Any grownup who has struggled to contain their children’s excitement when trying to bake a cake will know that kids just love toy kitchens. In the interests of giving parents the option of letting their kids have fun in the kitchen whilst avoiding floury handprints appearing everywhere, we offer you this WoodenToyShop Guide to Toy Kitchens.

Our most popular pretend kitchen is an absolute classic. Our customers can’t get enough of the Tidlo Kitchen Station with its bold retro design with silver and white check splash back, black work surface, stainless steel sink and chrome effect buttons, knobs and utensils. WoodenToyShoppers who have reviewed the Kitchen Station have praised its good lucks, the “superb” accessories and “lots of lovely little touches”. They have also been impressed at how sturdy it is.

Next up is the magnificent Millhouse Healthy Eating Kitchen and Market Stall. This brilliant wooden toy combines a kitchen with a market stall to offer children two brilliant toys for the price of one. The kitchen has an oven, hob and pretend Belfast sink (so on trend!) with plenty of storage space with two wooden crates that can be filled with fruit and vegetables. Turn the kitchen around and you have a fun market stall with chalkboard for writing up prices. A mini vegetable growing kit is supplied with the kitchen, including garden tools, plant pots and removable pot holder with drip tray.

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From the same British wooden toy company, the Millhouse Packaway Pretty Kitchen is another innovative two-in-one kitchen toy which features an oven, hob and sink and also folds out to reveal a washing machine! Customers who have reviewed this kitchen have commented that it is well made and easy to put together.

A colourful, well made and ingenious toy kitchen.

...and you can fold it away!

Francophiles looking for something sophisticated with a certain je ne sais quoi will love the Janod Maxi Cooker. Available in pink or brown (please note they have slightly different designs, so check both out before making your choice), these beautiful toy kitchens come crammed with lovely features, such as wooden utensils, pots and pans, oven gloves and of course the must-have stainless steel sink with mixer tap. Both Maxi Kitchens are decorated to the highest standards of design and workmanship and both kitchens are guaranteed to find a special place in your children’s busy lives.

...and in brown.

Although not yet available, we just can’t write about toy kitchens without letting you know about the brand new super-deluxe Janod My Own Kitchen. Click here for a sneak preview.

The Le Toy Van Honeybake Oven and Hob Set has been one of our most popular play kitchens since we opened our online store. Customers love the unique Honeybake colour scheme and the attention to detail that has been put into the design and build of this little cracker. As with many Le Toy Van toys, this kitchen has a unique look and feel that holds many a junior chef spellbound before they roll up their sleeves and get busy in the kitchen. Take a look for yourself.

The BigJigs All in One Kitchen is yet another cleverly designed toy kitchen which features an oval shaped wooden work surface with a sink on one side and two pretend hobs on the other. Beneath the work surface is a washing machine under the sink and an oven under the hobs. Above it all sits a microwave (with shelving on its reverse). This marvellous wooden kitchen would be perfect for a preschool or nursery as well as for the home.

The Pintoy Kitchen Combo is a deluxe offering from this well known and respected brand. The centre of this kitchen combo is a split level oven with three ring hob, with moving dials for setting the (pretend) temperature. On one side of the hob is a sink with mixer tap while opposite is a useful work surface. The back of the hob has a useful wooden bar for hanging kitchen utensils (available separately). We think the Pintoy Kitchen Combo is also suitable for nurseries and preschools and playrooms.

If you are looking for a more compact kitchen then the BigJigs Portable Cooker is a perfect table top cooker with two hobs with control dials, two wooden pans and an oven glove. This lovely wooden cooker can be folded up and carried around the house and (dare we say it) can also be taken on holiday if so desired!

Of course, ever junior chef needs the right tools for cooking in the play kitchen and at WoodenToyShop we stock a large selection of play kitchenware and accessories, including pots and pan, baking sets, aprons and chef’s hats! We appreciate that cooking with kids can be a messy business, so we hope our toy kitchens can offer you some good clean fun!

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The Wooden Toy Shop has recently sent us a Melissa & Doug Latches Board. My two year old son loves opening and closing doors. Every morning, we spend some time looking at the latch at the school gate when we drop my daughter!

