Want to go on a cheap playdate? Check out the Playground Guide!

Photo: theplaygroundguide.com

Why should all day trips be expensive propositions where you have to pay an entrance fee for a few hours of recreation? When you have young children that sort of thing can really add up. Amy Lamperti, a mother of three, has been taking her children to various playgrounds around Morris County for years. While doing so, she checked out which ones had benches for sitting or picnic tables so one could bring a lunch along and what facilities each one offered.

That was the inspiration for her first book, The Playground Guide: best of Morris County. A colorful book, it contains full descriptions of each playground. Some are part of a bigger park; some are in schoolyards and can only be used when school is not in session. Some have elaborate corkscrew slides and colorful playthings, others are more utilitarian.

Lamperti has formatted the book so that each page covers one playground. There is a short description that covers the age the playground is intended for, the type of ground cover, the number and type of swings (toddler, full size, tire), the number and type of slides (open, tube, corkscrew), whether there are climbing facilities, a sandbox, a merry-go-round or other cool stuff. Parking areas and other park facilities (in larger parks there may be baseball fields and ponds for older kids) are noted. Of course there are specific driving directions to each playground.

One thing I like about the book is that there are a few lines at the bottom of each page where she says: Make a day of it. Here she lists local restaurants that are nearby, or libraries, bookstores or other kid-friendly sites. The book also contains advertisements for kids’ museums and craft stores that would be of interest to mothers of young children.

The Morris County book proved so popular that women wrote to Amy asking for the same type of coverage for their region. So now there are two new books—one for heavily populated Bergen County and one for the combined Warren and Sussex counties. This looks like the start of something big!

Check out the guidebooks at www.theplaygroundguide.com. They are fun, easy to use and can really open up a world of opportunity for local trips.