This Christmas holiday Chantelle and I were adamant to get something for Jessica to play outside with, you know, to encourage her to play more instead of just sitting down to watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Slides, swings, trampolines, they were all on our shortlist, before Chantelle and I finally decided that perhaps a kid’s plastic playhouse would be just the ticket that we were looking for. Jess always runs in and plays in a playhouse given half a chance, so perhaps she’d absolutely love having one of her own.
So we started shopping around, and came across a very nice looking one from Keter at Game for R1,799. White, pink, with a chicken on top and a pony pasted on the door, it seemed too good to be true! I made the decision there and then to buy the playhouse for her at the start of her holiday instead of waiting until Christmas, meaning that she would therefore have the maximum amount of playtime in it available to her over the vacation period.
Consequently, while she was out on her last day at Vergeet-My-Nie playschool, I nipped out to Game, handed over the money, and somehow managed to squeeze the rather big box in my little Hyundai Getz.
Back home I set about the assembly phase of the project, and I have to say, hats of to the guys at Keter (made in Israel by the way) – this is a very well thought out, well manufactured, and easy to assemble kit.
In no time at all, with the help of a detailed instructions booklet, I had the sturdy (relatively) little plastic structure up, complete with oh so cute ladybug roofclips and rooster weathervane sitting snuggly on top! (No screws, hammer, or screwdriver required).
I put a nice soft blanket on the floor, pulled in her chair with some books, and arranged all the ponies as a colourful welcoming committee.
Jessica was of course super duper excited when she arrived home, and immediately played in it for the next day or two, but sadly that’s where our plan failed, or rather as far as it went – those two initial days were pretty much the last thought she gave to the structure for the rest of the holiday! :/
I think the answer lies in the fact that on its own, the playhouse is just a shell, and without anything inside to make it more of a house, well then there just isn’t all that compelling a reason to play inside.
After all, it’s much cooler and with more space just to play in our actual home!
So the next step for Chantelle and myself I guess is to start looking around for kitchen toys to populate it with. Hopefully that will spark the interest that we originally had so hoped to ignite.
Oh well, live and learn I suppose, live and learn.
Bonus! On another related note, my heart literally sank a week after buying the playhouse – I was out shopping at Checkers Hyper and spotted the exact same whimsical pink and white Keter playhouse selling for… R1,299 – a full R500 cheaper than what I had just paid at Game less than a week earlier!
Thankfully though, enough people quickly reminded me of Game’s awesome policy whereby they will refund you the difference in purchase price if you spot something you just purchased cheaper elsewhere within a given time limit, meaning that the R500 was swiftly recovered and then spent on some more Christmas gifts for the girls!
Related Link: http://www.keter.com/products/magic-playhouse