Question about outdoor playhouses / swingsets

I was thinking of getting DS one of those plastic playhouses for outside but when i look at them they are just mostly 4 walls without much else. How much time does anyones DC spend in them and what do they do in there? Do they bring other toys in there to play with?

As for the swingsets - i noticed there are alot of add-ons and was wondering if anything was worth getting? At what ages are the telephone, ship wheel and telescope played with? And do they spend more than a few minutes playing with them? Does anyone have the rhythm band?

Outdoor rhythm band

It looks really cute but again wondering how much time would be spent playing with it and at what ages?

Thanks for any thoughts / opinions

Re: Question about outdoor playhouses / swingsets

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Re: Question about outdoor playhouses / swingsets

I have 3 boys. Twins almost 3, baby will be 1 this week. Twins got a play house for Easter last year. They love it. They spend a lot of time playing in it. Delivering the mail, climbing through windows, ringing door bell, sweeping the floor, putting other toys in it.

They had a small climber last year. We just upgraded to a big swingset. It has the binoculars, wheel, etc. They are still a bit young for those features but I know they will grow into them. That music thing you posted seems expensive and like a waste of $. Our swingset has a climbing wall, rope ladder and tire swing and those things seem to be the favorites so far. If we lived w/in walking distance to a playground, I would not have got such a large set.

Although they love both of these things, they also love their dump trucks and shovels to move dirt, leaves, sticks around the yard. I also put a rubbermaid bin outside w/ a bunch of smaller trucks, shovels.

We spend a lot of time outside so for us, it makes sense to have a lot of variety w/ toys.

Question about outdoor playhouses / swingsets

I have been slowly buying up outdoor things used on craigslist. So far my toddler girls like their little tykes mountain climber the most probably because it has the highest slide. They will use pretty much all of their outdoor equipment, they sort of rotate between things. With their playhouse it's more about going in and out the door and opening and closing the windows.

It took me a while to find them used on craigslist but last weekend I managed to get the club house climber (new 600 for 350 used) and the mountain climber (new 460 for 125 used) There are more on craigslist now. I got the playhouse (new 200 or so, used $40 but then I had to order new stickers and a new phone so that was another $40). So all total for everything in my yard was only $550. which is still less than just the clubhouse climber if I bought it new.

The thing they play with a little more than the rest would be the cosy coop cars they love riding in them and just pushing them around or pushing eachother around in them.

The mountain climber is really cool because you can change the way the blue part is to make it easier or harder. Then the back has a rope thing to climb and the side is a regular ladder. They sell this on amazon for $460 but I got mine on craigs list for 125 and I saw another one on there at the same time.

I attached a photo of my yard with everything in it, the mountain climber thing, and the clubhouse climber (this one is the actual picture of the one that is currently available on craigslist right now for 350 in franklin square)

here's the link for the clubhouse:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/lgi/tag/3659143718.html

and here's the link for a mountain climber in rockville center:
http://longisland.craigslist.org/bab/3607433149.html

I actually emailed the guy about the clubhouse but ended up finding one closer to home. I wish I had bought this one from this guy though because the one I got was missing the two red stools. I sent my husband to pick it up and he didn't know they were missing.

I still have to pressure wash them but DH wanted to wait until it got warmer out so I just cleaned it all with windex for now.

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Message edited 3/16/2013 4:23:38 PM.

Question about outdoor playhouses / swingsets

My son loves his playhouse! I actually got it off of this site!!! I plan on painting it this summer. He loves to go in and cook for me and opening the doors and windows are very fun!

Re: Question about outdoor playhouses / swingsets

Re: Question about outdoor playhouses / swingsets

Re: Question about outdoor playhouses / swingsets

Thanks everyone - this is very helpful

We are thinking of maybe just buying a swingset that has a clubhouse on the bottom instead of getting the playhouse. Just trying to figure out what i can add to it that will make it fun? Im thinking of maybe an outdoor bbq