Sylvanian Families for a 3rd birthday present?

[SickOfTheSpiders]

Would this be a good idea, or is it not really suitable until they're a bit older? I'm thinking of keeping the tiny bits separate until they're older, and just sticking with a house, main furniture and some animals to start with.

If you took out the small bits I would think it's fine. If they're just playing with the house and figures, surely it's no different to a doll's house...

My DD has played with them since she was about 20 months, she loves them.

I'd leave it a year for the sets etc as there are so many tiny fiddly bits. However, for the little figures I think it's fine.

I think it is way too fiddly unless you take all the nice bits out.

Better for older children.
Dolls house or Duplo maybe?
My DD really enjoyed her play kitchen!

There are lots of bits that would snap easily even on the houses- window hinges, ladders etc. Might be ok if dc is the very careful type.

DD begged for one of the Sylvanian house sets for her third birthday, we very reluctantly bought it, thinking it would be trashed within a week. But she looked after it really well and played with it a lot (plus the other billion add-ons that came along afterwards with pocket money!). She’s now a teenager and it still takes pride of place in her room (and is occasionally played with by younger dcs under her strict supervision!).

DD got her first house and animal set around that time. She gradually built up more and more sets as she got older. She was still playing with them until she was about 12y in the end.

She is now 20y and the garage has 3 huge plastic tubs on wheels full of thousands of pounds of them sets, animals, houses - as well as the big buildings such as hotel, windmill, etc on top of those boxes.

I would say that they’re a bit dinky.

I think 3 is too young. Mine has just got into it at 6 and the bits are tiny.

For a third birthday I don’t think I would. To me they’re barely toys if that makes sense - they’re more like collections. My dd10 collects them, but she doesn’t play with them, just sets them up. I think at just turned three it would have been a nightmare keeping them nice and not breaking and spoiling them, and they’re expensive for a child who’ll break them.

I always liked playmobil for the preschool kids. Easier to play with and can be dumped in a tub of Milton when it gets dirty/vomited on/stuck in somebody’s mouth/takes a trip outside.

The first thing my DD did was undress them all We got a big bundle of figures off Facebook - £10 for about 40 figures in pristine condition! Not sure I'd spend the money on them new.

Mine played with her sisters Sylvanian families from 2, and we let her have the fiddly bits under direct supervision.

This is a scene my 2.5yo set up without any involvement from me. She sat the babies in their high chairs with matching plates, got out a pie, put it in the oven, took it out using a frying pan, then used the tiny knife to cut it in half (it's one that comes apart) and gave half to each baby. I sat there like 'what, but she's 2.5!''

For the right child, Sylvanian is perfect for a 3 year old. For others, they'd trash it. And that's no criticism of them, every child is different. My same child hates messy play, and is scared of water splashes 🤷‍♀️

So it depends how well you know the child really

You could get the figures and one of the cars at that age. So many of the pieces are really small. The fairground baby set is quite accessible for that age as well. My second child took a liking to her sister’s ones from about 18m old and adores them at 3 but she is still too young for the really fiddly bits and I had to take away the most delicate bits/choking hazards when she was tiny. It wasn’t the toy I wanted her to go for but she’s always liked them more than the older one has.

We got my daughter the sylvanian hotel (off gumtree) for her 3rd birthday, the reason being I thought it would be bigger and easier for her to manipulate the little figures and furniture inside it. It was a great idea (if I say so myself!!) and at nearly 7 years old now, she and her friends still play with it loads. I gave her a few of the smaller pieces but not many. I dripfed the smaller pieces over the next few years, which really reignited her interest in playing with them every time.

Too young. Play kitchens are a favourite