Since we're in a bigger place now we finally have enough wall space for a play kitchen area! The kids receive money for gifts from relatives, but in our last place we had so little room for toys and *stuff* that I saved most of it until they wanted/needed/could use something else. I bought Julianna's Kitchen and wanted to give you a little review. Down To Earth Toys is where I ordered from. They are an at-home family business that sells wonderful natural toys! The colored rings are from there, the little enamelware cups, and they sell the dolls that I make as well.
About Down To Earth Toys' Julinna's Kitchen
So exciting to get such a big box from UPS! We were outside when the UPS truck came, what fun. We brought it inside and all set to work on putting it together. I know it's simpler to wait and do it without 'help' (my kids are 1-1/2 and 3-1/2) but it's so fun for the children to participate in building, and it makes it even more fun when mom spends an hour 'playing' with their toy with them as it's put together.
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The instructions for assembly were easy to follow, I used just a Phillips head screwdriver and a small hammer to get everything nestled in the grooves correctly. We all took turns trying out the screwdriver ;)
I was a little nervous about the hinges, but it turns out that the hinges are really good quality and look like they will withstand opening and closing hundreds of times every day. The shelf up top is so fun, it's really neat watching them play with something that was designed for their exact size; so often they're trying to reach up and work with adult-sized equipment. You can see in the top picture in this post that we rearranged their furniture to have drawer/cabinets and a table top 'counter'.
Playing with the kitchen just after assembly
The kids love it. I love providing them with a place to imitate what I'm doing. This is set up right along the wall in our dining room, next to the kitchen. I love to watch their play change as the seasons go- now they're into chopping fruit and veggies, as I'm cutting up fresh fruit often right now! This past winter they set up a 'stove' out of a box and did a lot of stirring and tasting soup.
Plans for the play area
I'll be honest, I love playing with their little toys. For their play area I'm going to attempt lazure painting the wall behind their play area here. We're renting, but I thought doing one wall would be neat, and our land lord is okay with it :) We'll see how it turns out! And I want to get them a rug to 'define' their play area a bit more from the dining room that it's a part of. I love having them play just off the kitchen; they bring me their cooking to sample as I'm in the kitchen often.
What do your children think of all your kitchen work?
More from Down To Earth Toys:
A special Made in the USA section
And Organic toys too!
More from me:
