ang79
11-16-2013, 10:53 PM
My girls are 5 and 7 and still very much into pretend play (yeah!) We have a small plastic Little Tikes kitchen that I bought at Good Will when DD1 was about 2. But they have really outgrown it and it has no storage for food, dishes, etc. They will occasionally use the stove top or sink when pretending to cook like mommy, or making food for the dolls and stuffed animals. But in general the play food and dishes get tons more use than the play kitchen itself.
I was going to be all crafty and try to rehab an old nightstand into a small kitchenette for them (great ideas on Pinterest!), but I don't really have the time and DH was not fully on board w/ helping. If I actually had a nightstand to use for the project, I might be more motivated to start on it, but we don't have anything laying around to use, and I've not seen anything that I like for cheap on CL or at yardsales. Nor have I found any used play kitchens on CL that I really like. I don't want huge and plastic and gaudy colors. I was thinking that ideally I would put it in a corner in our kitchen, since they sometimes like to mimic what I am doing in the kitchen (the current play kitchen stuff is in the living room and they use it there, but I hate the room it takes up and I don't think they would use it much if it were in the playroom in the basement).
So, any recs on a smaller, inexpensive kitchen set for older kids? Or should I just give up on the whole kitchen set thing and just keep the play food and dishes for now (i.e. will they be moving out of this phase soon?)
I was going to be all crafty and try to rehab an old nightstand into a small kitchenette for them (great ideas on Pinterest!), but I don't really have the time and DH was not fully on board w/ helping. If I actually had a nightstand to use for the project, I might be more motivated to start on it, but we don't have anything laying around to use, and I've not seen anything that I like for cheap on CL or at yardsales. Nor have I found any used play kitchens on CL that I really like. I don't want huge and plastic and gaudy colors. I was thinking that ideally I would put it in a corner in our kitchen, since they sometimes like to mimic what I am doing in the kitchen (the current play kitchen stuff is in the living room and they use it there, but I hate the room it takes up and I don't think they would use it much if it were in the playroom in the basement).
So, any recs on a smaller, inexpensive kitchen set for older kids? Or should I just give up on the whole kitchen set thing and just keep the play food and dishes for now (i.e. will they be moving out of this phase soon?)