Kitchen towers are fantastic tools for involving your little one in all kinds of activities that happen on the parent-height level, and it’s very easy for them to find a permanent home in the kitchen next to your countertop. Lots of fun stuff goes on there! It’s where the colorful carrots and crunchy celery live, it’s got a sink for bubbles and washing those little cups (as well as sticky little fingers!), and let’s face it: it’s where you spend a lot of your day too.
However, your kitchen tower is so much more–it’s a Learning Tower! With a little creativity, you can free your tower and your little buddy from the kitchen space and open up a host of new activities and places to share. Here are 4 fun ways to turn your kitchen tower into a whole-house tower.
1. Garage Workbench
For a lot of kids, that garage workspace is off-limits because, well, it’s a garage. It’s got cars, it’s got tools, lawnmowers, cans of paint; all sorts of things that require supervision. That being said, a garage is a fantastically rich environment for your toddler. It’s full of interesting colors, shapes, and practical objects they can experience, and if you have a workbench you probably burn a lot of hours in there as well.
That big people's craft area in the garage is where you get your creative itch scratched, and it’s a great place to share that energy with your child. Of course, it’s also a home for heavy tools and wood splinters, and those things can make a lot of parents feel reluctant to include exploratory, inexperienced hands. This is where the Learning Tower is your best friend (well, second best friend!).
The beauty of a Learning Tower is that it allows you to curate a space for your child as well as bring them into it. Clear off one side of your workbench for them, and the Learning Tower will keep them safe while you are busy hot gluing a planter on the other end within eyesight. Sharing and observing is what it’s all about, and an extra scrap of wood or a bit of ribbon can keep them happily and safely engaged in your practical workspace.
2. Cleaning the House
Wax on, wax off! Cleaning is a practical skill and a valuable ethic to instill in your budding responsible household member, and it’s why it’s a focal point of Montessori philosophy. The Learning tower in your kitchen definitely lets them rinse and dry their Benjamin Button bowls, but your cleaning routine extends to every nook and cranny of your house.
Use your Learning Tower to bring them with you! How fun is it to rub away fingerprints on windows with all the exciting things that go on outside? A little dusting in the sunlight in some of those higher-up places is not only exploratory but shows kids that daily chores don’t have to be boring.
3. Morning Rituals in the Bathroom
Mornings are hard, and they just seem to get earlier and more chaotic every day. Before you know it you’re going to be sending your young scholar off on that school bus with a smile (and, to be honest, a misty eye) but today you’ve still got those mornings to share.
Your AM routine of face-washing, hair combing, and tooth brushing doesn’t have to be an obstacle to overcome: the Learning Tower can transform your daily ablutions into a few moments together exploring fun, practical objects and laying the foundation for good morning habits. Brush hair! Play with bottles! And that electric toothbrush? Don’t tell us that’s not super fun. Bzzzzz.
4. Get Creative!
Kids are incredibly creative, and every parent has watched with awe and wonder at the endless ability of their children to reimagine the boring and mundane as magic wands and sparkling treasure. Let your child’s creativity be an inspirational window for how you see the world too.
Is that a Learning Tower? No, it’s a conductor’s podium! Turn on some classical music, get a popsicle stick and let your future Gustav Dudamel lead the symphony on the big stage. Maybe today it’s the mast of a tall frigate and they’re looking out across the ocean for dry land. Tomorrow it might be a tall tree in a quilt jungle full of wild stuffed animals and ticklish locals.
A Learning Tower is all about freedom, and remember: it’s not just a tool. It’s a fun object all by itself, and the more creative you are with including it in your daily play, the more valuable experiences everyone can share together.
The Little Partners Learning Tower: A Kitchen Tower No More!
When we introduced the Little Partners Learning Tower back in 1992, we wanted to give parents a tool to bring their children into environments to learn independence through exploration, interaction, and play. It’s fantastic for introducing your little one to all those higher-up places where you spend so much of your life that their hands and minds can’t quite reach on their own.
The kitchen counter is a wonderful, inspiring space to share with your child, and the freedom and access the Learning Tower provides can turn any space in your house into a new landscape for creative, safe, rewarding play for you and your best friend. Free that kitchen tower from the countertop and discover all the ways our Learning Tower can make your house a sharable playground for the whole family!