Which garden toy?

[WatermelonKiwi]

Hi all

Trying to decide what to get for my DS for our garden. He’s 3 and a half and very active. Can’t decide whether to get a wooden swing/slide/tower set or a monkey bar frame with accessories. In my mind the wooden set may be a little more age appropriate at the moment but the monkey bar set I think will be used longer.

Any thoughts/recommendations/advice from personal experience?!

Assuming the wooden one isn’t a tiny toddler size, go for that one. We have someone sort of similar and it is still well used all summer but a 3, 6 & 8 year old.

The grass died under our wooden play thingy (we then put astro turf underneath which was totally fine). The wooden beams also started to crack in the sun (we get quite a bit of direct sunlight) and it wasn't cheap. I'm unsure if we should have done anything to it but it was all treated timber. I don't think it was falling apart or anything, but it just looked a bit worrying.

If I was getting one again, I'd get a metal one.

Won’t the metal one get unbearably hot in summer? I mean hands holding hot metal bars?

I would get a wooden one

At 3 1/2 I would have thought he would struggle with monkey bars without help and might get frustrated at that set initially, and once he was big enough to use it the novelty would have worn off. Also consider when he starts having friends round you will need to be happy with them using the equipment too, and the second set could be very stressful (we have monkey bars and although my son could do them at age 5 or 6 not all his friends could). I think the first one will encourage creative type play too (pretending it's a castle etc). When he's younger you will probably spend more time in the garden. As they get older and have more hobbies and friends there is less time for play at home.

I'd definitely get the wooden one, it looks fab!

We had a similar Costco wooden one that lasted my girls their whole childhood. In the summer we used to put a padding pool at the bottom of the chute......hours and hours of fun.