Made popular by such manufacturers as Playskool and Little Tikes, plastic climbing frames are made of high impact, sturdy plastic that can withstand weather and rugged use. Bright colors, rounded corners and clever designs make plastic climbing frames perfect choice for toddlers and small children. Generally closer to ground, it often features holes and tunnels for crawling and climbing, broad-based support for safety and slides with rounded rails to prevent tumbles.

Finally, there are hybrids - metal frames with wooden structures or plastic components like crawling tunnels and climbing walls. These are most often found in public playgrounds, but there are some available to build in your backyard. They may be based on a metal frame with a wooden structure or canvas tent, or have a plastic crawling/climbing tube up to a wooden platform.

Considerations when buying a climbing frame for your back yard or garden include age of children, amount of use it will get, aesthetic considerations and safety features. A well-constructed climbing frame, whatever material, is one of best investments you can make for your family's recreation needs.

Ian Wide writes for several sport and leisure sites including climbing frames and

12. “Every new baby is a blind desperate vote for survival: people who find themselves unable to register an effective political protest against extermination do so by a biological act.” - Lewis Mumford

13. “Babies are necessary to grown-ups. A new baby is like beginning of all things - wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities. In a world that is cutting down its trees to build highways, losing its earth to concrete... babies are almost only remaining link with nature, with natural world of living things from which we spring.” - Eda J. Le Shan

14. “A woman has two smiles that an angel might envy - smile that accepts a lover before words are uttered, and smile that lights on first born babe, and assures it of a mother's love.” - Thomas C. Haliburton

15. "I don't know any parents that look into eyes of a newborn baby and say, How can we screw this kid up." - Russell Bishop

16. “Families with babies and families without are so sorry for each other.” - Ed Howe

17. “If you want a baby, have a new one. Don't baby old one.” - Jessamyn West

18. “There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.” - Winston Churchill

19. “People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one.” -Leo J. Burke

20. “A baby is born with a need to be loved and never outgrows it.” - Frank A. Clark

Copyright © 2005, Bridget Mwape writes for Baby Shop UK: http://www.baby-shop.org.uk/ which features baby information including articles and discounts on baby products, gifts and advice from other parents. This article may be republished as long as all above links are active and clickable and this author box (byline) is not edited.