family,  yummy

two kitchen helpers in one kitchen

In our house, we have two kitchen helpers.

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Miss L is one of them.

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This is the other.

It’s officially called a “little helper tower” by Ana White, who provided the online plans to help build it. And it came into our house last year when I sent the plans to my Dad and said it would be great for Miss L. Well, as goes with all the grandparents in the family, an idea doesn’t usually stay just an idea for long, and soon we had our very own “little helper tower” in our house.

You see, before this came into our house, Miss L was helping in the kitchen.

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But it was down on the safe area of the floor. Which pretty much limits what you can help out with.

Now, however, there’s nothing that stands in her way!

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Careful stirring…

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… and more stirring…

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… and of course tasting as well!

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Heck, she can even decorate her baked creations after!

Miss L climbs in and out of the tower with ease, and is protected on all sides by the guardrail at the top. It’s made to be counter height, so it pushes straight up to the counter with no gap at all! AND… the platform on the bottom is adjustable to various height levels! So, as she grows, we can lower the platform and it’ll still be the perfect step-stool for the kitchen!

Having this “little helper tower” in our house has made our little chef into an actual one… so while Miss L’s play kitchen area is pretty small, she’s got one heck of a real kitchen to play and cook in!

Honestly, I have to say that this is by far the best “kids item” we have in our house from age 2.5 – 3.5. It’s an invaluable tool for learning, playing and getting meals on the table thanks to a helpful kiddo! It also helps with food pickiness, because a lot of excitement builds up from helping make food AND there’s no mystery to what the ingredients are! Seriously friends, if your kitchen can accommodate it, you should get one!

The materials to make the tower cost under $40 total, and if you don’t have anyone that can make one, you can find various models for $99-200 online (search for “kitchen helper” or “learning tower”).  The advantage of making your own, is that you can stain/paint it to match your kitchen cabinets as well!

So thank you “little helper tower” for making our kitchen much more kid friendly!

3 Comments

    • Kim

      It stays near the counter in the kitchen, at one end or the other. Never gets in the way, and L moves it to where it needs to go in use. We’re very lucky that we have a large kitchen with more than enough counter space and room to move about. There’s a folding mod that you can make as well, if you have a place to fold and store it!

  • Brooke

    OH! I adore our Ana white helper tower! I built it for Charlie last Christmas when she was about 15 months, and we’ve used it almost daily since then. She loves to help bake cookies, chop onions (I let her use the Pampered Chef onion chopper thingy with help) and just hang out with us at our level while we cook. It really is the best thing ever. You should definitely check out Ana’s website for more kid (and adult!) projects, because she has so many amazing ones!