A week or so before Christmas last year Jon asked me to give him a hand assembling a Janod Maxi Cooker that one of the twins' grandparents had sent as a present. Not being the most practical of godfathers I feared the worst, but between us we put the kitchen together very quickly and were soon sitting back and admiring our handiwork with a nice cup of tea and a biscuit or two.
In truth, we were very impressed by this magnificent children's play kitchen. The first thing that strikes you is the bold and innovative colour scheme which sets this kitchen apart from its competitors. Janod is a French company with a style very much of its own and this gorgeous kitchen could only have been designed at Janod's HQ. Having appreciated the colour scheme, we then starting adding the utensils to the set. We put the casserole dish onto the top shelf of the oven, being careful to use the pretty green oven glove. Then we put the frying pan onto one of the hobs and set about frying an egg, using the wooden spatula to keep the egg just right. We hung the wooden spoon and serving fork from the handy hooks on the splash back. Once the egg was cooked, we put the frying pan into the sink (having let it cool down of course) and we decided we’d do the washing up later.
We shouldn’t forget, however, that the Janod Maxi Kitchen is actually for children! Much as modern Dads and godfathers like Jon and Rob enjoy playing with this brilliant toy, it was really a present for the twins and I’m happy to report that after the usual avalanche of Christmas presents and the onset of toddler hysteria, the cooker soon became and remains to this day a very popular wooden toy. When Mum (or very occasionally Dad) is making dinner, there’s nothing the twins like more than getting busy in their own mini kitchen. It’s wonderful to watch children get engrossed in pretend play. You can almost see their imaginations in overdrive as they get all serious while focusing on baking a cake or whipping up a light supper. This kind of toy is also perfect for social play as one twin becomes chef de cuisine and the other runs about as the sous chef, happy to take orders as long as roles can be reversed later on. Other children can also get involved as diners waiting for a tasty meal.
The developmental and educational benefits of a play kitchen should not be underestimated. One Mum recently told us on our blog that her son was very shy of visitors until he started using a play tea set to serve tea. Another is using play food to try and encourage her son to overcome food phobias and to stimulate his imagination. One daughter’s first word was cupcake! We’re certain that your sons and daughters will captivated by Janod’s modern classic.
