Toys and Games – Reviews and News

Along with the rest of the family, my little boy Marcus, who is 8 years old, loves to watch Ray Mears. He has a fantastic interest in the outdoors, plants, animals and birds and loves our annual camping trips where he can play at being a great explorer and toast marshmallows on the camp fire.

As the school summer holidays approached he began to ask myself and his mother when we’d be going camping and his mother told him that he could camp in the back garden if he wanted to. We began to talk about erecting his little tent on our back lawn and then he remarked that Ray Mears always sleeps in a hammock without a tent.

At this, I suggested that he might do the same. But instead of sleeping in a hammock he could sleep on our garden trampoline. He was all for it.

So we lashed up a flysheet over the trampoline, dug out his little sleeping bag and invited one of his friends over for a sleep out. To make it more like a Ray Mears adventure we cooked some sausages and burgers over a brazier and allowed him and his friend to burn some toast on sticks before tucking them up for the night on the trampoline.

The following morning they were up bright and early, bouncing on the trampoline, full of energy after their little taste of independence. So a trampoline is not only a great way to get some exercise, it can also provide a useful sleeping platform for the odd night in the garden.

They’re everywhere these days. I’m referring to those ubiquitous round garden trampolines that every home with a little outdoor space appears to have. If you own a trampoline you will already know how popular they are with the children. Maybe your youngsters will progress to become the next Olympic trampolining champions.

Trampolining originates from the 1930s when George Nissen noted that trapeze artists would sometimes use their safety nets to perform bouncing tricks. The word ‘trampoline’ is actually derived from the Spanish word for diving board, ‘trampolin’. This is because George used his first, home built trampoline to develop his diving skills.

Trampolining became an Olympic sport in 2000 and many countries now incorporate trampolining into their school’s physical education programmes. Trampolining is a great exercise. It improves cardiovascular fitness, helps develop balance and can even help the immune system by increasing the movement efficiency of lymph.

Providing your children with a garden trampoline is clearly a great way to help them to keep in shape and to develop their balance and bouncing skills. Maybe it will also serve to bounce them onwards to world champion status.