Baker School Playground

Set at the top of a steep pair of ramps, Baker School Playground has a set of nice, fairly standard playground equipment, a basketball court, a large grassy field, and tennis courts. On the other side of the school, at street level, is a smaller toddler playground.

Rogers Park

Rogers Park is a fully-enclosed playground in the middle of a huge park in Brighton, with nice, colorful climbing equipment (though the ground, unfortunately, is somewhat littered with cigarettes). The park around it features large grassy spaces along with tennis courts, basketball courts, and lots of happy dogs.

Skyline Park

Skyline Park includes a fully-enclosed playground with two really cool sets of climbing equipment, lots of swings, and one of those twirly-platforms (technical term). There is zero shade on the play area, which is atop a large hill, but the picnic area is under a roof. There is also a large parking lot and – wonder of wonders – bathrooms! Midday in summer was the wrong time to go, due to the lack of shade and sprinklers, but we’ll probably be headed back for a fall afternoon sometime soon.

Griggs Park

Griggs Park is a large, low-lying park that features a paved walking path encircling a beautiful field with clusters of trees. The playground, on the Griggs Terrace/Marion Street side of the park, consists of swings, a sandbox, two toddler play structures, and one ropey older kids’ play structure – though many kids might finding the exploring the woodsy interior of the park even more entertaining. It’s easy for kids to disappear among the trees, which can make it difficult unless you have a one-to-one adult-to-child ratio (or older kids who don’t need as much supervision).

Larz Anderson Playground

Perched on the edge of Larz Anderson Park, this is a great playground, with a lot of unique play structures in a beautiful tree-lined setting. (With bathrooms!) It's technically fully-enclosed, but the number of kids running back and forth mean the gates are almost always open.

There's a large field to one side, a covered picnic area on the other, and paths for wandering and biking that lead over a pond with a fountain and (I presume) into the wooded areas beyond.

The playground itself is almost impossible to find on a map (I say "almost" because 99% of the population has better map skills than I do); I only located the playground because this blog tipped me off. It's right across from the parking lot on the Goddard Ave entrance to the park. If you're driving, putting 287 Goddard Avenue into your GPS should get you there (if anyone tries this and can confirm it in a comment, please let me know)! Another good landmark: it's just a bit down the road from The Park School, which is at 171 Goddard Avenue.

Hooker-Sorrento Playground

Hooker-Sorrento Playground, in North Brighton, is a very nice, large playground with some unique features. The fully enclosed toddler area includes, in addition to a climbing structure and swings, a mini-track circling the area. The older-kids’ climbing structure is a very good one, and next to the swings, there’s a swervy mini balance beam. There’s also a sprinkler, various riding toys scattered around, and a large grassy area shaded by trees.

Fulmore Park (Cambridge)

Fulmore Park is all about wood and sand. There are two wooden climbing structures, both appropriate for toddlers, and baby swings. But the main attraction is definitely the large oval-shaped sandbox, which is filled with an extensive collection of large wood building blocks. I was there in the autumn, but it looks like there’s also a set-up for water-play in the summer, which could lead to lots of muddy fun...