We install a sports corner for children at home
To realize a child's dream of your own corner for games and sports, it is not enough to place a wall bars in the room. To do this, you need to create a sports corner for children that meets first of all safety requirements, so that the structure is as safe and durable as possible. And, of course, for the child to be comfortable playing physical exercises, this is the same toy, only big and strong.
Sports corner for children: basic requirements for the design and equipment of the set
Indoor sports corners can be classified as follows:
- play equipment for a child from 1 to 3 years old;
- construction for children 3-7 years old for initial physical development with play elements;
- a classic gymnastic corner for children aged 8 to 14;
- a corner for keeping fit and doing sports with sports and rehabilitation equipment.
It is quite possible to create a similar design yourself in a small area of \ u200b \ u200bthe children's room, especially when you consider that with self-assembly, the cost will be 2-3 times less than the finished corner from the store.
The second important point in the decision to build everything with your own hands is the ability to control the child during his classes, gradually giving him the opportunity to study independently.
When starting the construction, you need to clearly understand and see all the nuances of the location of the shells, their configuration and availability for the child. Having assembled an entry-level structure, over time, you can remake the sports corner in accordance with the age and height of the child.
Safety and reliability of the structure are the main requirements
Be that as it may, but the issue of the safety of the facility for the baby and others in any case should come first for any type of sports facility. This applies to both self-assembled and purchased in a store. For safety reasons, a sports corner for children should provide:
- stability when exposed to any types of loads;
- strength of connections of all units and parts;
- correspond in size to the age category of the child;
- do not have protrusions, untreated electric welding seams or joints of wooden parts dangerous for a child;
- exclude even the theoretical possibility of entangling the child in ropes and ropes;
- it is imperative to provide that the sports ladder on the wall has a safety mat.
Installation and fastening of sports equipment should be done in such a way that the complex does not block the free space for emergency evacuation from the room in the event of a fire, does not block the passage and does not block the window.
Before you make a children's sports corner with your own hands, you need to decide on the place of its installation. When choosing attachment points to the wall, ceiling and floor, you must first check for hidden wiring, routing for laying water pipes and pipes of the heating system.Do not install metal structures obstructing access to the outlet, switch, valves of engineering systems.
And of course local conditions:
- there should be enough space for games;
- inclined boards or slides should not rest on beds or chairs;
- glass door inserts should be at a safe distance from swings, rope and rope ladders.
What can a sports corner for children in an apartment consist of?
The standard home gym equipment set generally has few choices. Traditionally, it includes such sports equipment for children:
- wall bars as the basis of the sports corner;
- hinged horizontal bar-bars;
- rope;
- rope ladder;
- trapezoid;
- rings;
- swing;
- rope ladder;
- inclined board.
- for insurance, a sports gymnastic mat;
- if the dimensions of the apartment allow, a small basketball backboard with a ring and a net.
Gradually, while the child grows up, the sports corner for children in the apartment will be modified, some shells will be added, while others, on the contrary, will be removed. So, a very important sloping board with a smooth surface will gradually change its purpose, and from a slide it will become a press board. The swing, which is simply necessary for a 3-6 year old child, will gradually become a place of rest for a teenager and absolutely unnecessary for a boy or girl by the age of 16-17.
And if a sports corner with your own hands is built once and for the rest of your life, then it is better to immediately foresee the possibility of using the design for several options for the child's age from infancy to adolescence.
On the other hand, the use of a modular building system will make it possible to make the game on it more meaningful and interesting, because by using an artificial rock and a mesh frame, a series of crossbars and a vertical pipe, and of course the upper tier in the form of a platform at a height of 1.5 meters from the floor ... With such equipment, the corner can be a spaceship, a pirate frigate, or an impenetrable jungle.
But the sports corner for the little ones must necessarily include a swing and a slide, this set, combined with a Swedish wall, is enough for a child to learn to coordinate his movements and to be able to play independently in the room.
The main structural elements of the sports corner
Whichever version of the sports home complex is chosen, there are basic elements. Their installation is required.
Swedish wall
When constructing a children's sports corner with your own hands, it is difficult to offer the best option for a structure frame. The stable frame structure of the wall bars can be successfully installed both against the wall and in the corner of the room and even be used as a partition for decorating areas in the room. Two types of material are used for the base - wood and profile pipe.
Wood is preferable in terms of aesthetics, its noble look with natural fiber lines makes the room more interesting and lively, but metal is suitable for large, really sports loads. True, to work with metal, you need to have skills in working with locksmith tools, including electric welding. A do-it-yourself photo of the Swedish wall shows that its design is relatively simple and you will need it for it:
- bars or boards 50 mm thick for sidewalls;
- round elements with a thickness of 20 to 50 mm, depending on the age of the child;
- power tool for processing and drilling wood;
- fasteners and metal perforated elements for wall installation.
The assembly and installation technology of the Swedish wall provides:
- The surface treatment of the side bars is primary, to give the same shape and finishing in the form of final cleaning of the surface before painting.
- Marking and drilling holes for crossbars in the uneven bars.
- Bonding the structure.
- Preparation of holes for attachments - platform, horizontal bar, suspension for other shells.
- Painting with colored and colorless varnish.
- Installing the ladder in place, securing it to the wall, ceiling and floor.
For apartments with a standard height of 2.5 meters, the bars are taken with a length of 2.50-2.55 meters. The width of the timber must be at least 10cm. The crossbeams have a diameter:
- for children under 3 years old - 2.0 cm;
- age category up to 6 years old - 3-4 cm;
- for teenagers - up to 5 cm;
It is better to assemble a sports corner for children in a wooden apartment from hardwood, the strength of the joints of the parts will be more reliable in this case, and the tree itself will be much safer. But when painting it is better to use varnish with light-colored additives - light wood is better suited for a children's room.
Crossbar and parallel bars
A sports corner for a child in an apartment with only one Swedish wall would be incomplete, at least monofunctional without a crossbar and parallel bars. For kids, the crossbar is important as the main structure on which most of the equipment is suspended, but for the older ones it is important as an independent sports equipment.
For a wooden Swedish wall, you can offer to make two versions of the crossbar:
- wooden non-removable structure;
- mobile construction made of metal.
Making a sports complex with your own hands, it is not difficult to make drawings of a fixed crossbar - this is the same wooden board 50 mm thick and 150 mm wide. The crossbar itself can be either a metal pipe or made of wood. Fastening to the wall bars with regular or furniture bolts. The structure can be strengthened by adding plywood inserts with a thickness of 20-25 mm as reinforcement.
Children's sports corners for the house with suspended equipment, in addition to fixing points in the wall and floor, are additionally reinforced with an attachment point in the ceiling above the crossbar. The shells themselves are attached to the crossbar, to special carbines, metal rings, chains, or rope.
The wooden crossbar must be sanded with sandpaper and opened with 3-4 layers of varnish.
The removable metal construction is a versatile system that includes a horizontal bar and parallel bars. The structure is welded from a metal corner or a profile pipe. This element will be in great demand in a sports corner for a boy. It is used to perform exercises for the development of strength, as well as for the formation of a male figure silhouette. The big plus of this design is its versatility. By installing it in one position, a horizontal bar is obtained, and by rearranging it, the bars are obtained in another.
Rope ladder, rings, trapeze
A children's sports corner for a photo home, which is most often placed in store advertisements, is completed with a small number of accessories, so for a complete set, you will also have to develop much-needed "soft" shells.
The rope ladder is perhaps the most difficult element. For her, you will need several cuttings for a garden rake with a diameter of 35-40 mm and a rope made of synthetic fibers with an outer double weave. The cuttings are cut into equal parts, the ends are carefully processed with sandpaper and holes are made with a drill at a distance of 20 mm from the edges. The diameter of the holes should be 1-2 mm larger than the diameter of the rope. The steps of the stairs are pre-painted and varnished.
The rope is unwound, the edges are processed with an open flame so as not to fray. The rope is folded in half, 50-60 cm recede from the bending point and knots are tied at each end. The top step is installed so that the ladder can be hung from a hook or rung. After the ends are threaded into the hole, the fixing unit is made again. The distance between the steps is usually taken 30-35 cm, but for small children you can take even less.
When choosing a rope, you need to pay attention to the quality and density of the weaving of the outer layer.Coarse weaving made of synthetic thread is not suitable for a children's corner!
Children's sports wall in the room can be supplemented with rings and a trapezoid. For the trapezoid, the same materials are used as for the ladder. True, only one crossbar is used here, its height from the floor is usually taken at the level of the child's height.
The rings can be made from 2 plates of multilayer plywood 20 mm thick and 25x25 cm in size. The plates are glued with PVA glue and tightly shrink using clamps or self-tapping screws. After drying with a jigsaw, rings are cut out with an outer diameter of 23-22 mm, and an inner diameter of 19-18 mm, respectively. The ring is sanded and varnished. It is installed on the crossbar using a rope or rope 10 - 12 mm thick.
Corner assembly and wall mounting
A do-it-yourself sports wall is assembled in several stages:
- First, the main elements are assembled - the wall bars and the horizontal bar.
- Then everything is connected into one structure and bolted together. Brackets for wall, floor and ceiling mounting are installed.
- The assembled structure is fixed with anchors at all points. 2 installation points on the floor, 4 on the ceiling, 6 on the wall. 3 on each of the vertical beams of the Swedish wall.
- After checking the strength of the corner, hinged elements are installed - a ladder, a trapezium, rings.