- Best Little Tikes Toy Kitchens
- Developing Imagination
- Little Tikes Play Kitchens Review
- A Simple Guide to Choosing and Buying the Right Play Kitchen Set for Your Child
- Importance of Imagination and How it Supports the Different Aspects of Child Development
- Playdates with Other Children
- Wrapping up with the Little Tikes Play Kitchen Review
When talking about play kitchens for kids, nothing else comes to mind but Little Tikes Toy Kitchens.
Do we want our children to experience continuous fun? Do we want them to spend hours of endless play? These play kitchen sets have been a household name since the 1970s for parents who have always wanted to give their children toys that foster imaginative play.
Whether it’s for your three-year-old daughter or for your 5-year-old son, these kitchen kids toys are great toys to foster imagination.
Little Tikes Play Kitchens have great customer reviews, comes with play food, and guaranteed that your kids love it.
And best of all, assembly is super easy and the Little Tikes Play Kitchens offer a high dollar value for what you get.
Best Little Tikes Toy Kitchens
Comparison Chart
Little Tikes Real Wood Café & Bakery Exclusive Wooden Play Kitchen with Realistic Lights Sounds and Dual-Sided Play, 20+ Accessories Set- Gift for Kids, Toy for Girls Boys Ages 3 4 5+ Years
Little Tikes Wood Chef’s Play Kitchen with Realistic Lights Sounds, 20+ Interactive Accessories Set, Dual-Sided White & Blue Wooden Play Kitchen- Gift for Kids Girls Boys, Pretend Toy for Ages 3 4 5+
Little Tikes Cafe and Bakery
Why choose a Little Tikes Play Kitchen? Because you will come to love the unique design and unique features these toy kitchens have to offer.
Ultra-modern kitchens have everything today’s little cooks want, including a food prep area, and a window just for serving. Just pull up a stool and eat!
Why choose this play kitchen?
It includes the latest decorating looks. The solid build and superior finishes make this our favorite toy kitchen from Little Tikes.
This model is large enough to include the most wanted accessories :
- a large sink with a modern style faucet
- realistic style cafe
Little Tikes Outdoor Grill
This amazing Little Tikes play kitchen won many awards. It is crafted with awesome details for the most realistic role-playing experience your toddler can get.
This play kitchen is a realistic type of outdoor grill that will entertain your kids for hours to come.
Little Tikes Play Smarter Cook ‘N Learn Kitchen
The interactive Play Smarter Cook’n Learn Kitchen by Little Tikes encourages young kids to learn to cook and to cook to learn.
Intended for ages three and older, this play kitchen comes with 37 accessories including a wide variety of plastic foods, cookware, and utensils. The kitchen itself features a refrigerator, oven, sink, stovetop, counter, and storage shelf.
But this is no ordinary kitchen from littletikes.com. When it’s turned on, if the kid puts food on the built-in cutting board or in a frying pan on the burner, the kitchen recognizes the food and names it out loud. Great learning toy, no?
Interactive Play Kitchen
Plus, the kitchen has an interactive recipe game mode that helps kids learn how to follow directions as well as to recognize foods, food groups, colors, numbers, shapes, sizes, and textures–all in an encouraging and fun way.
The kitchen is made out of durable, easily wiped-down plastic and an internal electronics and speaker system for the kitchen’s food recognition and vocal abilities.
The oven and the fridge both have doors that swing open and closed, and a handy little towel rack hangs over the space where the included wastebasket nestles.
The recipe cards slide neatly into a holder on the back wall, providing a handy reference when gathering ingredients at the start of each game. Each recipe food set has two levels, offering you two games per recipe card.
Little Tikes Role Play Super Chef Kitchen
It is very durable and encourages learning by active, social, and creative play.
This compact kitchen is a great addition to any play area. It is compact, stylish, and modern. 2 AA batteries needed are not included.
Some features: Cute cabinet door opens with storage inside, A pretend working microwave and oven doors, Clicker knob above the oven door, toy burner has electronic cooking sounds, pretend refrigerator with a door that opens, room inside to store food, Chrome look towel rail.
Developing Imagination
Children observe what adults do and, they usually copy and mimic what they see. That is usually how they learn.
They learn from watching their parents interact with each other, they learn from the shows that they watch on TV. They pay attention more than we realize.
So what better way to teach them than to provide a toy that not only they can play with, but also encourages them to use their imagination?
Little Tikes Play Kitchens Review
Design
One of the many reasons parents love Little Tikes Play Kitchen sets is because they come in many styles, colors, and sizes. They provide you with many options to choose from so it complements even the color of your kitchen.
They come in all white for that minimalist approach. It also comes in wood-like or metallic colors among many others.
Surprisingly, a pretend play kitchen like this is not as heavy as you think they are considering its size.
They’re actually very light so you don’t worry about the potential danger it can cause if ever your child pushes and gets knocked over.
Accessories
The counter is already an amazing toy by itself. Kids get their own stovetop, a sink where they can pretend to wash the dirty dishes in, a microwave where they can heat their food, an oven with a moving oven door where they can bake cookies and cakes, kitchen cabinets for storage, and hooks to hang some of the accessories.
All that is already worth the price we pay but the accessories that come with it is something the kids would also enjoy.
Not only do they get a mini version of their parents’ kitchen, but they also get mini versions of pots and pans, cooking utensils like a cutting board, a ladle for the soup that they will be cooking that night, a cutting board, and a toy knife.
Play food also comes with a package with plates and cups. Some may also have a chalkboard (chalk included) where they can write their menu for the day.
Some of the sets have stoves that light up, or a stovetop that makes a sound so it will be needing batteries that do not come with the toys. For every kitchen set, not all accessories are the same. So better make sure to check what is included and what isn’t.
Durability
Something that most parents always consider is the durability of the toy that their children can play with for many years. This play kitchen is made of durable materials and is child-proof made of mostly plastic.
No matter how much toddlers bang their utensils on their kitchen, it can withstand the rough play that is unavoidable among children.
Just as long as we set rules and constantly remind them by teaching them responsibility, they will also begin to understand that there is a limit to using their strength and explore other ways to amuse themselves with the many other things that come with the kitchen set.
Little Tikes Play Kitchen sets were designed to last not just for one generation but for other generations following your children’s.
Cleaning
Since it is made of plastic, it is easy to wipe the surface to clean it.
A Simple Guide to Choosing and Buying the Right Play Kitchen Set for Your Child
The Little Tikes play kitchen set is going to come in a box and completely unassembled unless you specifically requested to buy the one on display.
It may or may not be too complicated to assemble everything because some are already partially assembled where some are already attached to other parts.
Nevertheless, it should not be as difficult because instructions are going to be provided in the manual that comes with it and it is, after all, a kid’s toy.
Now, if you have more than one child, you may want to consider getting a play kitchen that’s bigger than the regular ones to avoid fights between siblings.
Little Tikes also have play kitchens that have more than just one station. Some play kitchens have two counters and this lessens potential arguments between your kids and with this setup, two kids can play with the kitchen at the same time.
This can also teach them to learn how to work as a team or better yet, work in the kitchen as the head chef and the sous chef, and they make turns playing the roles.
Little Tikes also has kitchen sets that can be easily adjusted as your child grows. This specific product is called Jr. Bake ’n Share Play Kitchen that has 2 grow-with-me modes.
The first mode is wider and with a lower countertop which is excellent for smaller children. This mode makes it easier for your little one to reach the countertop.
And as your child grows taller, you can easily switch it to the second mode which turns from wide to narrow but with a higher countertop. It doesn’t take much to be able to set up the kitchen and will only take a few minutes to switch one mode to the other.
Since the first mode is wider, it gives your child adequate space when using the countertop. It is also wide enough to share the space with another kid.
And when your child grows taller, the second mode works best for them because it raises the countertop a little higher. It is narrow but sturdy and doesn’t occupy as much space.
What makes this fun for both parent and child is that as the parent cooks, the child can pretend play. Being given something to be busy with, it gives the parent time to actually get things done in the kitchen.
This toy gives about 40 other things other than the play kitchen itself so it gives them so many options to choose which ones are needed for their pretend play at the moment.
The stovetop even makes sounds to make it appear like it is actually cooking their food. The excitement this can give them when they feel like they are actually doing the real thing with Mommy.
Importance of Imagination and How it Supports the Different Aspects of Child Development
Another advantage to having this toy is that parents can encourage and help kids to enhance their fine motor skills with this play kitchen set.
The smaller kids can use their little hands, little fingers to play with the miniature version of kitchen utensils. These small muscles they have to require their brain to coordinate between the things that they see and are doing.
A child’s brain development at this stage is very important. Enhancing their fine motor skills through play can teach them how to hold a spoon correctly and how firm a grip is needed to hold a pan, the way they need to stir the “soup” they are making in a circular motion.
Aside from boosting their fine motor skills, it also teaches them responsibility. They would be needing to keep their counter clean, and their entire kitchen clean by putting away stuff after every use.
Organizing and tidying up is now made fun of because of this. Sorting everything by categories to make their kitchen look spotless.
From putting all the food in one cabinet to organizing their plates and cups by stacking them according to size or putting all the other utensils in one drawer and organizing them by color or usefulness, makes the time of play not only fun but beneficial to both child and parent.
One of the reasons why we want to give our children a toy that is tangible and that they can actually play with is because, in this world full of gadgets, studies have shown that there are more disadvantages than advantages that negatively affect the brain when they are given too much screen time.
It may cause delays in brain development and according to some studies, may even cause attention deficit, cognitive delays, impaired learning, increased impulsivity, and decreased ability to self-regulation.
We do not want our kids to be too reliant on them to the point that they do not know what to do if they do not have a gadget in hand.
At this age, kids begin to display independence and this toy encourages them to reach for the things on the cupboard on their own without mommy’s help.
It is an amazing toy that encourages them to play with their fellow little friends, or simply by themselves without adult supervision.
Playdates with Other Children
Play dates with other children can be organized as this can also develop their social and emotional skills and can also teach them to work with other children.
It teaches them communication, to learn how to share, and the importance of teamwork. It presents countless learning opportunities among many others and supports healthy development. Our home is the practice ground for the real world that awaits them.
Wrapping up with the Little Tikes Play Kitchen Review
With that being said, Everyone knows Little Tikes Play Kitchen. It is well known and loved by parents and children alike. It offers parents a variety of products they can choose from.
This stage among toddlers and preschoolers is very crucial and imaginative play is an essential part of any childhood.
All the details of the kitchen will aid in the improvement of their fine motor skills as it helps in their imaginative play. This play kitchen set is a quality toy that your child deserves and is worth your investment.