Using chalks on a trampoline can be fun

When parents first buy a garden trampoline they are often surprised to find how much use it gets.  They are used to buying presents for their children which either the children grow out of quickly or, in time, lose interest in.  And for many children their trampoline becomes a key part of their childhood.  The trampoline is almost unique in giving excitement to children, whatever their ages.  Nearly every customer tells me the trampoline was the best present they ever bought for their family.  Why?  Because it provides hours of fun and enjoyment for the children from when they are very young to when they leave home.  A teenager can be as happy on a trampoline as a very young child of 5 or 6.  And it offers a source of valuable exercise for children who are often lacking time playing outdoors, helping them to grow up healthy and sleep well.

Trampolines are great for sunbathing on

Parents imagine the trampoline is purely an apparatus to bounce on but children soon find it makes an excellent base for a wide range of past times.  Young children will play games like ring-a-ring-a-roses or have a tea party sat on it with their friends.  Using chalks to draw pictures on the trampoline mat or to design a new game can be fun.  Older children may play “pop the corn” (also known as “crack the egg”) or camp out on it.  They may also discover the excitement of combining the garden hose with the trampoline, a garden sprinkler placed under the trampoline can be tremendous fun on a hot day. Teenagers may lay on the trampoline mat to sunbathe or star gaze at night.   Many children have also found the benefit of revising for exams whilst laying on their trampoline as it can offer a relaxed and quiet environment.

Some plastic balls on the trampoline can be fun for younger children

The range of trampoline tents, circus tents and roof tents supplied by Atlantic Trampolines means the trampoline can be converted to a den or an ideal place for a sleepover.  These trampoline accessories also mean the trampoline can continue to be used when it is raining outside.

Atlantic Trampolines app for the iPhone, called iTrampoline, can also be used as a game on the trampoline.  Compare how many bounces each of you takes to jump the height of the various targets featured from around the world, or see who can bounce the highest.

Trampoline Fun

A warning though, you will find when your children have a trampoline in the garden they have lots more friends!

Quote from Twitter:

“Putting loads of balls on the trampoline and dodging them all while jumping, best childhood game ever”

Author: Bob Bounce

Modern day toddlers have many frustrations to deal with.  This may ring true with many of you as more grandparents get wired to the internet.

Author: Bob Bounce

This is the second guest blog post in a series written by our Outdoor Play Adviser, Michael Follett, CEO at OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning.  We are working with OPAL to develop our range of outdoor play equipment.   In this blog Michael looks at why outdoor play for children is so beneficial.

What’s so important about outdoor play?

Michael Follett BA Hons, PGCE, Director OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning

Playing outside is wonderful for children. It has been reliably proven through research that it is good for their bodies, great for their minds and fantastic for their health. The outdoors enables opportunities and experiences that are not present inside.

Children Learn Outdoors

Today, most people live in cities, get around in cars, trains and buses. It is easy to forget that the huge majority of human existence has been lived on foot and without buildings. We have evolved over five million years outside. We have only moved from living mainly outside to mainly inside relatively recently during the last three or four thousand years. A typical under-five now spends less than 4% of their time outside. If human development was squashed into 24 hours, we have been living inside for the last minute.  It is not surprising then that being inside so much is not good for children and playing outside, especially in places that are natural, has so many benefits for children.

Children need space, their bodies are a work-in-progress from birth right through to when they stop growing in their teens, and these bodies need to be used in lots of ways. Running, jumping, rolling, shouting, falling, hopping, sliding, swinging, dancing and crawling are just some of the ways children explore and work their bodies. Outside gives children the space to do this and the chance to do enough of it to keep healthy and get more skilled in controlling their bodies.

Children up to the age of around seven learn most from doing. Play is nature’s way of getting children to gain a sense of fun and enjoyment from doing all of the things they need to do for healthy development. When children use their bodies and exert them, messages are sent to the brain and the body is built stronger for greater use in future; stronger bones, stronger muscles, stronger muscles, stronger hearts and stronger immune systems.

Nature’s play materials are free

Children are stimulated to play by things that are new and different. If you leave a room and come back to it later, it is unlikely to have changed. The outdoors is the opposite, it is never the same, always changing; light, temperature, wind, weather and seasons change; plants grow and die, animals are moving and altering the environment, the wind rearranges things, objects weather and break down, everything is in a state of change. Children’s natural curiosity is stimulated by all of these changes, they want to explore new situations and they want to be able to change things themselves.

