Seven of the best playgrounds around Boston, kid tested and expert approved

The park’s designers love to hear about the ways kids dream up to use the slide. “What you want to design is a space children can explore and make their own,” says Wilson Martin, principal of landscape architecture firm GroundView, along with Eden Dutcher. “They can find ways to be playful in the space using their own creativity.”

What is it that elevates a play area from being merely entertaining to exceptional? We sought out some playground designers and researchers to weigh in.

Inclusivity, they say, is key. Playgrounds should have something for everyone, designers and researchers emphasize. That means including adaptive swings and ramps for those with mobility difficulties, tactile and auditory elements for children with sensory differences, quiet spots for kids who may become overwhelmed, and challenging components for older and more fearless visitors.

Including more choices in a play space will attract a wider range of children to the fun and benefits it has to offer, says Robin Moore, director emeritus of the Natural Learning Initiative at North Carolina State University, who began researching playground design as a graduate student at MIT in the 1960s.

The best playgrounds also challenge children and give them room to explore, stoking their sense of wonder and helping them build confidence in the face of the new and unexpected. “If children experience challenges from early in life,” Moore says, “they will learn, literally without thinking about it, how to confront challenges as [the problems] get larger and larger.”

Incorporating nature is also vital, whether that means curating a rugged outdoor play space, adding lush landscaping, or building with logs and stones instead of conventional manufactured elements. “I’ll take natural materials over plastic and metal every day of the week,” says Kris Scopinich, senior director of education and engagement with Mass Audubon.

These seven playgrounds in Greater Boston embody these principles. Time to go have some (expert-approved) fun!

Location: 17 Cross Street, East Somerville

Two main features anchor this half-acre park in East Somerville: a large slide and a towering, yellow metal frame that showers water onto visitors in warmer months. A small climbing structure, a second slide, a toddler play area, and swings hung from long chains for extra-high flight complete the scene. An ADA-compliant paved path zigzags to the top of a hill. Designer Eden Dutcher imagines children will forge their own routes through the surrounding plants, enjoying “the spaces in between — not the prescribed play, but the surprising play.”

Location: 64 Sleeper Street, Boston

Built in honor of Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy killed in the Boston Marathon bombing, Martin’s Park packs inclusive adventure into a waterfront acre near Boston Children’s Museum. In one section, a wooden pirate ship rides the crest of a hill, inviting imaginative journeys. Down a winding, plant-lined path, kids find slides built into a hillside, with multiple routes to scramble to the top. At the summit, an assembly of logs connected at dynamic angles invites creative climbing — and has room at the base for wheelchairs to roll into the center of the action. “The idea is that it just sets the stage for kids to create their own type of play,” says Chris Donohue, associate principal at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and the project manager for the playground development.

Location: 75 Field Street, Cambridge

This 30,000-square-foot playground in Cambridge’s Danehy Park beckons children to explore, with a rolling landscape that reveals several distinct play areas. My daughter’s friend shouted, “This looks amazing!” as she sprinted toward the play tower, which can be accessed by a climbing net or over a wide, sloping bridge. A cavernous wooden tunnel turns out to be more than just a perfect dragon’s lair, as handholds on the outside let kids climb to the top (and then drop through holes in the tunnel’s ceiling). The music play area, set in a quiet corner, includes a grid, set in the sidewalk, that chimes when jumped on.

Location: 500 Walk Hill Street, Mattapan

Like other Mass Audubon play areas across the state, the 14,000-square-foot Nature Nook carved into the edge of the woods in Mattapan aims to create child-centered opportunities for nature play. It doesn’t feature swings or slides, and that’s intentional. Instead, kids will find a sand pit, a stream crossed by two bridges, logs arranged for jumping, and fallen trees that make delightfully challenging balance beams. From the boardwalk, a dirt path leads into a clearing where kids have used the hundreds of branches placed there to build all manner of forts and shelters. “There’s not a right way to play with this stuff,” says Mass Audubon’s Kris Scopinich. “They get to move through a play experience that they themselves design.”

Location: Cabot Street, Chelsea

This Chelsea park is heavy on out-of-the-ordinary sensory elements. The standout activity is the water feature: a wade-able stream, fed by a hand pump, that cascades through banks of stones to a splash pad below. Two climbing options — a boulder and a web of ropes in a metal frame — let visitors get up in the sky as well as down in the water. A music garden tucks outdoor instruments into lush plantings, adding acoustic activities into the mix.

Location: Charles River Esplanade (near the Hatch Shell), Boston

Kid heaven: a playground on the Boston-side banks of the Charles River. The centerpiece is a towering climbing structure crisscrossed by a spider web of ropes and studded with rubber platforms, letting kids make an adventurous ascent before hurtling down the long tunnel slide from the top. A wood climbing sculpture, a zip-line, and some spinning contraptions enhance the fun. Parent heaven: a place to hang out under shade trees while the little ones frolic.

Location: 36 Waterhouse Street, Cambridge

Hard lines? Bright colors? You won’t find many at the nature-inspired playground in Cambridge Common, adjacent to Harvard Square. Naturally shaped logs and branches for grabbing and balancing rest against low, rolling hills, and climbing structures are built from the same materials. (My 7-year-old’s favorite evokes a dragon-headed boat and inspired a pirate battle on a recent visit.) A sand pit features a shaded platform with built-in pulleys, sieves, and a conveyor belt for sand, and a multidirectional disk swing lets kids fly with a friend.

Sarah Shemkus is a regular contributor to The Boston Globe. Tell us about your kid’s favorite playground at magazine@globe.com.

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