What is a learning tower?
The learning tower, also called kitchen helper, step stool for kids or Montessori tower, is a platform designed to raise the child at the height of the adult so that they can better interact with the world around them.
A lot of parents find meal prep time difficult with young children. Who hasn't had a little anxiety crisis when dinner was cooking on the stove, the older child was screaming at the top of his lungs for a snack, and the toddler didn't want to be anywhere but in your arms?! The Montessori tower is your best ally in transforming the chaos of meal prep time into a family time full of calm and positivity.
Toddlers love to imitate the grown-ups and find immense joy in being involved in everyday tasks! This allows them to develop their independence, their autonomy, their fine motor skills and gain confidence in their abilities. They can discover all kinds of new foods without the pressure of having to eat them, they can simply observe and participate. The Learning Tower is undoubtedly a great tool for your child to develop a healthy relationship with food (among many other activities).
Who can use it
Your child can use one of our learning towers from 12 months old and he/she can easily use it until 6 or 7 years old since our learning towers are adjustable. You can refer to our safety rules for more details on this subject.
Where to use the learning tower
You can place the observation tower in front of any flat surface such as a kitchen island wall or cabinets. Here are some examples:
- the kitchen counter
- the bathroom counter
- the carpentry workbench (it helps mom or dad to DIY!)
What are some examples of usage
- Make simple recipes (our favorite is banana bread… what a pleasure to mash them!)
- Start them young to do the dishes (they find so much happiness in rubbing the plates and playing with water)
- Scrub the counters (it usually occupies them for a long time and it helps in cleaning the kitchen)
- Offer them to cut fruits and vegetables safely with our toddler safe wooden knife and cutting board set.
- If the meal prep time requires all of your concentration, you can occupy your child near you in the learning tower with paper and wax crayons or playdough (it's our favorite place to do this because it's easier to collect the small crumbs later)
- Did you try to serve snack or breakfast in the learning tower? Several parents have told us that they are big fans of this method. It's a lot less complicated than using the highchair!
- The learning tower is also very useful for washing little hands and brushing small teeth
- Play with our magnetic chalkboard! If your child cannot be in the Montessori Tower, you can keep him or her near by offering to draw on the board with chalks (we have a chalk recess on our step) or to stick beautiful learning magnets on it.
In short, according to the Montessori philosophy, your child is able to participate in all daily tasks so there are countless possibilities to occupy your child in the observation tower!