[kitikatuka]

Hi there! I'm wondering if anyone knows of any fun, wood play structures for very little kids? Something along the size of those Little Tykes play structures, but wood.

My daughter is turning 1 in a month and loves to climb on the small structures at the playground and I'd love to find some kind of play structure that I could put in the yard (I'd also consider something for indoors, since we'll soon be heading into colder months here in VT).

I've been searching online and am not having much luck yet. Any ideas are welcome - thank you!

 

[taramoon13]

just wanted to say i'm right there with you. we were looking to get one for our ds, but i couldn't find anything! someone we know has a cute one from STEP 2 from like 30 years ago that's wood, but all of their stuff is plastic now. maybe we need to go into business!

 

[ellairiesmom]

I spent months trying to find something in wood...really tough. Found a few things but they were huge sets & so expensive. We ended up having to settle for a used little tikes i found on ebay that we could pick up locally. I was ok with it since at least we were reusing someone's plastic & they do last forever. It is the 8 in 1 climber & DD (almost 2) has really enjoyed it this summer.

We also got a Step 2 slide for inside ($60 on sale) which is great for rainy days/winter. She is literally on it everyday at some point. I recently saw this at our local Ikea though & wished I had gone with it instead. Anything else I saw online that was wooden & similar was much more expensive...
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10089916

 

[kitikatuka]

Thanks for the ideas! I think we may go with something from Step 2. I wish Ikea was making more wooden stuff like that cool little slide! That's a great piece.

In my continuing quest, I did find that Kaplan (an early educational supply) offers some very nice indoor soft climbing pieces for toddlers. You can view their catalog online on their website here.. Look in the "2009 Infants and Toddler edition" under Active Play (see p.176 on). According to customer service, the Lily Pad Lane pieces are phthalate and BPA free (this was the only piece that I asked about), so that's a little bit better, perhaps.

 

[kitikatuka]

I wanted to update anyone here looking for an indoor wood play structure for their kiddos since I just discovered this lovely option!

http://www.cedarworks.com/product/rhapsody

 

[spiraldancer]

thanks - those look sweet! wonder how pricey they are though. . .

 

[Latte Mama]

VERY pricey. I ordered their catalog for kicks because their stuff is so gorgeous. It's priced in the thousands, even for the smaller pieces.

 

[Anandamama]

I've also been keeping an eye out for small, wooden play scapes for toddlers. I've ended up buying plastic Little Tikes structures, used. I would never buy big plastic things like that new. As much as I dislike plastic, I have to admit that it's great that they have no splinters and if the kids fall against them I don't worry much about them getting hurt. And maintainence is minimal. I've been designing the ideal toddler play set (I work with toddlers) and maybe one day I'll find someone to make it for our class.

 

[Plarka]

My husband made our 2 year old monkey bars for her bedroom. Then I made a trapeze from a dowel and some rope, and he recently made her a swing! We have the trapeze and swing hanging from the monkey bars. The monkey bars are height adjustable, so we can have it high up to hold her up to teach her to do it properly, or low down and she can just mess around on it. If we take down just one side, it's a ladder to climb up. If we take the ladder down and put it on the floor, she can walk between the rungs, do crap walk sideways.....we can drape a sheet over the monkey bars while up and it's a tent! Endless fun!

The plans are in a book by Glenn Doman called 'How To Teach Your Baby To Be Physically Superb.' Have a look at this Youtube video where a guy explains how he made his:

or his wife's website: http://www.professional-mothering.co...on-ladder.html

 

[kielni]

We got my son a wooden slide from IKEA for Christmas, and he loves it: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10089916 It's intended for indoors; you wouldn't want it to get rained on.

 

[Thalia]

Well, it's not INTENDED for this, but if you are looking for something for indoors, DD uses her Learning Tower as a jungle gym. It's meant to be used to help kids stand at the kitchen counter safely (and we use it for this almost daily) but DD also climbs up and down it, swings off and onto it, climbs underneath it, and finds all kinds of ways to use it as an indoor play structure. You can also use it as a fort or a puppet theater, so it's been a pretty versatile toy for us.

 

[denaverbena]

Plarka ~ your monkey bar set up with swing and trapeze sounds awesome. I'd love to see a picture! I'm gonna ask DH to build this for DD's first birthday.