Imaginary play is a great opportunity for our little ones to explore and experiment! I find when we are really cooking, my style is to be the leader and require the kids to follow my instructions and maintain a sense of order. That’s how it works best for me. But kids need time and space to experiment with food and cooking all on their own as well. Here are some ideas to get your kids “cooking” completely on their own and inspiring hours of healthy imaginative play!
A quick side note here. It’s easy for me to get overwhelmed by ideas online. Do you ever feel stressed when you can’t go out and buy everything you see and want? I hope you can take these ideas and adapt them to your home by using things you already have in your kitchen! It is absolutely not necessary to spend a lot of time or money on buying “stuff” to inspire creative play for your kids.
1) Mud kitchen
@play_at_home_mummy
My husband hacked this kitchen from a Kmart outdoor storage chest! He cut a hole to fit the sink, and added hinges so that we can open/shut the lid (which helps it to keep from getting dusty and dirty). He also added a stainless steel rail from ikea which we use to hang cups/ladles/jugs, and a few extra S hooks for the girls to hang bits and bobs!
Our kitchen has a sink (a stainless steel bowl which we fill with water), measuring cups, different sized pouring jugs, small bowls (for mud pies 😜), and scoops/spoons/ladles. I also put a scrubbing brush out with it so the girls can clean dishes, rocks, or anything else they find 😊
Our girls use this kitchen EVERY DAY! The possibilities are truly endless. It promotes dramatic and pretend play, assists with developing self-help skills, promotes practical life learning, and develops creativity, imagination and cooperation! Sometimes they simply use it as a water station to pour themselves water outside. Sometimes they practise pouring and transferring water from buckets to jugs to sink. Sometimes they wash dishes, plastic animals and rocks. They wash their hands in it after an outdoor painting session. They pick grass, herbs and leaves and make “dinner”, mixing with their ladles and spoons. Our kitchen is truly well loved and improves the quality of the girls outdoor play immensely.
~Emma~
@treehouse_schoolhouse
The kitchen has a real double sink that I picked up at Habitat for Humanity. It also has two shelves for storing cooking pots, pans and accessories as well as a top shelf for pitchers, cups, and flower pots. Off to the side I have a five gallon water container with a spicket. I fill this up at the beginning of play and they are able to operate it on their own. I also have included tree stumps that they move around the kitchen to use as step stools, seats and even little serving tables. Each time they want to play I spray the dirt in from of the kitchen with the hose to make some good mud. Some of the most used pieces in the kitchen are small shovels, wooden spoons, muffin pans, a cookie sheet, a big soup pot, smaller saucers and pots, plastic measuring cup and pitchers. I purchased everything at thrift stores for very cheap and continue to collect items as we go. All ages really love the mud kitchen. We have had children as young as 18 months stirring and patting mud into pans, all the way up to 11/12 year olds who have come over to play.
~Lyndsey~
@douglastreeforestschool
I just love this “after” shot of mud kitchen play from the @douglastreeforestschool. You can just imagine all the fun and creativity that happened here today! One huge perk of a mud kitchen is that it’s all outdoors, and a “mess” just isn’t a huge deal! A hose is all you need to clean up!
2) Indoor play kitchen
We love the one from Ikea! Last Christmas I wanted to get my kids an indoor play kitchen, and after extensive research we went with this one. Mostly because it was the smallest one we could find (we have a small living space) and also the least expensive. This one is shown with some fun decals sold on Etsy courtesy of LoccoStickers.
I got my kids this “Do It Myself Cookbook” to go with their IKEA kitchen. I like the fact that each recipe is illustrated (as in, each step has a picture showing you how to do the step) so even kids who aren’t reading can follow along. I like that the cookbook is spiral bound with sturdy pages (it hasn’t ripped yet!). I also loved the stack-able measuring cups that are colorful and fun but also practical. That being said, I don’t absolutely love the recipes in here. Many of them, while being fun and easy to make, are hard to eat or not that good. For example a cracker chicken salad sandwich that has you stack three levels and it’s so big you can’t even bite into it. But the principles are fun and having a cookbook has been fun to have in their own kitchen to pretend and play with.
My kids love the toy kitchen pots and pans, and utensils from IKEA.
@amenagerieofstitches
I am loving following Lauren Espy @menagerieofstitches! Right now she is doing a 100 day project, every day creating a little crocheted mini-food item. They are ADORABLE. Pictured above is a little lemon, orange and lime which you can buy a pattern for in her Etsy shop! And I have it on good authority that her upcoming crochet book, that is being published in June this year, will be chock full of food patterns! So if this is your thing, it would be such a sweet way to create some little play items for your kids!
