BANGOR, Maine — There’s a new trail in Bangor, but this one wasn’t designed with just exercise or communing with nature in mind.
The Born Learning Trail is an interactive, playful, outdoor learning tool for young children, according to Kat Hamel, community outreach director for the Bangor Housing Authority.
The paved trail, completed and opened Friday, borders Davis Road and Downeast Circle. It was constructed in a former field in the city’s Capehart neighborhood near the Boys and Girls Club. It is open to the public.
The ¼-mile-long paved circle has nine stations marked by signs that suggest ways in which parents and caregivers may interact with young children. Just off the trail, there are benches, trees that eventually will provide shade, and wildflowers that attract insects and birds. Squares for a game of hopscotch were to be stenciled on the trail, along with some shapes.
“We are learning every day from birth,” Hamel said. “The stations can help adults turn simple ideas into learning games and offer kids something else to do in the park besides just walk or run.”
One station’s sign has the letters A, B and C printed on it. It asks children to identify each letter, then, to say the sound each one makes and to think of a word that starts with each letter.
Another station is titled “Jump, clap, skip, move.” It suggests children “pretend to move like an animal; walk like a duck; jump like a frog.” It also urges children to clap, wave their hands and smile at the world around them.
Alexis Dunham, 31, has lived in Capehart for nine years. She has two children, ages 13 and 9, and believes the trail will be “a great resource for the community.”
“I see a lot of kids who seem to always be inside and plugged in,” she said Friday. “This is a good way to get them outside to observe the world around them.”
Other organizations involved in the project, which was estimated to cost about $25,000, included WBRC Architects and Engineers, United Way of Eastern Maine, Penquis and AmeriCorps.
Hamel said Friday that the trail will be open year-round but won’t be plowed in the winter months.
The trail is part of the national Born Learning program sponsored by United Way designed to support early learning and school readiness, according to information on its website. It contains suggestions on how parents, caregivers and communities can create quality early learning opportunities for young children.