several people playing, the climber is made for taking a lot of abuse and rough play.
Some Parents Don’t Approve
Some parents feel that geometric climbing domes and metal play structures, in general, are not safe. It is important to share with other parents’ information about the play structure before in case they have any concerns about these types of climbing structures.
There have been many local governments that have removed large metal play structures from playgrounds. Across the country, there are stories of kids getting hurt and governments taking down the structure due to liabilities. These removals have caused concern for parents about backyard versions of the same toys. Most geometric dome climbers available for residential use are designed with safety in mind. They are also not gigantic versions like some of the problem structures installed in public parks.
The smaller geometric climbing domes are not a serious safety issue. When a fall occurs the reduced height limits the danger. Most domes are designed in a way if a child slips they will fall through and not get stuck. As with any activity that is geared around climbing age-appropriate adult supervision is important to avoid a serious accident.
Inconclusion
Don’t let rare instances of kids getting hurt on public park climbers sway you. A geometric dome for your backyard playground is perfect if your child loves to climb. A geometric climbing dome is a great way to build your child’s physical skills such as balance, strength, endurance, and agility while pushing them to try new things and take risks all while in the safety of your backyard. These domes are a hit and designed to get years of play out of them so well worth the investment of a few hundred dollars and an afternoon getting it all assembled.