Best toy kitchen for toddler

On Monday morning we filmed Baby Girl walking into the kitchen in her pyjamas. Daddy T and I were both super excited about seeing her reaction to our new bright red and green kitchen–all for her.

Daddy T had spent one and a half hour on Sunday night screwing the Healthy Eating Kitchen and Market Stall from Kids Play Kit together, and we were thrilled to see 15-month old Baby Girl’s face light up when she saw the masterpiece.

Since then, she’s pretended to wash her hands in her own sink, she’s been tidying up the pretend food I placed on her shelves, turning the knobs on her hob, reorganising the wooden baskets, and opening and closing the oven door. AIl very entertaining.

I decided on the Millhouse Kitchen (£95 online from KidsPlayKit.com), which is really recommended for children between three and five, because it can be used as both a kitchen and a market stall. I think Baby Girl is too young to play shop right now, but I’m sure she’ll want to play with this kitchen for several years to come, and we can later turn it around to use it as a shop and fill in prices on the big blackboard.

I also like the fact that the oven door has a Velcro fastening, and it’s designed in a way that means Baby Girl can’t hurt her fingers when closing it. In addition, there are two wooden baskets and shelves, which are great for storing her pretend food, pots and pans.

There is nowhere to hang a mini oven mitt, but it would be possible to hang a little towel, for example, on the side of the kitchen. The kitchen comes with a healthy veg growing kit to teach children about healthy eating, and we’re saving this for when Baby Girl is a little bit older.

I’m very happy with this kitchen, but it was not easy to choose. I also really liked the kitchens from German brand Howa, and my second choice was the grey kitchen by Howa, but this appears to have more small parts than the Millhouse one.

Tags: Howa, Millhouse, Pretend play, Toy kitchen, Toys