Therefore this toy has been on my mind for quite a while but still I was not very sure about it. At £20, it is not a cheap toy if he wouldn’t like to play with it. 

We received the toy two weeks ago and how wrong was I! It went down a treat! 

This is great fun!

It is 45cmx35cm big and has 6 latches on it. All latches require different hand movements and skills. My son, Derin, is 28 months old. He easily managed a few of them but a few are quite challenging. However, he quickly figured those as well and he can now open and close all the latches. Still, he doesn’t get bored of the toy and plays with it daily!

I have a special interest in Montessori style toys. This toy is one of them. It develops hand-eye coordination, concentration, enhances fine motor skills and promotes self-esteem. It also helps children to gain practical life skills. 

I love observing Derin completely absorbed by what he is doing. There are times when he cannot open or close a latch and he gets frustrated. Then I show him how to do it again. And when manages it, you must see his proud face! A great toy to satisfy his mechanical curiosity! If you have an energetic toddler like mine who won’t sit still, this toy will keep them busy while you enjoy a cup of tea! 

This is a latches board toy but it is cleverly designed to enhance number, colour and shape recognition too. So we can count the animals behind the latched doors and windows, we can play peek-a-boo with them. We can sing “Old McDonald’s” to the animals on the board.  

It's not just latches!

There are so many ways to play with this toy! 

For older children, you can extend the game, as asking questions like “Point to the yellow house. Which animals live there? How many cats are there?” or “Which house has a square with number 6 on it?” 

The manufacturer’s recommended age is 3-7 years old but I actually think this is a great toy for 2 year olds. Our 5 year old daughter also loves playing with the latches board if Derin lets her play with it!! 

All in all, this is a beautifully handcrafted toy that will be played with for a long time and then handed down to other children in the family. Although a bit pricey, it is of high quality and a cost effective way replacing the more expensive Montessori Latches Box. I give this toy 5 out of 5 and I will definitely recommend it to our friends!

To view more info click here

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Recently we received a package which made me want to be a child again for the first time in ages.  Excitedly I began to unpack the contents of a Medium sized box with the help of Emily, and began to hope the contents were simple to put together as she is rather impatient as am I.

I was not disappointed, there were very clear instructions with all pieces very obvious where they were supposed to go and even the screws were very clearly separated and placed into separate marked bags.

Easy Assembly

The box contained a  BigJigs Shopping Trolley which I knew my 2 year old would love we as for her recent birthday brought her a cooker which she plays with all the time, role play is her all time favourite activity.  To assemble all that was needed was to attach the 2 Blue handles to the slot in the bottom, add the basket and then the handle to push the whole trolley along – NO screwdriver was needed either as an Allan-key is provided.  I managed to assemble this in under 5 minutes even with Emily’s ‘help’.

The Shopping Trolley retails at £48.95 which is really great value for money as it is extremely sturdy and will last for many years and unlike the cheaper plastic alternatives it is something we plan on keeping and passing down to siblings and at a much later date will still be in perfect condition for passing to cousins or future grandchildren.

Emily has properly test driven her new trolley, crashing it into doors, people and even a lamp-post on an outside visit to the shops. It has withstood the Emily test and shows no signs of wear and tear.  It is however bulky so I have avoided taking it to the supermarket with us despite the protests from Emily but we often take it to the shops behind our house and are always commented on how lovely it is and asked where we got it from.

The basket itself if very spacious, holding all of Emily’s play food and much more.  The front wheels turn 360 degrees making it very easy for a toddler to manoeuvre without a problem, it is also extremely sturdy and has yet to be upturned even when being run with.  This would make an ideal walker for an unsteady child too as it will not topple over.

Vrooom!!

The neutral colours make this a great unisex toy which any girl or boy will love and cherish for many years and as well as being a shopping trolley also makes a great pram too – children’s imaginations are endless and its great how the old fashioned toys help to stimulate their imaginations.

We give this a 4.5 out of 5.  I have recommended this to friends.

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Children adore Lavender House

How to enter

This week Rob from the WoodenToyShop team is running the Windermere Marathon. To enter this competition all you have to do is guess how long (hours, minutes, seconds) it will take Rob to complete the course. As well as guessing Rob’s time, you also need to tell us why you think your children will enjoy playing with Lavender House.

