Parks of The Woodlands - Acacia Park

We recently moved to The Woodlands Township, Texas. The sheer number of parks in this township make this place unique. There are a lot of parks here. Over 100 parks, in fact. We have made it our goal to visit every park. As we began to visit these parks, I found myself taking lots of photos of the children. I realized that these pictures showed the unique features of each park, and decided to share!

Do you want to read more about the Parks and Pathways in The Woodlands Township? Here's a link to their website: https://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/252/Parks-and-Pathways


Earlier this week, we visited Acacia Park. This is a little park in the Village of Alden Bridge. This is a small neighborhood park situated beside a school. While this park features no street parking nor restrooms, there are delightful walking paths that lead you directly to the heart of the playground, which is nicely shaded for most of the day.

 Acacia Park has one large playground, which has equipment that is designed for all ages. The substrate for this playground is wood mulch.

One of the most exciting aspects of this playground is that it has a tall slide, which can only be accessed through a climbing tube. The inside of the tube has fun textures and ample places to grip and step. At the top of the tube is a sound box labeled "Nature Sounds," which plays bird calls and other woodland noises when spun. This sensory activity was a lot of fun for my child.














Not every parent is comfortable with their preschooler climbing up that tube to try the tall slide, but that's just fine. Don't let the tall slide intimidate you! About half of the playground is designed with toddlers and preschoolers in mind.

There are also small slides with short ladders and easy steps. We loved this little green staircase. With so many fun sizes of steps to choose from, it reminded us of walking through a creek bed. This simple obstacle would also be a lot of fun for a child who has just begun crawling, as the height of these steps is just right for a parent to assist every step of the way. We tried counting all of the little steps, which was fun, especially as we tried stepping on the littlest ones with our tippy toes.

Speaking of easy steps, our child loved crawling and hopping from one step to the next on this little obstacle course of step stools. Each of these little green steps is a different height. As we hopped from one step to the next, we counted by 10's. "Ten, Twenty, Thirty, Forty, Fifty, Sixty, Seventy, Eighty! End!" As she tried them over and over again, she became more comfortable with navigating the height differences, and eventually mastered counting while hopping.




Our daughter found a sort of lift on the playground. It seems to be designed for larger children and adults rather than preschoolers, but she still enjoyed using it. An adaptation of a fire pole, this elevator allows a child to ride down several feet, though it does not bring you all the way to the ground. We both tried the elevator out, and had a lot of fun with it. As we used this lift, we spoke about weight and speed. We figured out that the heavier someone was, the faster this lift would take them down. I tried pushing her up on the lift, but that effort was unsuccessful. Even though it only went one way, it was lots of fun to ride.







 Do you like to take a break from playing to make a little music? We do! This playground featured a couple of built-in bells, which were very fun to tap and bang. We made rhythms and sang along, as we figured out which one played the higher note and which played the lower note. Their height was a little high, but our 3 year old could still reach! We also pounded on the poles with our palms, adding to the cacophony.

Do you like hiding in small spaces? Or climbing through caves? What about climbing on top of them? Well, this park has a really fun little cave that is perfect for teaching your preschooler how to boulder. She went under, then quickly climbed over. We used our stopwatch to time how many seconds it took her to climb to the top. She enjoyed sitting on top and looking around from her high vantage point. This climbing space was one of our favorite features of this park. 

Speaking of climbing under things - this playground made great use of the space. Underneath the platforms we found this great little window, which my daughter used to set up a pretend shop. She had a lot of fun pretending the wood chips were her merchandise, which she sold for the reasonable price of a few sticks.

 Have you ever seen a 4-way teeter totter like this?  We switched off counting to ten as we bounced up and down (I counted the odds, she counted the evens), then made different rhythms and patterns as we bounced. This equipment was a lot of fun. We could teeter back and forth with just two people, or with four.








While we were playing at this park, we noticed a lot of wildlife. We named our favorite squirrel "Speedy", and noticed several beautiful butterflies as they fluttered by. But then something exciting happened. A ladybug landed on my hand! We enjoyed this up-close-and-personal time with one of our favorite insects. 

Speaking of critters, while we were playing, there were a couple of adults who stopped by the park to capture Pokemon. It looks like this park might just be a fun place to visit if you're playing Pokemon Go!

If you're out in the neighborhood walking your pet, and you want to stop for a little water, this park is a great place to stop. We mentioned that the water coming out of this fountain was a liquid, and not a solid. Not only does this park have an accessible no-freeze water fountain that is operational year-round, they also have a special dish fountain for your pet!

Oh, and don't forget about swings! Off to the side of the playground, there's a hidden grouping of swings. There are two baby swings and two big-kid swings. That's a lot of swings for a pocket park.

We love Acacia Park!