Why have a playhouse? Well the truth is you don't NEED a playhouse, but children NEED a place for imaginative play. A playhouse has advantages, but blankets over a card table work too. Like social development a child's imagination needs nurturing. It is part of the reason you read to your children. A child with a dynamic environment develops language skills faster and better and is more cognitively capable than deprived children. This is not new, Dewey knew this in the 1920's. Piaget demonstrated this in the 1930's.
One of the interesting things about a playhouse is it can also teach responsibility. Having a child sweep and clean (and even wash windows) is something even a young elementary student can do within their attention span. I know you want them to clean and sweep the house where you all live, but that house is "yours" the playhouse is "theirs". Likewise, the creativity can be fostered with having a child decorate the playhouse. Perhaps they'd like a "haunted house" at Halloween; or the well decorated for the holidays. Christmas lights can be hung (one two strings and your done without even much of a ladder). Allow them to plan the decorations (a few corns talks and some pumpkins and the playhouse is ready for a Thanksgiving “feast”). With both the cleaning and the decorating, the sense of accomplishment will do wonders for a child's sense self-worth and success breed more success. | 