Conditions of entry

All entries must be made underneath this blog article and must contain your guess and your comment. We will accept one entry per household and can only deliver the prize to UK addresses. In the event of us receiving more than one correct entry, we will pick a winner at random.

As an added incentive, if our winning guess is within 10 minutes of Rob’s finishing time, we will add a set of Deluxe Dolls’ House Furniture to the prize.

This competition closes at midday on Sunday 20th May. The winner will be announced on this blog the following morning.

And that’s it folks, best of luck to everyone!

Ahoy me hearties! We recently received the John Crane Tidlo Paragon Pirate Ship, my son was delighted when we opened the box to reveal a gorgeous wooden pirate ship.

Some assembly is required but it is really easy to do & the assembly instructions are displayed using images which are easy to follow. Each wooden piece slots perfectly into the pre drilled holes, I was a bit cautious and thought my son would just pull them out again but shiver me timbers after hours of playing they are still in the slots so there was no need for any glue.

He likes it!

In the box you have one Paragon Pirate ship, sails, rigging, 6 pirates, 2 cannons, 2 barrels, anchor, treasure chest and of course to complete any good pirate ship a jolly Roger flag. The Pirate ship has hidden wheels on the bottom which allows you to easily push it along the carpet making your adventures of sailing the seven seas more fun & port holes as all ships do. I will add the wheels do squeak but this is because it is wooden & I slightly dusted the axle with baby talc and this reduced the noise.

Shiver me timbers!

In the deck of the ship there is a hidden compartment perfect for hiding any treasure, there is another hidden compartment at the stern of the pirate ship.  

Pieces of Eight!

The Pirate ship measurements are H48cmxL59cmxW18cm, perfect in size for my son who is four, he has spent hours using his imagination to explore and play with it, each pirate has taken turns to play out different roles. He always places one in the crows nest and one at the wheel, one even played the role of ending up in Davy Jones locker for being a scallywag. This pirate ship is perfect for any child that likes pirates, The sails impressed me because you can hoist the sails which not many toy pirate ships allow you to do so. Each pirate looks the part and is well made, the anchor, barrels, treasure chest and cannons are all nicely painted. There is some slightly rough edges on the ship but not so that your child would be hurt.  What will your child’s adventures be? Whether it be sailing the seven seas in search of gold doubloons or hoisting the sails your child will love this solid wooden toy.

Land ahoy!

This wooden Pirate ship is suitable for ages 3+ which I agree is a suitable age andcan be bought for £35.95, I think this is excellent value.

I give the ship 4.5 out of 5.

I would recommend this to friends and family.

We received a Plan Toys Baby Walker a couple of weeks ago, and I have to say we love it. When I unboxed it, the smell of the blocks immediately transported me back to my childhood, and a forgotten memory of playing with wooden building blocks in nursery. I have to admit, I have found myself subconsciously holding (and sniffing) the blocks ever since! 

The Plan Toys Baby Walker was easy to build – I just needed a screw driver. I am hopeless at flat pack, but I managed this without calling on hubby for assistance. It took me around 5 minutes to get it fully assembled.  

Easy to put together!

There are 2 features in particular that I love about the Plan Toys Baby Walker – one is the brake on the back (a small knob which you turn to increase or decrease the friction on the back wheels). It can slow down or increase the speed at which your child can travel, or stop it completely. Sam isn’t yet walking, and isn’t confident standing up. He has been practicing standing while we have had the Plan Toys Baby Walker’s brake on, and it has definitely helped him improve his balance. He will stand, holding on without support now.  

Look, no hands!

The other thing I love is the blocks themselves. Sam will sit for ages playing with them. If we build a tower, he will knock it down and squeal with delight. If I leave the walker near him, he will remove a block to chew on, or roll around the play mat and crawl after. The cylinder blocks have definitely improved his crawling speed and co-ordination, and he’s spent hours crawling around after them. 

