Last Updated on 17 July 2023 by Colette
Aunty Custard bought Ben and Chloe a fabulous Ikea kitchen for their birthdays last Summer. Because the playroom at that point was non-existent she waited until Christmas to give it to them. Since then I’ve been on the look out for some play food for them. A good friend of mine has a lovely bowl of felt salad which Chloe always enjoys playing with and I’m a big fan of wood when it comes to play food – plastic really doesn’t do the business for this one does it?
I was thrilled to discover a couple of sets of gorgeous Melissa & Doug play food on the House of Fraser website and ordered both the “Wooden Sandwich Making Set” and the “Wooden Cutting Food”. Although we’ve not had any other Melissa & Doug toys I’ve heard good things about them and high hopes for these sets.
I’m sure you can imagine Ben and Chloe were particularly excited to see these beautiful wooden crates of food appear on my kitchen work surface. They were less impressed when they were informed that they wouldn’t be able to play with them until the playroom was spotless . . . this took a couple of days before they had eventually got it up to scratch!
Ben was straight in there making sandwiches whereas Chloe preferred to have a go at chopping up some fruit and vegetables. I loved listening to their conversations about what they were making.
What we love about them:
* The gorgeous wooden crates are perfect for storing the food when not in use (and they happen to fit beautifully into our Ikea play kitchen!)
* The foods are easily identifiable
* That majority of the foods included are all really healthy options
* The provide lots of opportunity for role play and general conversation around food
* They’re great for fine motor skills – practicing cutting and fitting the pieces back together again
* Fitting the pieces back together also works on problem solving skills – they’re like a 3D jigsaw
* You can see they are made to last
* There’s hours of play opportunities for all ages – all three of my children are really interested in them at the moment
* The sets also give way to some potential writing opportunities for example shopping lists and menus
* At less than £15 a set they’re great value
What we’re not so keen on:
* I very quickly found myself with bits of wooden food scattered all over the playroom – with so many parts to the sets they can easily get lost
* Being wooden they are obviously not as easy to clean as plastic toys which can generally be shoved in the dishwasher
Since Ben and Chloe started playing with the wooden food they have returned to it time and time again, with each other, with friends and independently. I’m really pleased with the Melissa & Doug sets, I will certainly look out for more of their toys!
*Disclaimer – We were sent the Melissa & Doug sets free of charge from House of Fraser for the purposes of writing this post. All thoughts and opinions remain my own*
I absolutely love Melissa and Doug toys and we have so much wooden food – these sets look fantastic! x
They're gorgeous aren't they 😀