[tgsovlerkhgsel]

I really hope the adventure playgrounds mentioned are still a thing.

The ones in Germany were a bit more organized than just a pile of junk, but you basically went there, maybe parents paid some (nominal) fee or deposit, and you got a toolbox with basic hand tools like a saw, hammer and nails and there was plenty of wood to build with.

Larger structures were clearly built with some guidance and probably a civil engineer because there were multi-story buildings.

[hammyhavoc]

Wow, as a Brit with an engineer/machinist father, this would have been amazing to go to as a kid. We have absolutely nothing like that here short of taking a woodworking class.

[nemo44x]

Yeah, I don't think we're giving kids saws and nails to play with.

Saying that where I grew up there were a lot of homes being built so there were piles of scrap wood, etc all over and we'd raid them and build forts using saws and nails from our dads' workshops. So maybe we are overprotective today.

[tgsovlerkhgsel]

The nice thing about such basic hand tools is that you usually get to learn from mistakes without permanent consequences. Will a child hurt themselves at least once with a saw and a hammer? Probably. Will they seriously hurt themselves? Probably not. Will they learn to not hurt themselves? Almost certainly.

I also don't remember how exactly supervision works, but it definitely isn't just dumping a bunch of kids at some unattended construction site. Parents and/or the team managing the place are at the very least nearby.

[cgriswald]

We crafted wooden swords and then fought with them. Worst we ever got was some stinging fingers or a bruise.