Any parent of a two-year old will be familiar with the time their child discovers the power of NO! During their twos children start to understand that life does not just happen to them, they can have a say, they can control things and they can change things. When they understand this, they discover they can create things and being creative is one of the most important skills we have as humans. One of the great advantages of letting children play outside is that there are far more opportunities for children to be able to change and alter their environment; to mess about with materials, mix them, muddle them, build them and destroy them. We don’t want children to destroy expensive toys but stamping on a sand castle, squashing up a mud pie you have made, pushing over a cardboard box tower you built, painting black all over a painting you painted, are all safe ways to let children explore the idea of having power and control over their creativity. Nature provides materials that are free or low cost which are ideal for children to experiment with: mud, sand, shells, stones, sticks, leaves and especially water are available to all and are resources which feed imaginative minds.

Are you already playing out? Then you might want to show support for outdoor play through an organisation.  It is free to become a supporter of the charity Play England, you can take the Outdoor Play Pledge with Project Wild Thing and you can get lots of ideas from Love Outdoor Play. Nowhere to play? Join the street play revolution at Playing Out.

Author: Bob Bounce

Replacement Trampoline Springs

Trampoline Springs

Trampoline springs may need replacing for a number of reasons, some may have been lost during Winter storage or they have broken or become damaged or stretched.  This blog aims to cover all the main points you will need to consider when buying new trampoline springs.

How many trampoline springs?

The trampoline spring is a key component in putting the “spring” in your garden trampoline.  It is a mistake to think “…. that the more springs the better”.  Too few springs and the trampoline bounce will be floppy and unexciting, too many springs and it will be hard work to get any bounce at all.  Generally speaking the larger the trampoline the more springs are required.  If some springs are missing or damaged it is important to replace them.

When to replace trampoline springs?

If some of your trampoline springs are missing it is important to replace them.  The quality of the bounce will be impaired without them and too much force will be applied to the remaining springs.  If a trampoline has been overloaded or misused, perhaps by using it without all the springs in place, then some springs may become stretched.  You can identify a spring that is streched as the gaps between the coils will be larger than on the other springs and the spring may not be under tension when nobody is on the trampoline.  It may be easier to see if a spring is stretched once it is removed from the trampoline as the coils, rather than closing up tightly together, will have gaps between them.  You can see this by holding the spring up to the light.  If light is visible between the coils then the spring is damaged and should be replaced.  If the trampoline mat appears to be slack then it is likely the springs have become stretched

If the springs are damaged in any way then they should be removed to avoid injury, and replaced.  Springs that are rusty can be left in place but should be monitored for weakness.

Spring Padding

The spring padding around a trampoline serves two purposes. Firstly it protects the bouncer, if they fall on the frame or the springs, from incurring an injury.  But secondly it also protects the springs from the rain and weather which might cause the springs to rust.  If your trampoline spring padding is damaged or missing it is highly recommended that you replace it for safety as well as good maintenance practice.

Removing and installing new trampoline springs

To remove a trampoline spring use a spring loading tool, which may have been supplied with your trampoline when new, or can be purchased from most trampoline suppliers.  If necessary use a screw driver as a bar by pushing it through the hook of the spring where it meets the trampoline frame and by pulling the spring hook towards you it will disengage from the trampoline frame.  Hold the screw driver with one hand on each side of the hook, and pull.

Installing a trampoline spring

When installing a new spring first hook the end of the spring with the most enclosed hook (if there is one) or the end that is not elongated (if there is one) on to the D-ring of the trampoline mat.  Next, using the spring loading tool or metal rod of the screw driver, pull the hook on the opposite end of the spring to engage in the hole or slot on the trampoline frame.

If you are replacing all the springs on a trampoline it may be easier to remove each damaged spring and then install the new one in turn, rather then removing all the old springs at once and then installing all the new ones.

If you are installing all new springs on a trampoline where none of the original springs are in place, remember to attach springs at the 3, 6, 9 and 12 o’clock positions first then install the other springs by splitting the gaps, so 11 and 5 then 8 and 2 etc.  This method helps build the tension more evenly.  If you install the springs in a strictly clockwise order you will find the last ones very difficult to fit indeed.

Ordering new springs

How to measure a trampoline spring

To order new springs you need to know the length of the spring (measure in both metric and imperial) taken when  the spring is not under tension ie you MUST remove one or two springs from the trampoline to do this.  When the spring is fitted to the trampoline it is always under some tension so measuring it in situ will give an incorrect measurement.  Lay the spring(s) on a flat surface and measure the total length of the spring from the far end of one hook to the far end of the opposite hook.  If the spring coils are not tightly packed together when the spring is at rest then it may have become stretched and you will need to find an unstretched spring to measure instead.

The springs supplied to fit the Atlantic Trampolines will measure either 165 mm or 180mm.

Spring used for frame with slot hole

You also need to know if the spring attaches to the frame in a hole or slot.  Where the spring attaches to the trampoline frame there will either be a round hole or a rectangular slot.  Where there is a round hole the spring needs to have an elongated hook at one end so the spring can attach to the hole without the spring coil touching the frame.  If the hole is in the form of a rectangular slot then the trampoline can accept springs either with or without the elongated hook.

Spring used for frame with round hole (note elongated hook end)

If you are replacing all the springs then we suggest you count the number of holes in the frame and also the number of D-rings on the trampoline mat.  Both numbers should be the same.  If necessary use a piece of tape to mark the first hole you counted and then make sure you count all the rest but the first one only once!

Trampoline springs are available from a variety of suppliers but Atlantic Trampolines offer a range of high quality trampoline springs with free UK delivery.  The springs are galvanised and zinc plated for extra long life.

With cheap trampolines the manufacturer will economise both on the number and the quality of the springs they use which will mean a quality of the bounce is poor.

Squeaking Trampoline Springs

The left hand spring has an elongated hook end for attaching to a round hole in the frame. The right hand spring is for a frame with a slot hole

A common complaint about some trampolines is that they squeak.  We recommend you apply some petroleum jelly, such as Vaseline, to the end of the spring where it meets the trampoline frame and, if necessary also to the spring where it meets the D-ring on the trampoline mat.  This should help to stop the trampoline springs squeaking.  Also make sure you have trampoline spring padding fitted.  This will help to protect the trampoline springs from rusting which may cause them to squeak and will also protect the petroleum jelly from being washed away by rain or coming into contact with those using the trampoline.  It will also act to muffle any residual squeaking noises.

And finally

If you have further questions about trampoline springs please submit a comment to this blog post and we will endeavour to respond as quickly as possible.  If you need a fast response then we recommend you call our Trampo-line on 0800 032 5879 or +44 1646 62 2211 from outside the UK.

Click here to see Atlantic Trampolines full range of trampoline springs available with free UK next day delivery.

Author: Bob Bounce

Adult Bouncy Castle

This looks amazing, an adult version of the bouncy castle.

Author: Bob Bounce

Our previous blog post by Michael Follett, CEO at OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning looks at the benefits, and necessity, for play in a child’s development.  The organisation “Love Outdoor Play” seeks to promote outdoor play and is made up of a team of people and groups working together to increase freedom to play.  The campaign is led by Play England.

The Love Outdoor Play campaign is calling on everyone to do something to make sure that more children can play out more often. This could be as simple as taking five minutes to map your favourite place to play on the online map, helping out at your local play project or spreading the Love Outdoor Play word on Facebook and Twitter.

Atlantic Trampolines’ new range of outdoor play equipment is a great place to start for ideas to help children engage in play outside.  We offer a range of play houses and climbing frames as well as smaller items like swingball and garden quoits.

Here is a short video produced by Love Outdoor Play which promotes the benefits of playing outside and gives some ideas on what you could do to help.

Author: Bob Bounce

This is one in a series of posts from guest bloggers.  This one from Michael Follett, CEO at OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning, who we are working with to develop our range of outdoor play equipment.   In this first blog from Michael he looks at why play for children is so important.

What is play and why is it important?

Michael Follett BA Hons Education, PGCE Director, OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning CIC

‘Play is what I do when everyone else has stopped telling me what to do’. Unknown child

Children Playing

To many adults children’s play means messing about, letting off steam or wasting time between more important things, however we know that in mammals, the more intelligent the species the more important play is to their development. As an intelligent species why have we evolved with such a natural instinct and drive to play? Maybe we do not play because we are intelligent but we are intelligent because we play.

