ESL Podcast 458 - Going to the Playground

nanny - a woman whose job is to take care of another person's children, usually full-time while the parent is working and often living in the family's home

Toshiyo and Mariah both work as engineers, so they have a nanny who takes care of their three children.

playground - an area where children can play on large pieces of equipment, usually at a park or next to a school

They often play with their friends at the playground after school.

an accident waiting to happen - something that is dangerous; a situation where something bad is likely to happen eventually if enough time passes

Letting people smoke cigarettes near a gas station is just an accident waiting to happen.

merry-go-round - a large, round piece of equipment for children to play on that spins in a circle around the center and has room for children to stand or sit on it

Melinda got dizzy on the merry-go-round and she felt sick.

toddler - a young child who is one to two years old and is learning how to walk, but cannot do it very well yet

Taking care of toddlers is a lot of work because you have to follow them around and make sure they don't get into trouble.

to get the wind knocked out of (one) - to fall down, usually on one's stomach or chest, so that air is pushed out of one's lungs and one has difficulty breathing for a few seconds

She got the wind knocked out of her when she fell off the table.

swing set - a large piece of equipment where small, rectangular pieces of wood or plastic hang from ropes or chains so that children can sit on them and move back and forth through the air

The little boy asked his father to push him higher and higher on the swing set.

decapitated - without one's head; with one's head separated or cut off from one's body

How many people were decapitated while Catherine the Great ruled Russia?

see-saw - a long, rectangular piece of wood or metal with seats on both ends that is held up in the middle so that one child sits on each end and they use their legs against the ground to push each other up into the air

A see-saw doesn't work well unless both children weigh about the same.

smashed - pressed from above by something very heavy so that something or someone becomes smaller and damaged or injured

His hand was smashed in a machine at work and he has already had three surgeries on it.

out of (one's) grasp - away from one's hands or arms so that someone or something is no longer being held

The expensive vase fell out of her grasp and broke when it hit the floor.

jungle gym - a large, tall piece of equipment with many metal bars separated by open spaces that children can climb onto, through, and over

When the boy reached the top of the jungle gym, he got scared and didn't know how to come back down, so his brother had to help him.

monkey bars - a piece of equipment that looks like a ladder lying horizontally with tall pieces of metal holding it up at each end, so that children can use their hands to hang from the pieces of metal and move from one end to the other without having their feet touch the ground

Jake is already too tall for the monkey bars, so he has to bend his knees when he hangs from them, or else his feet hit the ground.

slide - a long, narrow, flat piece of metal or plastic that is placed at an angle so that children can climb stairs to get to the top, sit down, and move quickly down until their feet are on the ground again

Little kids like to go down the slide, but bigger kids often try to climb up it.

head first - with one's head going somewhere first, followed by the rest of one's body and one's feet

The 10-month-old girl tried to get off the couch head first. She needs to learn to turn around and come down on her legs instead.

sandbox - a large, open box that is filled with sand (very small pieces of earth usually found on the beach) for children to play with

Pippy likes to build castles in the sandbox with her friends.

lively - very active; with a lot of energy

The wedding reception was very lively as the guests laughed and danced.

deathtrap - something that is very dangerous; a place where one might die because there are many dangers

He drives an old car with bad brakes and poor steering. It's a deathtrap!