Growing Minds has been supporting children and families throughout North San Diego County for more than 50 years. The nonprofit organization provides early education for infants through age four using a child-centered, play-based curriculum that encourages socialization, physical development, problem-solving, creativity, and communication.
PDPlay recently completed a new outdoor play space for the Growing Minds North Fig Child Development Center in Escondido. The project includes a mix of active play, imaginative settings, music, sensory activities, and places for children to explore.
Active Play and Exploration
The Fort Knox system is one of the main active play areas. Children can climb, slide, balance, and move throughout the structure while building coordination, spatial awareness, and gross motor skills. With different ways to move through the system, children can choose activities based on their interests and comfort levels.
The Village Tree adds another place to climb, crawl, and pretend. Designed to look like an apple tree, it includes activity details, openings, and spaces for children to move in and around the structure. Its nature-inspired design can also become part of imaginative games and storytelling.
A Vine Arbor helps bring the different areas together while adding another nature-inspired feature to the playground. It also contributes to the feeling of a small outdoor village where children can move from one activity to another.
A Village for Imaginative Play
The Village Diner, Villa Playhouse, and Villa Cafe create familiar places where children can pretend, make up stories, and play together.
At the Villa Cafe, children can take orders, prepare meals, serve customers, or meet friends. The Village Diner provides another setting for restaurant-themed play, while the Villa Playhouse can become a home, shop, meeting place, or anything else children imagine.
These types of play spaces encourage children to communicate, take turns, work together, and try out different roles. Since there is no single way to use them, the children can create a new experience every time they play.
Music, Water, and Sensory Play
The Music Flowers bring sound and creative expression into the outdoor environment. Children can explore different tones, create rhythms, and make music on their own or with others. Musical play can also support listening, coordination, and pattern recognition.
The Water Workbench gives children a place to pour, move, and experiment with water. As they play, they can begin exploring simple concepts such as cause and effect, movement, and problem-solving.
Together, the Music Flowers and Water Workbench add more variety to the playground. They provide options for children who enjoy creative, tactile, or less physically active forms of outdoor play.
Everyday Experiences Become Part of Play
The EV Station Pump introduces a familiar transportation feature that children may recognize from their own community. They can pretend to stop and charge a vehicle before continuing through the playground.
This feature fits naturally with the village theme. Children can travel between the cafe, diner, playhouse, and charging station while creating their own neighborhood stories. These familiar settings give them more ways to make connections between play and everyday life.
More Ways to Play at Growing Minds
The completed outdoor space at Growing Minds gives children many ways to play. They can climb through the Fort Knox system, explore the Village Tree, create stories in the playhouses, make music, experiment with water, or travel through their own pretend community.
Each piece offers something different, but they all work together as one connected play environment. The finished space supports Growing Minds’ play-based approach by giving young children more room to move, create, communicate, explore, and learn outdoors.
PDPlay designs and installs commercial playgrounds for preschools, schools, parks, and community spaces. Contact us to start planning an outdoor play space based on the needs of your children, program, and site.
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