Currently, both Spencer and I are on parental leave (shout out to Canada for their great parental leave benefits) – so we spend a lot of time in the kitchen as a family of three. Even once we’re both back at work (me in August, Spencer in January), we’ll still spend time in here as a family for one or two meals a day.
We also both love to cook. And as a parent (especially with a daughter), it’s important to me that we do everything we can to help Sprout foster a healthy relationship with food. To me, part of that is being involved with preparing and eating nutritious meals from very early on. Don’t get me wrong – we love a good BBQ’d hot dog every once in awhile. And I’ll absolutely serve one to Sprout on a hot summer day when she’s old enough to enjoy it. But for the most part, we strive for a healthy balance of nutritious and fun foods.
I want our kitchen and dining room to be a space that is accessible to her. A space where we can giggle and tell secrets on a Friday night making Rice Krispie cake. A space where she can go to get herself a drink of water or a snack whenever she needs. A space where she can sit at the supper table and and cry on a Tuesday night over a flunked math test. A space where we can be a family and she can overhear the discussions that Spencer and I have about work and life.
So. All that to say, we’ve put in quite a bit of thought about how we’d like to set up our kitchen space to foster all that. We have a small, eat-in kitchen with limited counter space. In it, there is a large kitchen table that we use to extend our kitchen workspace and to eat at as a family.
As Sprout nears the one-year mark, we’ve added four pieces of furniture to our kitchen to help build this space and foster the atmosphere we want in our home. As a heads up, this post contains links for reader navigation ease. These are not affiliate links, and I do not receive a commission from them.
1. A Kitchen Learning Tower
As I mentioned above, we both love to cook. And a love and appreciation for food is something that we want to foster with Sprout.
As a household that will have two parents that work outside the home and a kid in full-time daycare, we’ve done a lot of thinking about how we can be intentional about the time we’ll spend together as a family.
We make dinner every night, and I’d much rather involve Sprout in that process from early on that stick her in the living room to play on her own or watch TV when we all get home at the end of the day. I have no doubt that somedays, that’s what will happen. But we really do want to make an effort to make dinner together (or at least have her in the kitchen with us while we cook) most nights.
We purchased our kitchen learning tower on Marketplace, and I’m honestly not sure what brand it is. Sprout Kids, The Montessori Room, Etsy, and Amazon have great options at multiple price points. We haven’t set ours up yet – Sprout isn’t quite standing independently – but we’re ready to introduce it as soon as she is.
We’re already seeing a desire in her to be involved in what we’re doing in the kitchen – she loves to push buttons on the coffee maker, she helps empty the dishwasher by pulling out cutlery and handing it to us, and she regularly wants to be in our arms watching what we’re doing as we’re prepping meals. Kids want to be involved, and soon she’ll be able to help wash produce in the sink, stir, pour, and stand at the counter while we’re working in the kitchen. Practical life skills are an important concept in Montessori education – and kitchen skills are ones I’m excited to present to her.
2. A Functional Play Kitchen
I’m currently working on a full post on how we set up our functional play kitchen. But starting with an Ikea Duktig Kitchen my mom found at a thrift store, we’ve added a working faucet and some functional kitchenware so that Sprout can wash her hands and access water independently, play, and have her own space to prep snacks and meal items.
3. A Stokke Tripp Trapp High Chair
This was a recent Marketplace purchase. We also added the Tripp Trapp Baby Set (another Marketplace purchase) to keep Sprout secure until she’s able to climb in and out of chair on her own.
When we started introducing solids shortly before 6 months, we used an IKEA Antilop high chair. They’re cheap and easy to clean, but they have a large footprint and we found that Sprout really didn’t like sitting in it – no matter what we did with the safety straps, she wiggled her way out before the end of almost every meal.
The Tripp Trapp is definitely an investment, but we’re generally okay paying more for things that we know will last us longer term. I love that the Tripp Trapp allows Sprout to eat dinner with us right at the table – and I already feel like it’s made a difference in her involvement and inclusion at mealtimes. And – she hasn’t tried to escape before the end of the meal once since we started using it.
4. A Weaning/Activity Table
Currently, Sprout eats all her meals right at the kitchen table with us, and our plan is continue with that. But I’d been on the lookout for a Sprout sized table and chairs that she can use for snacks and activities down the road.
Weaning tables are a huge concept in Montessori. I’m not convinced that they’re better than participating in family meals at the table, but I do think they provide value in independence and accessibility.