Children's wooden swing

Swing, perhaps the most favorite entertainment for children of preschool and primary school age. This simple attraction can take a child for several hours a day, and its compactness and relatively low price suggest an increasing number of parents the idea of ​​installing a swing in the country or even directly in the apartment. For this purpose, usually choose children's wooden swing.

Only at first glance, gadgets are more interesting to children than classic entertainment. In fact, the swing, judging by the demand and employment at the playgrounds, is always relevant. However, they are practically on any playground, which can be found in most urban yards, and they are already found everywhere in the countryside.

Why, then, to install such a device houses? The fact is that such a solution has a number of advantages.

• Tell the kid that now he will have his own swing, on which you can ride in any weather, and to which you do not need to go anywhere. Said? And now look into his eyes - there you will see the main argument in favor of their installation.
• The child is unlikely to be bored now, even if the swing is installed in a country cottage, where there are no special entertainment and friends. Parents can also relax or go about their business while their child rolls with enthusiasm.
• The situation is always under control - the child is at home houses or at the dacha, there is no need for special monitoring, hooligans are unlikely to come here and stray animals will not attack him. In addition, a public swing can form a queue, and your own is always free.

Choosing material, give preference to swing for children from a tree. Such a decision will also prove to be well-reasoned:

• Children rarely follow the rules of hygiene, so it is very important that everything around them is non-toxic. Wood - an environmentally friendly material, no problems with it;
• The cost of wood is comparatively low, especially since not so much is needed - in some models, only the seat is made of wood;
• such a gift does not even have to buy - to make a simple wooden swing do it yourself can many dads. So it will be even cheaper, and lovers of tinkering with something will surely appreciate the opportunity to please both themselves and the baby;
• You can get the necessary materials for homemade swings in any large market or in a hardware store, and the corresponding tools will be found in almost every home.

Children's wooden swings are possible as a whole with a host of variations, but most often they are divided into those that are suitable for summer cottage, and those that are more appropriate in apartment conditions. Attractions of this type, in any case, suspended, because it would be strange, unreliable and impractical to make a movable mount of wood.

The design of the swing for an apartment seems somewhat simpler: first, there are strong walls everywhere that can be used as supports, and secondly, there is little space for large rides, so individual supports, even if they are, take up little space.

Country swing almost always provide more and special supports, because they are located on the street. The only exception is the design, assuming the seat is attached to a horizontal branch of a tree, which is located quite low. However, such convenient conditions are rarely met. As for the supports, their shape may be different - resemble the letters P, L, X or A.The U-shaped form in the apartments is not used, since the basis of such a support must be concreted for stability.

Swings can also be classified according to the material of the seat with the crossbar - usually it is either a rope or a metal chain.

Children love everything bright and beautiful, so the attractive appearance of the swing will be an added bonus for which they will say “thank you”. The simplest option is to paint the finished product, giving it a different color than the woody one.

In this case, do not forget that the choice in favor of the tree is largely done because of the harmlessness of this material, so that the dye or protective impregnation must also meet this criterion.

As an additional decoration can be more complex patterns and designs - the same flowers or leaves. If you decorate the product yourself, do not take up work, not being confident in your own skills - there is a risk to spoil the whole idea. In this case, you can additionally interest the child, attracting him to decorate him - the process will obviously give the kid some pleasure. Even if the kid supposedly paints his gift himself, watch what is happening and direct his creative impulses - it is desirable that the result is still beautiful.

Other devices that are part of the frame, for example, a small ladder, can also act as a peculiar element of the decor.

You can buy children's wooden swings in the shops of any large city. But if dad has a certain experience with wood and wants to try his hand for the benefit of the family budget, then why not. Another thing is that the end result should not only look beautiful, but also be safe and safe for the child, which places additional responsibility on the manufacturer.

As already mentioned, homemade swings, in the overwhelming majority of cases, are not found in the apartment, but at the dacha - from this we will be repelled in the process description.

Actually, the first step is the choice of a place and its preparation.. It is impossible to put a swing anywhere - there are criteria that the site must meet:

• With all the safety of the home swing is still not perfect - in the end, the kid can just fall. You can go about your business while he rolls, but if the child is still quite small, it is desirable that the attraction is well viewed from your place.
• Children do not know the measures and do not know how to stop in time, and the meaning of the seesaw for them is to swing very strongly. For this reason, there should not be any obstacles near the attraction like walls or fences. Position the product at a considerable distance from such objects.
• Time in the country is usually spent in the summer, and the swings are located on the street - where the summer sun can make the conditions of stay unbearable. Installing them, clearly, it would be better in the shade to avoid the risk of sunstroke.
• Take care that there are as few threats to the health of your children as possible on the constructed playground and around it. In country conditions, attention should be paid to drafts, as well as thorny and poisonous plants.

How to make a swing with your own hands, see more in the video below.

If you find a suitable place, prepare it for the installation of the attraction.First of all, think about how to fit the swing in this place: will it not interfere with the installation of the structure, and whether it is possible to somehow use the local features for business purposes? If a clear vision of the sensible end result in your head has already matured, go to actions - level the future site and remove excess debris from it, including tall grass.