Play is hard to describe, adults often use descriptions of what play feels like such as ‘play is fun’ or descriptions of what we do when we play, such as ‘play is using your imagination’ or ‘play is joining in games’. The reason play is hard to describe is that it is not any particular activity, it is a state, play is whatever is done playfully. Playfulness implies choice, creativity, experimentation, flexibility. Play has to come from the child, be driven by what interests them and be directed by them. Our ability to develop intelligence through play and to enjoy the process is one of the most universal and valuable human characteristics.

Messy play

Understanding the world is a hugely complicated task and then communicating with each other is even more complicated. Children must first gain first-hand sensory experience of the relationship between their bodies and the external world. To be able to communicate they then have to be able to represent the world around them with symbols; these symbols include words, writing, pictures and video. It is easier to understand this if we think about colour. If we wanted a child to learn about ‘red’, we would have to start by giving the child lots of experience of things that are red, then getting them to associate the colour they saw with the spoken word ‘red’, this is a spoken symbol, much later we might get them to associate the colour with the written symbol. Even with such a simple piece of learning play would be important. The child will develop a theory about what red is and then test it out. This will include inventing nonsense and reversal; once you know what red is, then pointing to something blue and saying ‘red’ is funny. An appropriately horrified and humorous playful reaction from an adult would reinforce the child’s theory and satisfaction in knowing what red is.

Learning a colour is fairly simple. How does a child learn to understand concepts like fast and slow, hard and soft, friendship and sharing, safe and risky? The answer is they need to try things out, experiment, get things wrong, repeat, think, do random things, enjoy, feel and respond. Every time they try something through play they find out a little bit more about the world and their place in it; it’s like fitting in another piece of a big jigsaw puzzle. Adults may not be able to make sense of what is going on in play; just as with a big jigsaw puzzle, the picture on each piece does not make sense until many parts come together.

So trust your child’s playfulness, give them rich and varied opportunities to lead play themselves and for you to watch listen and follow their lead. Don’t worry if you don’t know what they are learning, a child never plays without finding out something.

This is a short video from Love Outdoor Play promoting the importance of playing outside for children, which we’re tacking on the end of this blog as it seems quite relevant, hope you enjoy it.

Author: Bob Bounce

Water Trampoline

We love this, a set of trampolines in the water. What amazing fun!

Author: Bob Bounce

OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning CIC

As part of our commitment to expanding our range of outdoor play equipment we have teamed with Michael Follett at OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning CIC.  OPAL will be working with us as consultants to identify good quality products with high play value, that are stimulating, engaging and, above all, fun for different age ranges and abilites.  Michael will be writing some expert comments which will be included in our product descriptions to help you choose the best equipment for your child.  We are also planning an “Ask the Expert” feature where you will be able to post questions for Michael to answer on the topic of outdoor play.

Michael Follett, CEO OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning CIC

Michael has extensive experience in the play sector.  He is a qualified primary school teacher and has experience as a play worker and school adviser.  He spent five years working with MENCAP and has also worked in product development in the outdoor play sector.  His career includes five years as Play Strategy Officer with Bath and North East Somerset Council and six years as schools’ play adviser within South Gloucestershire Council school improvement team.  He has advised the National Trust, National Lottery, NICE and the Ministry of Justice, on play related issues.  He is currently a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of Play England, the national charity which promotes children’s right to play.

Michael will feature here as a guest blogger with articles on relevant outdoor play issues that will be of interest to anyone with children of their own, or an interest in this topic.  Let us know if there are any particular subjects you would like Michael to cover in his future articles.

OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning is a not for profit organisation and a registered Community Interest Company dedicated to improving the quality of children’s play opportunities.

Author: Bob Bounce

If you are in need of spare parts for your trampoline then take a look at our site. Our range of parts includes new bounce mats, replacement spring padding, new springs, trampoline enclosure nets and even frame parts. If you are unsure if our parts will fit your make of trampoline then give our experts a call, free, on the Trampo-line 0800 032 5879.  We offer free next day delivery to most UK addresses and shipping can be arranged to many overseas destinations as well.

Please note, the trampoline in the above video clip is certainly not an Atlantic Trampoline.  We’ve sold many thousands of trampolines over the years and have never heard of one of our mats splitting like this.  Our mats are made from a high quality, A grade, Permatron Polypropylene which are treated to protect them from deterioration from UV light (sunlight).  We know that many cheaper makes of trampoline use inferior materials which are not as strong and durable.

Author: Bob Bounce