About YardForge
Your child designs a playground for someone younger: a child of four or a child of seven. Each piece of equipment goes on an empty plot drawn from above, where one square is half a metre.
What it practises
- Area, scale and clearance (CCSS 6.G.A.1, 7.G.A.1): a swing needs room in front and behind, and a wheelchair needs a 1.5-metre square to turn.
- Designing for someone who is not you. The question is always who the yard is for.
- Inclusive design: sight lines from the bench, a quiet corner, shade at noon, a way in for everyone.
How it behaves
There is no score, no timer and no right answer. Five characters say what they notice, such as two fall zones touching or a piece the bench cannot see, and your child decides what to change. The design is kept on this device so it can be picked up later, and saved as a small file only when your child presses Save. A grown-up can open that file in the 3–5 or 6–8 Yard (in its bench), and the pieces move to where your child put them, so a younger child plays in the yard an older one designed. The file holds the pieces and where they are, nothing about your child. Nothing is sent anywhere.
What it does not claim
It is a design-reasoning toy. The clearances are simplified for play, so it is not a safety standard and not a way to plan a real playground.