There’s never been a better time to be a kid than right now. With the manufacturers of indoor fun, like video games, competing for children’s attention with the manufacturers of outdoor fun, like swing sets; it’s a win-win situation for the kids!

Long gone are boring swing sets with only two or three activities for children to play on. Of course, every set comes with the traditional swings and a slide, but the add-on accessories that are available seem to go on almost endlessly.

For example, there are more than a dozen swing set accessories you can add, just for more fun ways to swing. Some of these include trapeze bars and rings, bouncing disks, tire swings, buoy balls, and gliders, to name only a few.

Then you have slide accessories for your swing set. Slides are no longer just a straight shot down to the ground. Oh no, slides now have waves and curves, scoops and spirals, some are tunnels, making them more like a chute than a slide. Swing set slides today almost rival the ones found at water parks!

But that doesn’t even begin to touch the numerous swing set accessories you can find. How about climbing accessories? With many swing sets having different platform levels, something to climb on is always a fun accessory. You can choose from climbing ropes, faux rock walls, or curvy poles with footholds. What kid wouldn’t want a fireman’s pole to slide down? All types of climbing accessories are available to keep your child active.

If you’re looking for fun accessories, you can find those too. Add a periscope for spying on grown-ups, giant binoculars to spot things far away, or even a telescope to explore the universe. You can add a steering wheel or a ship’s wheel for imaginative play. Enclose an upper deck with bubble panels or a giant tic-tac-toe board; include a toy phone or a talk tube and a bucket for hauling up toys or ‘supplies’.

And of course there are safety accessories to keep your children safe. These include handgrips to help them pull up, safety bumpers for the slide, bumper pads for railings, and sun protective covers for nearly every area of your swing set, including the slide!

Once your swing set is fully decked out with all the accessories you can think of, you can move on to adding the larger accessories, that literally turn a swing set into a full-fledged playground, almost a ‘kid city’ in your own backyard.

These giant accessories include such components as sandboxes, molded plastic mountains, seesaws, kid size picnic tables, monkey bars, bridges, loft areas, even built in playhouse cabins. There’s really no limit to how much you can add, except your budget and the size of your yard.

Today’s swing set activity stations can accommodate, in some cases, up to 30 children, all playing safely, together in groups, pairs or alone. Even on a much smaller scale, you can provide unlimited hours of active, creative fun with the addition of swing set accessories. It really is a great time to be a kid!