I'm hoping to get recommendations for dollhouses for my soon-to-be 4 year old daughter. In general, there seems to be 2 different types, those made for Barbie doll size dolls and those made for smaller size dolls. Also, they seem to be made out of either wood or plastic. I'd like to get something that she can play with now and for the next several years. She is not into Barbie dolls yet. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
My daughter overrode my taste in this area :). I got her the little people (which i think is awesome), but my daughter had some older girls in the neighborhood and she fell for the bratz girls dollhouse. I will say it has some very cute things like complete table settings and cosmetics, etc. No babies to take care of or crude play things, all very fine tuned, but she loved them. So, for what it is worth ......
J.
Hi D.,
We bought my 3 year old (also a D.!) the
Fisher-Price Loving Family Grand Dollhouse at Toys R Us for Christmas last year. It retailed at the time for about $80 - may have been on sale due to the holidays. She loved it, still plays with it a ton. She got a few extra furniture sets for it for her birthday,and we'll probably buy a few more for Christmas this year. I highly recommend it. It also folds up compactly, so it doesn't take up that much space.
My daughter got the fisher price dollhouse last year for xmas. I researched all the different types, but finally decided on that b/c at the time she wasn't into barbies either and the fisher price one came with lots of stuff. This year, she is into barbies and I bought a kid craft wooden dollhouse at costco for her for xmas. It was cheap- $80 (compared to the fisher price which i believe was $180)and when she saw it she wanted it so I went back and bought it. With Costco, if you don't buy it right then, it could be gone! I know others who have the melissa and doug dollhouse and I contemplated that one, but in the end I am happy with the fisher price. Good luck!
I would also give a nod to Fisher Price. My 9 yo still plays with it with her friends. They do Barbies too but we have lots more furniture w/ the Fisher Price set. Now a days they don't even use the dollhouse but just the furniture and set it all around the room. The furniture is 1/2 the size of Barbie's so it's easier for storage. Rooms of furniture are reasonably priced (we have over 15 sets of rooms accumulated over the years). If the house is too expensive I would go with 3 or 4 sets of furniture and a few of the dolls. We do a lot with boxes & shoe boxes in our house (we stack 'em to make our own condos) - instant room that we 'decorate" any way my dtr. wants.
http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=900004&e=store...
fisher price has nice sturdy ones. but if she thinks the loving family doll house is too babyish for her, take her shopping, see which one she likes and see if it's age appropropreat. That's the best advice I can offer.
Melissa&Doug.com have several great wooden dollhouses (some furnished as well), that are great for kids 3 years of age and up. And what's so great about all of their toys, is that they are CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) compliant.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Non-Plastic-Battery-Free-Toys-For...
The fisher Price Loving Dollhouse has been a huge success at my home, and my daughter is 7yrs old and still plays with it, along with my 3yr old son.
We bought my daughter the "loving family" doll house one year (she was 5), but by the next year she thought it was too babyish and wanted one for barbies, so then we had to buy one to fit barbies. The plastic barbie houses seemed very flimsy compared to what they used to make when we were younger. Ours is wooden and we got it from abc distributing(my husband had to add a few nails to make it a little more sturdy, but it was a good bit cheaper than others we saw in name brand childrens catalogs so it was worth adding a few nails), but since I have seen big doll houses like that at target and ToysRUs. She has used it for her barbies, polly pockets, littlest pet shop, and dolls- it is very versatile!
My daughter loves the Little People playhouse and the Loving Family playhouse.
My daughter turns 4 this week and I am thinking dollhouse for christmas and have been looking at them too. I'm probably going with the Fisher Price one as well. I like the idea of plastic as I can toss things in the sink and wash them. I looked at it on toys'r'us online and they have the "grand" set or something like that for $160. It includes a lot of rooms and the family.
I would also note that I wasn't going to get her a dollhouse cause with too many kids it just sits in a corner and they never play with it. However, my girl is a pretender. She will line up her other animals and dolls and have whole conversations with them and have little parties and such, so I think she will actually use it. I'm not looking forward to all the little pieces that will end up scattered, but will deal with it!
my 4 yer old loves the calico critters line. check that one out. wooden dollhouses are usually, IMO, more for collectors/adults. we have one and it has just not held up.
We bought my daughter one made by KidCraft. It is about 2 feet wide and 4 feet tall and made of thin wood. I looked at the Barbie doll houses, since that is what she plays with and they all seemed so flimsy and poorly made, not at all like the one I had as a child. The ones by KidCraft are made for the 12 inch dolls like Barbie. Ours came with several pieces of furniture and her little brother hasn't been able to tear it up! We looked on eBay and Amazon, originally, but we found the one we wanted at Learning Expressions.
So far we are really happy with the Fisher Price "Loving Family" dollhouse we bought for our daughter last year. She is 5 soon to be 6. It comes with the family and you can buy extra rooms of furniture, etc. We knew she also likes playing with cars, so we also bought the mini van that goes with it and about 4 rooms for the house. I noticed last week they have different categories of rooms (basic, deluxe & premiere)
