Ecole Victor-Brodeur Playground- Esquimalt

Ecole Victor-Brodeur's playground at the corner of Old Esquimalt Road and Head St has tempted us many times but it's always been inside school hours so we haven't been able to sample it. So it was with great joy that we passed this morning, remembered that school was out and screeched to a halt. From the road this playground is a mass of bright colours and close up, it's a pretty big, but then again, it's a pretty big school.

There are two main climbing structures and if I was going to present an award to this playground it would be for most slides. Between both climbing frames, there are six plastic slides: one curly, one bumpy, one wavy, one straight and one straight double.


The climbing structures offer a multitude of climbing options and there are also a lot of nice little features such as activity walls, a house facade and piano chimes. There is a running roller, a plastic climbing mountain wall and a separate climbing wall.

Set back from the rest there is a row of eight swings, two therapeutic and the rest big kid. There is a smaller playground for smaller kids at the front of the school but it's all penned in just for school use- so toddlers or less adventurous kids might want to skip this one, though I am sure there is something for everyone here.

There is a bouncy bench, but not really any other facilities as it is with school playgrounds....except for parking of course...there's lots of parking.

Sierra Park Playground- Saanich

We went to Sierra Park today after receiving a hot tip and we will definitely go back again. It's a lovely park- surprisingly big with a tennis court, lots of grassy areas, picnic tables and a great little playground.

The playground is in two parts for big kids and smaller kids, both on sand. The smaller side has two swings; a toddler and a therapeutic. There is a climbing structure with a ramp, a double metal slide, a few bouncy animals and a digger machine. The big kids side has two swings, a plastic curly slide, a good range of climbing options including a sort of balance beam built into the middle of the climbing frame and a separate set of climbing bars. It also has a fabulous seesaw. We haven't seen a seesaw like this yet and it's the first one that I have come across that doesn't threaten to catapult 'A' into space the second I put any weight on it. PLUS, it actually sits four!

There are no frills in this park. When we were there it was the hottest time of the day and although there are trees around there is very little shade and the bits that there are would fill up pretty fast on a weekend. 'A' found a new thing to bother him today- hot sand. At least it wasn't beetles, ants, dogs, wind or loud noises. Sigh.

Beckwith Park Playground/ Frog Pond - Saanich

Funnily enough, you can find Beckwith Park Playground in Beckwith park on Beckwith Ave. This wonderful Saanich Playground was re-done recently and is hard to fault.

The Playground is in a couple of parts. There is a big kid structure that is joined to a smaller kids structure and a separate activity area with lots of things to climb or run through, twist, push, shout into etc. In this separate activity area, there is also a mock ships bow which seems popular with the little kids and 'A' got right on the seat there and started barking out orders to the crew.

The whole playground is brand-spanking new and the main structures feature a ton of climbing options, a double high metal slide on the big kid side, a double lower metal slide on the smaller kid side and lots of activity features scattered throughout. There is also a wavy slide thing, which I am still not sure is for going up or down on. 'A' went up it, but I saw someone come down and it looked painful to me but the child didn't seem to mind. There are lots of other 'things' for which I have no names, for climbing and playing on- far too many to photograph.

There are four swings: two big kid, one toddler and one therapeutic. If I was going to pick faults I would say that for how popular this playground is, there could be more swings. The whole playground rests on a bed of woodchips and there is a lot of grass in the park itself to run around on. If you add in the Frog Pond water park, which is buddied up next to the playground, then this park is hard to beat. There are picnic tables, benches, parking, a washroom block and the whole place has been landscaped nicely.



Frog Pond hours below- click to enlarge the picture.