Also view the frequenty asked questions at the bottom of the page for useful tips about your product. Saying that, although it's sold as suitable from 3 years, we reckon most toddlers could play very happily in this – with close adult supervision, of course. And it encourages your child into a winning combination of outdoor activity and imaginary play, boosting both their physical and emotional development in one long, fun-filled burst. The playhouse comes with large windows to peep through, a doorbell with 6 different sounds and a dutch style door.

The plastic has been weather-treated but is thinner than you'd get with other, more expensive playhouses. Founded in France in 1924 under the name Moquin-Breuil, Smoby went from producing wooden pipes to manufacturing toys for children in 1978.

But the platform does collect water when it rains: the solution, according to one parent of our child testers, is to drill some holes in the floor. The half door and windows with shutters welcome plenty of light as cooking takes place in the kitchen. Inside, there's a fridge, oven, pretend gas stove with flames, a sink and tap, a cash register (including a sweet cash drawer and credit card reader) and storage shelves, and the outside has 2 porthole windows, an opening half-door and another shutter window.

And the utensils and condiments are included too, so your little one is ready to re-enact the entire restaurant experience with their friends, on their own terms.And it's quite small – which may suit you nicely if you have a small garden but does mean the roof is quite low for most kids over the age of 4 or 5. Plus it has a high lintel providing enough headroom to stand up and making it more likely to last longer as your child grows. The house itself isn't huge but Claire, mum to our child testers Emma, 2, and Charlotte, 5, said, "It's big enough for my daughters to play alongside each other – I often find them sat in the playhouse having little tea parties together, which is so cute! The brand considers itself a "multi-specialist", with products spanning categories such as outdoor, art and craft, role play, table football, wheeled toys and dolls.

The real special sauce of an outdoor playhouse is that it presents your child with a little outside den, for the beginnings of independent play.Plastic playhouses are easier to build (and move), generally cheaper and often come in more imaginative shapes and themes. This playhouse features a kitchen and market stall, so your little one can set up a pop up cafe business. They rely on a number of sources, including our testing during the MadeForMums awards and feedback from our home testing panel and Top Testers Club. She can play with it for hours on end, peeking out of the windows – and the water butt is a huge hit. Features, themes and extras – Some outdoor playhouses are just the basic 4 walls and a roof but more and more come with added features such as slides, balconies, opening and closing shutters, play sinks, play cookers or flower planters.

Accessories Included– Plenty of fun is guaranteed thanks to the accessories, including a sink, fridge, oven and cash register. With a wide range of designs available including Hello Kitty and Winnie the Pooh themed playhouses and others featuring slides and picnic tables built into them, Smoby have something to make a variety of children happy. Its toys make wonderful gifts and could help the children in your life discover a future hobby or job. This colourful playhouse on stilts has a little deck, a 4-rung ladder and a 4ft slide which has a hose attachment to turn it into a water slide in summer.This big double-decker wooden playhouse is packed with active-play features, including a 12ft twisty slide, ladder and climbing wall, and in the open-air play area downstairs there's a play sink, play stove, as well as a porch with a little bench.