Summer is fast approaching and it's time to try and get the kids outside playing rather than in the house under our feet. However, send them out in the garden or backyard without anything to play with and you can guarantee they'll be back knocking at the door pretty quickly with claims of being bored or asking 'what can I do?' etc.
So, maybe it's time to offer them a little more to play with out in the garden? For imaginative play you can't really beat a playhouse. In selecting the right playhouse there is immediately one fairly major choice - plastic versus wooden playhouses.
Although the greener more sustainable choice is almost certainly the wooden playhouse I personally prefer the vast selection of plastic playhouses that are available these days. They have every conceivable colour scheme available and some pretty neat features like petrol pumps, basket ball hoops, tables and phones providing almost endless scope for stimulating the little ones imagination. They also come in various sizes so there is almost certainly one to fit even the smallest piece of land outside your house - assuming you aren't in a 10th story apartment!
Not surprisingly, playhouses have evolved along with everything else, and you now get some relatively high tech offerings. Take the Little Tikes Magic Doorbell Playhouse for example. This advanced playhouse has and array of features, including kitchenette with pretend burners, working door with letterbox, fireplace oven and even cupboards. However, as well as these molded plastic creations it also has, as the name may suggest, a doorbell. I'm not sure where the magic comes in, but the doorbell has 6 ringing sounds which will no doubt get well used.
I am sure children will have great fun playing all manner of games with this style of playhouse for many years, and once your children have grown out of it you can always store it away and await the arrival of your grandchildren!
With modern plastics the plastic playhouses available today are fairly resistant to fading and perishing or cracking due to the extremes of the weather so they are pretty robust and will last many years.
Ok, so there is no guarantee the weather will hold up and it may rain constantly for weeks, but I have known of children still being desperate to get outside and into the playhouse the minute the sun pokes through the clouds. I would therefore suggest that as outdoor toys go the plastic playhouse is right up there as a pretty good investment. Hopefully whilst the kids are busy playing in the house you can also get a few moments to yourself - even if it's just the chance to hang the washing out.
So, maybe it's time to offer them a little more to play with out in the garden? For imaginative play you can't really beat a playhouse. In selecting the right playhouse there is immediately one fairly major choice - plastic versus wooden playhouses.
Not surprisingly, playhouses have evolved along with everything else, and you now get some relatively high tech offerings. Take the Little Tikes Magic Doorbell Playhouse for example. This advanced playhouse has and array of features, including kitchenette with pretend burners, working door with letterbox, fireplace oven and even cupboards. However, as well as these molded plastic creations it also has, as the name may suggest, a doorbell. I'm not sure where the magic comes in, but the doorbell has 6 ringing sounds which will no doubt get well used.
I am sure children will have great fun playing all manner of games with this style of playhouse for many years, and once your children have grown out of it you can always store it away and await the arrival of your grandchildren!
With modern plastics the plastic playhouses available today are fairly resistant to fading and perishing or cracking due to the extremes of the weather so they are pretty robust and will last many years.
Ok, so there is no guarantee the weather will hold up and it may rain constantly for weeks, but I have known of children still being desperate to get outside and into the playhouse the minute the sun pokes through the clouds. I would therefore suggest that as outdoor toys go the plastic playhouse is right up there as a pretty good investment. Hopefully whilst the kids are busy playing in the house you can also get a few moments to yourself - even if it's just the chance to hang the washing out.
As owner of the website http://www.plasticplayhouse.org.uk/ Gus has a keen interest in Plastic Playhouses with many featured on the site. Among those included is the Little Tikes Magic Doorbell Playhouse as mentioned in the above article.
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