Welcome to Mumsnet's shopping board. Whether you are after a new family car or a great new coffee machine this is the board for you. Share product recommendations and reviews here. Related: Discuss clothes and fashion on our Style and beauty forum. Check out Swears By to find the products Mumsnetters love and our reviews section to see the best baby and child products put through their paces.
Shopping
Outdoor toys.......Which ones have your kids used most ??
nutcracker · 14/07/2004 21:59
My kids now have an endless list of what toys they would like for their new garden,but a) i don't have a bottomless pit of money and b) i would like the room still to be able to walk around the garden .
So which toys have your kids used most ??
P.s Am very tempted to buy a big plastic playhouse i saw reduced by 125 quid (shhh don't tell dp).
clary · 16/07/2004 04:04
We have summer birthdays so have lots of garden toys. Second much on here, sandpit, slide, trampoline (we just have the small ELC one), pop-ups. Also got DS2 a rocker for his b/day this year, indoors or out, seats three. Look in yr local paper for a lot of these as they don't get worn out and people sell them once outgrown for space reasons. Bizarrely most popular thing esp with visitors is a ride-in fire engine that was so old and faded that it was given free!
granarybeck · 16/07/2004 10:52
definitely recommend the mini trampolines (haven't room for a big one). mine are 6 and 7 and still bounce on it every day.they are quite lively kids and its a great way to wear them out! mine also always loved those cozy coupe cars at other people's houses. at the time we didn't have a garden, but they seem popular. my friend has a plastic playhouse, her kids are 6,3 and 3 and they all play in it everyday and mine too when we are there and its not a big one!
Motherdearest · 17/07/2004 20:18
Nutcracker - a word of warning - I bought a playhouse (125 quid as you say) for my 2 girls - 3 and a half and 1 and a half, 2 months ago, after seeing them playing delightfully with all the display ones in Toys r Us. They've barely looked at it since the day their dad erected it. (There's no emoticon for eyes rolled to heaven in despair!!)
nutcracker · 17/07/2004 20:23
Gingerbear - What a great idea, where can i get an adlt cowgirl out fit from ?? wink{}
At the mo i am thinking i will get a slide, trampoline and sand pit first.
My friend works for ELC and said the outdoor stuff will be going in the sale at the end of august so if i want anything else i'll get it then.
Am also on the lookout for a little tikes cube thingy for Ds.
meysey · 18/07/2004 02:23
sandpit, ideally with sides you can sit on, so you can drink tea, wiggle your toes in the sand and keep an eye on them when necessary. you can make one cheaply from wooden planks or decking and a mesh base for drainage.
crazy daisy type thing is ace for all ages and also waters the garden...
we just need some nice weather now!
LIZS · 18/07/2004 13:35
florenceuk
Quadro stuff is good and adaptable but you do need quite a lot of it to make something with any longevity and it still takes up quite a bit of room (straight slide is similar to TP). ds (6) and dd (almost 3) play on a friend's a lot and you need a wide base to make it stable for more than one child but you can add levels. The panels to make the level platforms are a tight fit so watch fingers too. How old are your kids ?
beachyhead · 18/07/2004 17:01
I love our Quadro stuff, because you can just make it up in two bits and drag it round the garden to rearrange in lots of different shapes. Sometimes we cover it up with tarpaulins and all sit in there while its raining!!!!! We're odd like that!!! It gets remade by DH every three years or so, so we've managed to keep it going for a bit. I think it is less good for bigger children and they can tip it over more (and yes they do trap their fingers when they clip/unclip the panels, but hey!!!)Nothing terminal, so far....plus you can drag it onto the patio when you mow! We've inherited two batches so far and basically, the more the merrier
florenceuk · 18/07/2004 17:48
DS is 2.5, and I really want something which can be used as climbing frame. TP climbing frame is about 2metres wide, which is about the width of our lawn, so too wide. How wide do you think it needs to be to be stable? The guy on Ebay is offering a (new) Starter Kit for £90 and a Universal kit for about twice the price. I think they don't actually have a UK distributor anymore - they are German-based.
monkey · 18/07/2004 18:33
I hated our sandpit so much. Just moved house and didn't bring it with us. Boys did love it but
- house full of sand.
- patch of ground ruined by sand.
- all manner of toys disappeared from house and burried in sand and broken.
- constantly teling them & visiting kids not to throw sand out of the sand pit.
- boys trying to make quick sands by putting loads of water in sand pit, thus making themselves filthy and the sandpit unusable
Issymum · 18/07/2004 19:06
We've just bought a wooden climbing frame, fort, sandpit and slide/swing set as an alternative to dragging the DDs away on a holiday we don't want to go on! Absolutely massive thing, but it looks great, appears to have been designed to withstand a thermo-nuclear attack and was not an unreasonable price. It's an "Evagreen Twilight" and is about half the price of the other wooden sets. We bought it directly from a commercial seller who advertised on ebay and has, so far, been excellent to deal with (note to self: must get round to paying him).
Early days to comment on play-value, but building it certainly kept DH amused all weekend!
At the other end of the spectrum, DD1 has had many hours of fun out of a toy plastic watering can...
spook · 19/07/2004 10:32
I bought this water spray rocket launcher thing in Tesco's the other day (noticed one in ELC sale yesterday too) You attach it to a hosepipe and the water sprays up and sends the rocket up in the air. it was only #7 and I have never seen my boys laugh so much! They can control the force of the water and the height of the rocket and they stayed out even in the freezing rain playing with it! It is such fun-even in the frozen north.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.