The colours used on the Plan Toys Baby Walker are bright and eye catching. Sam has spent 2 weeks throwing the blocks around and chewing on them, and as of yet, there are no scratch marks, splinters or chips in the paint. The front of it looks like a smiley face, and the eyes/headlights move if you touch them. They are springy, and Sam likes to sit flicking them from side to side – I am happy to report that despite hours of pinging, they still return to their correct position automatically!  

Walking? Easy peasy!

The overall quality of the Plan Toys Baby Walker is excellent. It feels well made, sturdy and safe. Sam is a heavy baby (28lb at 11 months) so most traditional walkers just tip up under his weight (he has 2 plastic push alongs from well known brands, both of which tip up if he leans on them). The Plan Toys Baby Walker stays upright with no issues when the brake is on. 

If I could change one thing about the Plan Toys Baby Walker, I’d make the handle fold down so I could slide the walker under the table for storage. I have to add though that it does take up less storage space than our plastic push along walkers as it is, so it isn’t a negative factor. 

All in all, the Plan Toys Baby Walker is well worth the price. I suspect the blocks alone will get years of use, long after Sam is walking. The fact he can use it to practice standing is yet another huge perk for me, and of course, once he is a bit more accomplished in standing, I am sure he will be pushing it around the house with ease! I have given it a test drive (as you do) and it is easy to steer and smooth to push – not at all rickety. I would definitely recommend it to friends and family. I’d rate it at 95% perfect!

Wow, this super set of musical instruments look amazingly appealing in their packaging, so much so our little girl played with the intact box for a while before she would allow us to open it!

Each lovely wooden piece is very different.

There are four sea themed musical instruments aged from 18 months plus:-

A bright orange “Sea Horse Shaker” which is made of a solid construction with a quiet soft shaker.

A “Soft Sea Shell Bell”, a vivid red coloured crab, I don’t think this is a particularly good name for this as it sounds like it is soft and in fact it is wooden.

A “Double Clam Clacker” which comprises of one coloured grey clacker and a white clacker on a beautiful blue base.

A “Tentacle Tambourine” which is a bright green and blue beautifully made with a fantastic sound when either shaken in the hand or banged (gently) on the floor.

Amelia's getting the hang of this!

All the instruments are lovely and appealing with individual smiley faces painted on each one.

Once our 20 month old little girl had let us open the box she enjoyed playing each piece paying particular attention to the “Tentacle Tambourine” and the “Soft Shell Shaker”, probably because they are the noisiest of the four and the easiest to get a noise  out of with a simple shake or gentle bash!

Look at her go!

The instruments are beautifully made with no sharp edges, easy to hold for little hands and beautifully painted with bold illustrations.

These lovely wooden toys are great at making individual noises, this will help to teach your child to eventually replicate sounds and learn how to play a simple rhythm. The older they get the more they will be able to concentrate, therefore I would say these toys will be loved for many years.

The colours are so bright and already our little girl has learned to say “orange” with the help of the “Sea Horse Shaker”.

Orange!!

High Sea Symphony in my opinion is certainly worth the money (£20.95) as it is beautifully made, educational and very appealing with the bright colours, smiley faces and great sounds.

There are a variety of learning games to play with these toys from hand to eye co-ordination, counting, looking and learning games.

I am sure these will be a favourite for many years to come.

I would rate them 5 out of 5 and would highly recommend these beautiful wooden toys.

My son recently received the Le Toy Van Honeybake Mixer Set. I thought this toy would appeal to him as he loves to bake with me, helping me measure out ingredients and mixing them together in the bowl. You can imagine how messy this is so I was very pleased to see a lovely wooden set to fire up his imagination.

Lovely packaging!

As soon as he saw the box he was very excited. The items are all displayed and presented really well in the packaging. Packaging is the bane of my life but I’m pleased to say each item was placed in a moulded plastic tray with a cardboard case, no horrible plastic ties! As any parent knows this is a good thing because as soon as a child sees a new toy they just want to play with it. Within 30 seconds I had opened the packaging and got the toys out.

And we're off!

In this set the mixer comes with a mixing bowl, an egg, milk, flour and sugar. Even though I prefer to do my mixing by hand my son somehow knew what the mixer did. We talked about each item and I was really pleased that he knew the name for each piece. Every item is really well made and painted, the milk bottle and egg parts are both held together with Velcro, which is great for little hands.

