Who doesn’t love a good pretend lunch or dinner? Through the years that we have been parents all the kids have loved playing restaurants, waiters and just serving up lunch and dinner on little tiny plates with little plastic vegetables and fruit. We have always generally got little play sets from supermarkets or other toy stores and they are great for the purpose but inevitably in the craziness of pretend play, a little one gets over excited and bits into a banana. Which then becomes a slightly misshapen banana for ever more. This has happened to a lot of our sets and inevitably they become victims of the bi-annual dustbin liner sort out of the playroom! 🙂
So i was really happy to be asked to review this The New Sprouts Play Food Set from Learning Resources. The company is an award winning supplier of play and educational products. It does supply teachers and those who work with special educational needs but also has an area on the website devoted to parents. Having looked through there myself I can see some really useful games for all my kids, they have products from babies to pre-teens.
So there was much excitement when the big tub of play food arrived. My two littlest girls are at the perfect age for imaginary play. They are really learning how to play together and I can see this set getting an awful lot of use in the future. But the initial excitement of it arriving bought all the kids out into the garden to have a good look through the set. It really is a HUGE set. 100 pieces representing all the food groups. I was quite impressed that there are no chips!! It is made from soft, rubberised PVC and plastic pieces are easy to hold and guess what? they pass the munch test, even if someone chows down on the T bone steak then it bounces back into shape. 😉
So the older kids set up a cafe and started serving out some dinner portions. We were getting some strange combinations that were giving us all a giggle. I played a little game with the older kids to see if they could ‘tell’ what each bit of food actually was. I was quietly impressed that they recognised some veg that maybe we havent had all that often as a family. Although the asparagus (which is one of my favourite bits) did stump them all. Must remember to try and cook that at some point?!!
Setting up the kitchen!
The old kitchen that we have had since my son was a baby got dragged out of the play house and some cooking commenced. My youngest thought the pretzels were little cakes and starting singing happy birthday to whoever she was presenting them to. 🙂
I’ll have a butty and a glass of milk please with some yoghurt for pudding!
Thinking carrying a bowl of soup like that can only be a bad idea! 🙂 The happy customers await their delights!
What? a t bone steak and yoghurt in a sandwich!? NO!!!
The set comes in a sturdy box with clip handles and there are plenty of the ‘staples’…lots of little slices of bread so that more than one child can make a sandwich. Which in my house is really really handy and prevents possible arguments. They particularly liked the bowl of cereal and the bowl of spaghetti!
The set retails for just over £100.00 which initially i thought seemed quite expensive but seeing the detail in the pieces and the quality of the material they are made of. I think that if you were after investing in a set for your home that will really last well or maybe a set for a nursery or childminder then this set is a good choice. How many of those play food sets do you pick some strange shaped object up and wonder to yourself ‘what is this supposed to be?’. 😉
Thats one thing that won’t happen with this set. I can see it getting a lot of use in our house and who knows maybe even my kids will start eating Asparagus?!!
Also Learning Resources are running a special offer at the moment for bloggers and readers of blogs of free shipping on orders up till the 31st December this year. Just add BLOGGER13 at the checkout!!
The challenge was to see who could open their mouth the widest! The tallest hamburger ever!
I was sent this set by Learning resources for review. All opinions are my own
This looks great, Matilda loves playing with kitchen things and also making shop. I can just imagine her and Henry cooking up meals for us 🙂
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