Playstands: Help

[Melaine]

We just put up the playstands and they look really pretty....but I'm afraid they aren't going to get as much play as I'd hoped. Here's the ones we got: http://www.littlecolorado.com/playstand.html
(with the arch at the bottom)

Before we assembled them we did a massive toy purge, re-organizing everything and selling and donating quite a few toys. I put some in our attic for rotation and made sure that all the toys that were left were nice quality and not too crowded.

Here's my issue: I didn't realize that the canopy and playstands were going to be permanently attached. I guess from photos I'd seen, I had hoped that each playstand would have half the canopy and that they wouldn't be attached at the top. I had imagined that the girls could move them around and re-arrange them. I had also hoped that we could use them in both our living room and their bedroom. With the layout of our living room, they can't live there permanently, so we had to assemble them in the girls' room. Which means they are stuck there.

So, would I be better off just dispensing with the canopies all together? That way the two pieces could be carried around and used different ways. I really like the height of the canopy but it sort of seems to defeat the purpose for the whole thing to be so static, ykwim?

I'd love feedback on how you have done it, what has worked best, how kids get the most play out of them, etc. Or better still, if someone has an idea for a way I could make the canopy go on and off....surely if we were a little handier we could figure that out.

Thanks!!!

[brittone2]

I can't help on the disassembly. We have canopies attached the way DH built them but that hasn't been an issue for us. They are bolted on (in our case) so DH could remove them if needed. Ours is set up into two halves (one half attached to each stand) . We don't use them separately but we could break up the playstands more easily that way if we wanted to I guess.

When DS1 got his, he played with them but then the interest kinda died off a bit. We gave them new life by trying to give him some inspiration...setting up a play store for him for example. My dad at one point made him a little sign for a "bakery and ice cream shoppe" and then a little open/closed sign. He used that with his play ice cream cones, cupcakes, etc.

You might have to kind of model some ways to play with them initially and see if that sparks more interest. It may or may not, but worth a try.