Building a Child’s Playhouse

This is an important issue because it concerns the welfare of children. Their mental health, wellbeing and recreation! The greatest parental happiness and the greatest parental worry are related to the joy and sorrow of their children. If you involve the children in building their own house, a Child’s Playhouse, you provide an outlet to them for their creative endeavors. But fortunately or unfortunately, commercialization of the Playhouse projects has robbed a big portion of creativity that really belongs to children.Yet, the concept of Playhouse still fascinates children and they feel a sense of involvement, in going through the literature, designs and colorful photographs concerning this project. Their involvement in the process of selection of the house thrills them. In the present day modern materialistic world, when there are too many unhealthy distractions for the children, to create social and home loving feelings in their minds is one of the solid achievements of conce pts like building a Child’s Playhouse. If such a house is at the countryside so much the better!It helps to cement the bonds between the children and Mother Nature with all her flora and fauna! If the children born and brought up in metropolitan cities were to stay in the Children’s Playhouse at the countryside, it will leave deep favorable impression on the formative minds. They will experience the difference between the concrete jungle and the real jungle of the birds and animals! Background information: Children are no ordinary market for the business giants. In fact, they are the main targets for food items and colas. The multinationals have staggering budgets running into millions of dollars to hook the children to their products.The business of costly, commercial Playhouses and Cottages has been taken over by the business community. â€Å"Do-It-Yourself Playhouse Building Plans, Build a new Playhouse, Play Fort, Kid's Cottage, or Child-Size Backyard Cabin for yo ur kids. These plans are crafted by experts and by the editors of magazines like Family Handyman, Garden Gate, WOOD Magazine, Workbench and more. They come with clear illustrations and step-by-step instructions to make your work easy. Most of the plans include complete material lists. (Summerwood Products)That’s about the real Playhouse, let us say, the architect’s playhouse, which is like a housing project, with the stamp of children’s enjoyment program. Naturally, the main emphasis of such types of Playhouses is what maximum happiness and sporting activities the house can provide for the children! In the construction of such Playhouses, the role of children in the process of construction and finishing is very limited, because every thing is related to the house arrives in a packed container/parcel, and the assembling part of such ‘engineering units’ also belongs to the company-trained personnel.Sometimes, children are mere observers; only they get the visual joy of the house being assembled by experts in front of their eyes. It is not possible to provide clear cut dimensions of a playhouse . The design and the area can be anything. The definition of a playhouse is, â€Å"a small structure that looks like a house and is big enough for children to play in. †(Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary) The children did build their Playhouses and found their own channels of happiness since time immemorial. But the models and designs have undergone metamorphic changes.In olden days, children built Playhouses using mud, tree leaves and branches, to play and enjoy the games created by them. They were low budget or no-budget playhouses, created for the sake of temporary enjoyments, during week ends and during holidays. There was more joy and less capital investment in such Playhouses. The study of the problem: During my study of the Playhouse phenomenon, I found the mushroom growth of playhouses of all sizes, varieties and d esigns. It has become a fashion with the city folk to own a Children’s Playhouse at the countryside. It is ‘construction activity’ in full swing!The Child’s Playhouse has almost become synonymous Holiday Homes built for employees by Banks, Multinational Corporations etc. The original purpose of building the play house for children was altogether different. It was by the children, for the children and to the children! If it is a real playhouse for children, the joy and the activity element in building the Playhouse, needs to be the exclusive property of the children. If the children remain present during the inaugural ceremony of a newly constructed playhouse by their rich parents, well, it is still a playhouse but much of the joy essence is not in it.Let the parents spend some quality time with their children. Have a close look at this observation by a father happily observing his child engaged in building something of her own! â€Å"Later, while recoveri ng from the shopping experience, I didn't notice Ana busy in her room–until I was called for a â€Å"fitting. † Resting on green sponge soles was a converted shoe box, with painted laces hooked around colored paper clips. My new â€Å"shoe† had everything: bagel stickers on its sides and sports-card toes, rivaling the best in-store models.Children in today's â€Å"media generation† often don't make things at home, and they often construct objects only in cyberspace. Computer games, and even the new Logos[R], come with hefty instruction manuals for constructing very specific pre-determined forms. Art teachers need to consider the importance of children making things, building by hand, constructing their own objects without formulas or patterns. † (Szekely, February 2001) Cost of building a Playhouse and material required: This is a highly hypothetical question and no fixed answer can be given.It all depends upon one’s requirements and plan. Wh at is important is the involvement of children in the construction of the house. That is the real Playhouse. It can be a low-budget simple cardboard playhouse, created by appliance boxes. Children need not be told how cut holes, windows and doors and install air conditioners! You can provide the children with dozens of boxes so that they can build a real big playhouse with all the furnishings like curtains, wall decorations and even a table tennis court! They can paint the house and make the interior decorations of their choice.And if you wish to go for real Play Houses, all that you have to do is go through the various catalogues and do the selection in consultation with your children, the real masters of the Play Houses! The material used for such Playhouses is of high quality and as per approved specifications. The Playhouse comes with a warranty of 5 years or more. The total cost of the Playhouse will be as per your budgetary allocations. Conclusion and recommendations: Children have endless possibilities and confidence. The parents and the teachers have a great responsibility to wean away the children from the net games.This is not to say that the net games are totally bad. But moderation in this area is the need of the hour. Children, love physical activity! Their real joy is in creativity, involvement, create playthings, alter playthings and destroy playthings. Building playhouses needs to be an important part of the syllabus for children, where the teachers should be mere observers. Watch and note what the children do, left to themselves. They can be given broad hints. The mention made about the responsibility of teachers and parents is just not an academic issue. Spending maximum time with your children is the social need of the present times.The distractions for the children and the younger generation are too many. Involvement of the parents in the activities that interest the children is one way to control them in the positive way. Staying in a play house and engaging with the children is good for both! Finally, try to awaken the hidden genius within your child. By allowing him to construct and have his own Play House! Word count: 1317. . Works Cited Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary. Summerwood Products, Designers of Fine Outdoor Structures Szekely, George. Handmade Art, Arts and Activities Magazine, February 2001.