@petuniafeltcompany
And this felt food idea too. You can order it in their etsy shop! Plus tons of other food items like donuts, cookies, sandwiches and many other fun options.
@savingtheplanet2gether
I absolutely don’t think you have to go out and buy anything new for your kids to play pretend. I loved these ideas from @savingtheplanet2gether for DIY upcycle, using some elbow grease to turn old furniture into a play kitchen.
3) Kitchen play sensory bin
This was a super fun way to change up our usual rice bin. I put measuring cups, a muffin tin, posts and pans, a funnel, a pyrex with a spout, a ladle, wooden mixing spoon and some plastic knives (use stuff you have!).
The kids (age 3 and 4) plus our neighbors (age 6 and 9) played in this bin for a full hour after dinner! I loved catching little miss 3 practicing her measuring skills (leveling the rice with the plastic knife).
4) Kitchen water play
For this play experience I filled a cooler with a water spout with water and got a bunch of different containers out, then just let little miss 3 go to town! She especially loved playing with the set of popsicle molds, and practicing pouring!
She got a bit wet and had a great time!
TIP: You could move this water play into the bathtub! Make your next bath a cooking party just by including a few kitchen items like a bowl, a ladel and a pitcher for pouring!
5) Play dough cooking set
Play dough is a great time to practice cooking skills like rolling dough flat, cutting out shapes, slicing with a knife, and molding! I even threw in my garlic press and the kids loved using it to create “hair” by pushing the play dough through. The kids kept coming to me telling me they had made me a cookie and having me “try” it! This idea inspired a lot of fun play time!
6) Bakery Dramatic Play
I loved this idea for a bakery dramatic play area by PreKinders!
Check out her post for more details.
7) Grocery Shopping Dramatic Play
The Seattle Children’s Museum has a grocery shopping section which is a really fun way for kids to pretend to grocery shop by putting foods into their cart.
I also love going to stores that have little carts like our local Harbor Greens and Trader Joes. They have kid sized carts so the kids can follow me and push their own cart.
8) Toddler Tea Party
Last month I planned a tea party for my kids and a few of their friends. This has been a really fun way to pretend and also enjoy real food! Here are a few ideas from what we came up with.
I borrowed all the tea sets, tea cups and silverware from a friend who recently planned a wedding. (I double checked to make sure they weren’t precious to her in case something dropped or broke or chipped). She had all these cute tiny little utensils from her daughter’s wedding reception that the kids LOVED to stir their “tea” with. We used apple cider for the tea, had cucumber sandwiches, mini bakewell tarts, mini raspberry white chocolate scones, and shortbread tea bag cookies (dipped in chocolate).
The other idea for pretend play is to have a doll sized tea set and a little table for dolls and their tea set. The kids can play without any food and pretend to pour tea, pretend to eat tea food items, and have a blast.
9) Cut and Paste Menu/Recipe Book
Grab a magazine and ask your toddler or preschooler to look for pictures of food, and cut them out. Then glue them on a piece of paper.
What I loved about this activity was the fine motor practice it gave – cutting, and using a glue stick. It also inspired some discussion of different kinds of foods as we looked for pictures and talked about what we saw. At some point during this activity little miss 3 asked me about “guacamole” and asked what is in it.
You could make this as complex or as simple as you’d like. Ours was just a plain white piece of paper with pictures of food pasted on it. You could make a little booklet out of paper and create a “recipe book” for them to use in their kitchen. For older kids you could have them write out the names of foods or trace letters. I love this as a way to use magazines that will be thrown away to reuse the materials and make it into a learning activity.
10) Safe Access to Shelves in the Kitchen
When all else fails, the bottom shelf in your kitchen, and your kitchen floor, can be a great area for kitchen play! Maybe consider rearranging or organizing your things so that stuff you don’t mind the kids playing with (things that are metal and not breakable) are accessible by them. Or designate one section that isn’t child locked make it available for them to use, with some bowls, spoons and pans in it.
My 10 month old baby loves to sit in the kitchen while I’m cooking or cleaning and pull stuff off the shelves. That’s imaginary kitchen play at its very basic beginning!
And that’s a wrap! Which idea did you love the most? What do you think you’ll try? I’d love to hear how it goes!!
