The Learning Tower: A mom’s best Friend
If you have toddlers around you have definitely heard the words: “up, mommy, up!!” while you were cooking in the kitchen. In order to please the demands of your child you pull up a chair and allow your toddler to view what you are doing.
It may provide you with a few peaceful moments in order to get dinner ready, but is this solution safe for your child?
When our oldest son was 2 we did just that and he fell over! He got over his injury pretty quickly, but his father and I did not. We knew there had to be a safer way to allow him to be a participant in the cooking process. We searched the internet and found an amazing product: The Learning Tower.
The Learning Tower simply put is a safe platform for your child to stand on to be at counter height. It has a sturdy platform to stand on that is adjustable to 4 different heights and it has four sides all around to keep your child safely inside. Our children were about 14 months when they started using this and let me tell you it has been a life saver for us. I could actually get dinner ready with the help of my 2 and 4 year olds in the kitchen with me! Owen loved to play in the sink with water and bowls and spoons. He also learned a great deal of baking and cooking while he was up there with me. I love this story. One day I was baking some cookies and I had 2 eggs on the side of a bowl on the counter when the phone rang. Owen was safely on the Learning Tower and I left to answer the phone. When I returned moments later, I did not see the eggs on the counter. I said to myself oh boy I must have a big mess to clean. I searched for the mess and did not find it. I eventually looked in the bowl and there were 2 perfectly cracked eggs – no shells in the bowl. He was only 3!! He knew how to carefully crack the eggs because he had been with me many times when I showed him how I cracked the eggs.
The Learning Tower has also become many different things other than it’s primary role of step-up. My kids have used it as a desk, magical puppet theater, dark cave with blankets on top, and even a lemonade stand. It is quite large but it has been so useful that we have made a special place for it in our kitchen where the kids have access to it when they need it. I know a friend of mine who has one also and her child uses it has a high chair at the table. Her child loves to eat standing up and now her child can and the rest of the family can also sit at the table and enjoy their dinner!
Presently, our third child is 2 ½ and is using it several times a day. Her latest culinary masterpiece was cheese lasagna! Yum!
