One of the best things that I remember from my childhood is playing make believe games in our wooden playhouse and wooden climbing frame.
The playhouse was made of sturdy wood but it had been planed so that I would not skin my knees when playing inside my wooden playhouse. My Dad got the idea from this book about childrens woodworking projects click to find out more.
The whole garden was set up as an adventure playground with the wooden climbing frame being at the center of attention for most of my summers.
We played all sorts of make believe games from pretending to be pirates on board our Spanish Galleon also known as our pirate ship playhouse to pretending to be John Wayne holding off another attack on our wooden fort in the Wild West.
The playhouse was far better for us because of the timber structure and it beats plastic or metal hands down. Wood has a unique sort of personality which seemed to mirror our own personality. Warm, yet very strong. We managed to build our wooden play house on our own although we did get some adult help.
The house was easily assembled but then again my father was a carpenter and so working with wood was very natural to him.
We assembled the playground by using wood screws which was a great idea because when we moved a couple of years after we first built the structure we were able to easily disassemble it and take it to where we were going to live.
I remember when we bought the wooden playhouse we were very cautious about what type of wood it was made from. We wanted wood that was strong yet light to carry but not too light because of the winds we experienced in our neck of the woods.
The size of our wooden play set was also a determining factor in buying our new garden home. Of course we wanted a massive one but then when we compared prices and the plans there was an optimum size that we went for that represented good value for money.
We went for one that was 7 feet 8 inches long and 5 feet 10 inches wide. It was tall enough for us to stand in but then again it had an upstairs too, being like a two storey house.
The wooden climbing frame that was just outside was brilliant because it meant we could pretend that we were living at home and then we imagined that we rode our horses across the prairie to our Fort Apache to defend all the homesteaders.
What I would recommend is go for the best quality wooden play house you can afford. I would also go for size as the second in my criteria and put quality ahead of that. I have a friend that bought a cheap but big wooden play house that rotted after two winters.
And as far as your wooden climbing frames go you absolutely need the best quality because otherwise you run the risk of someone getting hurt if the structure should fail and collapse. Get yourself some good woodworking plans too.