Gearhead Mom

Monday, September 17, 2007

Is That a Tower in My Kitchen?

Posted by Missy W. @ 3:06 PM

Sy is not a big fan of me cooking while she hovers on the floor below. Well, unless I give her two bowls, two cups, fill them with water and let her go nuts. It’s good for about 30 minutes of fun for her, but boy is it slippery.

Enter the Learning Tower. The Learning Tower is a platform that can be lowered as children grow to enable your wee one to always be at counter height. Why not just use a chair, right? If your kid is like mine, falling off of chairs is second nature to breathing so a chair next to the counter is not exactly the safest option. I like the Learning Tower because it is designed not to tip (safety first!), can fit two kids, and can even be turned into a puppet theatre. We use it to give Sy tasks like putting fruit from one bowl to another, putting her toddler spoons into a storage container or to wash hands, but mainly just so she can be at my level and really watch me cook.

We have had this since Sy was 22 months old and she handled it just fine back then. She falls off chairs pretty much as soon as I put her on one, so I needed something to keep her in one spot.  If she starts to fall, she catches herself on a rail and rights herself pretty easily. When we have the playgroup here we can wrangle two kiddos in at a time to wash hands, and they love it! I think they really get it that they get to be like a big person and can see from a different vantage point. My five and a half year old niece, T, loves to use it too. She is really into making “cakes” out of flour and pretty much anything my sister will let her get her hands on, so I think it’s a good investment for the (somewhat high) price based on length of time used. 

It’s also a fairly innocuous design. Light wood, finished well, no sharp edges, rounded corners. However, it’s got a big footprint. I keep it behind the swinging door in the dining room and drag it into the kitchen when we use it. I put felt pads on the bottom so it does not scuff my spotless (ha) floors.  I stub my foot on it about once a week and swear imaginatively (in my head, of course) as Sy looks giggles as I hop up and down the floor. Andie said she read about another company making one that folds up. I’ll read up on that and get back to you. I think it’d be nice to have it in different colors so that it could match the décor of the kitchen. My late 80’s kitchen is done entirely in bisque, so maybe I should just be quiet. It would also be a bonus if it came with felt for the feet since it’s pretty heavy and awkward (all that non-tipping technology, no doubt).

Snapshot:
• Sturdy platform for helping hands in the kitchen.
• High price for a step stool!
• My less than perfect rating is mainly due to the amount of toe-stubbage that occurs. It’s not their fault, but man, I used to have such pretty toenails!

** Reader MJ just wrote to me and said that the Kitchen Helper folds and is almost ten pounds lighter. Anyone have any feedback? Thanks for the tip, MJ!

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