Perhaps you are thinking about building your child a playhouse in your garden. If so have you thought about whether you want one made of wood or plastic? You can actually find both that are kiddie safe, where your child can have fun and let their imagination take them off into fantasy land. But each material has different benefits that you might want to bear in mind.

Buying a playhouse made of wood will make your child feel more grown up as it will seem like a real house. These miniature wooden cabins have real working doors and windows as well as mailboxes and internal fittings such as play sinks on certain models. Wooden playhouses are weather resistant so will survive extremes of weather for a lot longer. They are usually quite large so two or three kids could fit inside together and they will love this as it will give them their own independent space. These playhouses are great toys for boys and girls, are suitable for children aged 2-8 years and cost from $350 up to $5,000.

Moving onto plastic playhouses these tend to look more like toys and often come with extras such as slides. Internally they can be kitted out similarly to the wooden playhouses but the range includes playhouses with specific purposes in mind. For example you can get a Nature Station playhouse for nature lovers. It has a shelf for inspecting flowers and bugs and a kit for finding things to catalogue. There is also a Neat & Tidy Cottage which comes with a molded-in kitchen table with faucet, burner and two seats. Again these playhouses fit two to three kids but are suited to younger children between 3 and 5 years old. Costs vary but are typically cheaper starting at $200 with more expensive models reaching $700.

When deciding on which playhouse to choose from the quite extensive range, consider what would best suit your child’s personality. If they want to set up a pretend home, the wooden toy options will be best whereas if they just want to have fun, one of the plastic range offers a cheaper alternative.