Love The Learning Tower

Thanks to this new item in our apartment, my kitchen-related stress (cooking, washing dishes) has disappeared! See, my toddler - for some reason - is adamant about helping me in the kitchen. Whenever I try to do the dishes or make dinner (if he's not napping), he wants to see what I'm doing and a lot of the time even help. Like any other mom, I'd hoist him up onto my hip and do my best to finish my task with one hand. Doing the dishes with one hand is really hard and it takes twice as long. I love that Theo wants to learn how to do what I do. I tried sitting him on the counter once, but that turned into a big mess. We have about 3 feet of counter space. So I hold him. But that has been exhausting my body and my patience. Well... my older sister introduced me to Montessori while back, and I thought there's got to be something Montessori-ish to facilitate the development of life skills in the kitchen for toddlers. After a brief search online, I found The Learning Tower. After a couple weeks of debate, we decided it was worth the investment. Peter actually wanted to make it himself, but reality set in, and he realized he's way too busy. So I bought it off Amazon. And it's wonderful! Here's what I love about the tower:

-It allows Theo to be at counter level without me holding him

-so he can see and participate in what I'm doing. By the way, he loves cutting vegetables and stirring brownie mix (with my help, of course).

-With the help of the steps, Theo can climb into and out of it by himself.

-The tower has 4 height positions, which are easily adjustable as your toddler grows.

-It's surrounded on all sides so he can't fall out. And it's got a lip on the platform to prevent slipping. (The other one I was looking was a less mulah, but it didn't have a lip nor4 adjustable heights.)

-It can fit two toddlers on at once, so it's great for play dates.

-You can take out the platform on which they stand and throw a blanket over it to make it a fort!

-It comes with an art easel and chalk that attaches to the side of the tower (which we're saving for his second birthday). And I'm also going to make some curtains to turn it into a puppet show. Awesome.

The only negative about it is it's a pretty big piece of furniture in our small kitchen, but there's a solution to that. When we move in two months, we've just got to make sure to choose a place with a bigger kitchen.

All in all, I am quite satisfied with this purchase. I don't know who loves it more, Theo or me! And I'm very grateful for Peter because without him, we wouldn't have been able to afford this.

This is a random picture of the tower with the art easel.