After that, make a drawing based on the features of the resulting site. When creating a sketch, draw all the main parts, including fasteners, and also indicate the dimensions of the individual parts on the drawing. Sketching itself will allow you to get a clear idea of ​​what materials and how much is needed to complete the task.

Do not even think about doing a quick-draft drawing - it’s better to lie down for a few days, and then go back to reviewing it again. Do not be lazy to come out with a sketch several times to the place of the planned installation and present in detail in your head how it fits into the terrain.

The next step is the selection and manufacture of the frame. You are fabulously lucky if there is a tree with a strong and thick, low-lying branch at the summer cottage, the plot under which fits the described requirements to the swing installation site. In this case, your frame is ready, it remains only to suspend and adjust the seat. The only thing you should pay attention to in this situation is the weight of the swing. It should be minimal, since the branch is still not a specially created support.

If the framework has to be done independently, pay attention to one of the four most common options:

• U-shaped. Nothing complicated - two vertical logs plus a crossbar. It looks very simple to implement, and even allows you to save on the material, but does not have a high stability, because of which the support must be concreted. Do not try to limit yourself to digging in, even deep - this is a huge risk to the health of your child;

• L-shaped. In this embodiment, each of the supports, on which the crossbar rests, consists of two logs, fastened according to the principle of widely spaced legs. So, of course, it is already safer, and there is also the possibility of additionally attaching a small ladder or slide;

• X-shaped. In general, such a framework is just a variation of the previous one. Here, the logs of the supports do not end at the junction, but intersect, continuing further and again diverging slightly to the sides. This design option is good because at the junction of the support and the lintel you can also add a side stop, which will increase the stability of the product;

• A-shaped. The most reliable type of frame that can withstand quite serious loads. Its use is very appropriate, if the design involves not only a swing, but also other entertainment on the same hull, be it a ladder or a rope. If there are several children in the family, and the drawing assumes that they can somehow use the attraction at the same time, give preference only to this type of frame.

Separately make the seat. Creative approach allows to reduce the amount of work to a minimum, greatly simplifying the design. A simple example - the whole attraction can look like an ordinary rather large wooden circle with a hole in the middle, in which a rope is stretched that holds it on a tree branch. The same type of seat can be fixed in the car's tire.

For those who are willing to work hard and hard, there is an option for making a full seat with a small back, or even a bench for two. If the child is quite small, only such an option will suit him with one characteristic design feature - the front bar, which does not allow the baby to fall out.

How to make a seat for a swing, see the video below.

The final stage is the installation. Start, of course, with the supports - dig holes in the right places and dig in the frame deeper, and if the structure is U-shaped, then concrete the holes. Do not spare the forces - you must be sure that the product will not fall along with the rolling child. Choose the fastening material, starting from the age and weight of children - it does not matter if it is a chain or a rope, they should be rather thick and strong. The rope or chain is first connected to the seat, and only then the whole component is suspended from the frame.

Having admitted the child to the attraction, first ask him to sit down and just sit down, and then sway him slowly and lightly. After a short test, examine the state of the structure as a whole, including at the interface with the ground. During further operation, do not forget to periodically re-check the status of the product.

Children are the most valuable thing in a person's life, therefore, when creating or buying an attraction, it is important to ensure that it meets all safety requirements. Here are just a few typical conditions:

• The use of materials with an insufficient degree of strength is unacceptable. This applies to both fasteners and the wooden part of the swing, including the seat. All wooden parts are recommended to make from durable wood, which include oak, birch and spruce. The latter is also good due to the fact that it contains a lot of resin, thanks to which it tolerates street conditions. Wood should be homogeneous, any cracks and knots should be perceived as risk factors.
• A wooden cut can be sharp enough to cut about it; besides, wood is always dangerous with splinters. For this reason, the entire surface of the wood must be carefully treated to a state of perfect smoothness.
• Operation in the conditions of the street makes a mandatory requirement - additional processing of the product with paints and varnishes, but first make sure that they are completely non-toxic and harmless. Children love to pull everything in their mouths, so the likelihood of harmful lacquer material getting into their body is very high.
• When choosing a design, be guided by the age of your children. For the smallest, it is obligatory to have a front retainer plate, which simply will not allow them to fall out, even with a strong swing. Seat option, which is an ordinary board without any backs and handles, leave for those children who have already turned 10 years old.

The rules, the observance of which allows one to enjoy the operation of the seesaw, are very simple and quite logical to follow them instinctively, but we still repeat them again just in case:

• Even in your own yard, you can leave your baby on a swing alone unattended only if he has reached at least primary school age. In all other cases, the probability of falling is quite high, so you need not just observation, but the presence and control of the situation. In the case of older children, injuries are possible due to the desire to swing as much as possible.
• Riding on swing Not only pleasant, but also useful, but everything useful is good only in moderation. Riding on a swing for a couple of hours a day is quite acceptable, all day - no.
• Even the most reliable structures break down over time, so it is necessary to regularly check the condition of the product.This is especially true for those swings, which are made, albeit diligently, but not by the most experienced master - there is always the possibility that he simply did not take into account some specific points.