If your kids are desperate for a playground in your yard you have a couple of options available to you.
One option is go for the wooden “barebones” basic DIY wooden set. You will need to purchase the wood seperatly for such a project and build it yourself. If your looking at this option, I must add that it’s quite a task and will often need more than two adults to help with construction. This basic kit often costs around $500 – $1500 but you should also include a price for your time – which for someone unskilled in carpentry can be a very long time.
The second option avaialble is the “ready to assemble” kits. These packs contain all the parts you need and are usually pre-drilled and treated. This options will still take around a day to construct and has a price tag around $1000-$1500.
The most luxurious/costly option is to go for the full playset and installation. This option can cost around $2000 but means no hassle when it comes to construction.
We neither had the money or carpentry skill to go for any of the above options but decided to go for the Little Tikes Endless Adventures PlayCenter Playground. The Little Tikes option only has a very small amount of preperation. Me and my husband managed to complete the playcentre in 3 hours with not a single power tool in sight.
One of the other reasons we did not go for the wooden option was matinence. The wood playground required all year round matinence and to be honest we had enough matinence with the kids. Without matinence the wooden playsets can rot and suffer from insect infestations! Luckily like all Little Tike products, the playground was made entirley from plastic so we did not have to worry about matinence.
What about the most important factor – fun! Well our kids loved it from day on, their favourite area was in hte fort where they often imagined they where kings and Queens! so cute to watch 
What about price?
Well we where very impressed/surprised by the price – it was another reason that set it apart from the wooden sets. We got our for $999 but I have seen it for $899 from Amazon.com.
Overall we are still impressed with this product and would encourage every parent who can afford it to get one.