Sledging

Wow, what a lot of snow! Can you believe it? And all before Christmas too!

If you’re anything like us here at Eureka! then I’m sure you’ve had a great time playing out in the snow on the days off from school and work. We might not have had a stretch of days off from work, but we did make time to go play in the snow. Across the Eureka! Park we made snow angels, threw loads of snow balls and, of course, went sledging.



Traditionally, people would use wooden sledges called toboggans, but these days you’re most likely to find sledges made of plastic. The great thing about sledging though is that anyone can do it, with almost anything! We didn’t have a sledge of our own, but all it took was some imagination and creativity to put together our own ‘sledging devices’ out of cardboard and plastic.

Now, if you ask me, I’m most likely to say the bigger the hill, the better the sledging. It’s just because I like to get the sledge going as fast as possible. For safety’s sake, make sure you should only sledge on a hill that you feel safe with, and before you start sledging take a look around. Can you see what is at the bottom? Are there any humps and bumps that might throw you off your sledge? It’s always good to make a thorough check. At Eureka! the hill we used had a nice, long slope, and we were able to go quite far and fast!

There’s a lot more to sledging that just sliding down by yourself. Why not take your grown-ups along for the ride? Or see if you can fit another person on your sledge. You might even try lying on your front and sledging, or if you have two sledges, racing against someone to the bottom to see who has the faster sledge.

There are so many different games you can play, and it’s completely up to you! So go on, get out there to play and discover as many different ways of sledging as you can. You might even show them off the next time you come to Eureka!.

And hey, if you don’t think that sledging is for you, then you can’t beat building a snow fort and having a good old snowball fight with your friends!

What’s your favourite way to have fun in the snow?

Ben Guifoyle is an Outreach Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum