I recently heard about the idea to create a mini-kitchen from a friend of mine, and ever since have been gathering things from around the house for our own pretend food play station. After no longer needing this t.v. cart (also once used as baby changing storage), I decided it was the perfect height, and provided the perfect amount of storage to become a kitchenette cart!
We house this in our play room and have already had lots of fun pretending to cook, set the table (ie cardboard box turned upside down) and eat. I love that the total cost for everything was under $20!
For the top shelf, I already had some cardboard pieces covered in felt, so I just placed them side by side for our fake stove top. For the burners, I simply traced some plastic lids with a permanent marker on felt and repeated with additional circles inside. IKEA carries this cool 4-piece pot, pan, and colander set for $9.99 that can also be used for actual food! We also picked up the matching 5-piece DUKTIF utensil set along with some KALAS flatware for a whopping $1.99.
For the second shelf, we found a set of fake food at Smiths Marketplace (they also sell a variety of cloth sets at IKEA) that we just placed in a basket along with some extra plastic bowls and a set of 6 colorful cups from the Dollar Tree.
For the last shelf, I got the idea to use some our "real" empty cartons and food containers, just like they did at the pretend grocery store at the old Children's Museum in SLC. Remember how fun that place was?
So, there you have it, a super simple and inexpensive way to teach your children practical food preparations skills and polite table manners, all while having fun!
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I should do this for my girls.
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