This set lives in our kitchen/dining room as it is the perfect toy to have around when we are baking or to keep my son occupied before meal times. I like the fact that we keep it separate to other toys as the pieces have not got separated!

Each piece is painted quite subtly and in neutral colours which means this toy is great for girls and boys. One of my bugbears is the way toys are presented as pink for girls or blue for boys which is why this toy get a thumbs up from our family. My son loves baking (just like his father) and I want to encourage his love of baking and food preparation without feeling like we have given him a toy for girls.

A bit more sugar, i think...

The toy is recommended for 3+ but my son is 25 months and it is standing up well to lots of use! The pieces of Velcro are still in great condition and I’m pleased to say we have all the pieces. They are also really easy to wipe clean and keep in good condition.

Brilliant for encouraging pretend play. The set is just missing some butter!

All aboard! Click on the image for more information.

Children adore this delightful train set which has a battery powered engine that pulls three colourful wagons around the track. They particularly enjoy seeing the train pass under the mountain via the very exciting tunnel. This starter set comes with two track end guide pieces for wheeling the trains on and off the track.

Parents will be pleased to note that this set is fully compatible with all Brio wooden train sets (as well as most other wooden sets) which means that as the kids grow, so will the train set!

How to enter

All competition entries must be submitted as comments underneath this blog article. You must answer the question below and also tell us what is your favourite Brio train or train set.

Question: what comes next in the following sequence? Umberleigh, Portsmouth Arms, Kings Nympton…

Clue: we’re going to Exeter.

Conditions of entry

We will accept one entry per household and can only deliver the prize to UK addresses. The competition is open until 9am on Thursday 10th May.

In the event of us receiving more than one correct entry, we will pick a winner at random. The winner will be announced on this blog after 9am tomorrow (Thursday 10th May).

Best of luck!

The Melissa and Doug Learn to Play Piano is made of durable quality wood, is easy to use, and gets the children engaged with lasting fun. There is no home assembly required at all. We just took it out from the plastic wrapper and cardboard packaging. Easy peasy!

It is sturdy and solidly built, weighing in at approx 4kg (unscientifically measured with bathroom scales). The piano is top-heavy so we placed it next to the wall (without a window as children might use it as a stepping stool) to prevent it from tipping it over. The surface of the piano is very smooth without any sharp edges. The piano is very colourful and looks like an attractive piece of furniture in the home.

Quiet please! The Maestro is concentrating...

This is the first time we introduced a piano to our children (four year old son and three year old daughter). Inevitably, when they first played with it, they just wanted to randomly bang the keys. It is loud but not too loud.

The quality of the sound is acceptable, sounding more like a xylophone than a piano to our untrained ears. However, there is a mechanical clicking sound each time you strike the keys. The white keys each measure 2 cm by 9.5 cm and are well spaced for little fingers and grown-up fingers alike.

Altogether now, one, two, three...Happy Birthday to you...!

On the piano is a useful key chart positioned above the keys. This is made from thin cardboard paper and my daughter kept wanting to remove it. It would have been nice if the key chart was stuck on to prevent curious fingers from ripping it off.

After the children had a moment to play with it, my husband tried to teach each child how to play it. For our son, he was able to read the songbook and follow the colour coded notes. The piano has a range of two octaves and he did get a little confused as to which ‘C’ he should use. But after a while, he was able to understand that he should focus on just a few keys to play from the songbook. We had one negative aspect about the book though which is that it’s made from thin paper, making it easy to accidentally tear. It would be great if it was made from thicker cardboard material. We rested the songbook on the top of the piano and it is a comfortable height for my children to read.

As for our daughter, she was able to follow her dad’s instruction very well and managed to play a nice song with just one try! However, her attention span was shorter and she soon began to play random notes while howling out the lyrics to “Happy Birthday”. But she is gaining an appreciation of music, so that’s a great start!

This little lady loves the Learn to Play Piano almost as much as we do!

Overall, I would rate the piano 4 out of 5 stars. It is a good beginner’s instrument to introduce young children to the piano and to playing music. It looks like a toy and therefore will appeal to children, yet it is solidly built. It will help creative development and can provide fun for all the family.