How to Make Your Kitchen Toddler Accessible
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Probably my favorite aspect of Montessori homes and what sets them apart from respectful or gentle parenting in general, is the emphasis on accessibility. Setting up accessible spaces gives our children autonomy, functional independence, and a sense of belonging in our family community. I know when we are traveling it is the accessible spaces we miss the most!
I have put a lot of effort into creating a kitchen space that is accessible for my toddler and serves the needs of our whole family. This looked different when we lived in our small apartment, but most of the factors were still present there as well. Here is a look at our kitchen and ways we make it accessible for our toddler (and baby!). My toddler is 2 years 9 months and my baby is 11 months.
The first way we made our kitchen accessible to our children is by bringing them up to counter height. I cook with my babies from the start. My little ones start in a wrap and at around 6 months we bring out the clip-on high chair for them to watch us cook. Once they are confidently standing we switch to learning towers.
As you can see, my daughter is ready for a learning tower! We got our second learning tower right after this photo tour, but I wanted to capture our kitchen in the stage with one tower and the clip-on high chair. I find from when my babies are first sitting up to when they are standing this clip-on high chair is a good option for inviting them into the kitchen.
While learning towers are an investment, they have been the best investment for us. Even in our small apartment where we were often tripping over the learning tower I never once regretted the purchase. I have a blog post on different options, but we love ours from Sprout Kids (code OnTheWay10 gives a discount). We appreciated the smaller footprint in our apartment and I like the more snug, closed sides for safety. We purchased a second for my daughter as well.
I got this island mostly for them to have a place to cook. It is the IKEA island and it works well. We did take off an aesthetic lip so that the learning towers would slide under. Now they tuck under which gives us more walking space and the island gives an ideal working space for the children. Two towers will both slide under the island.
On the other side of the island, we have cookbooks and some vegetables on the top shelf. The bottom shelf though has some of their cooking supplies. This is where we store trays and their visual recipes. The trays are invaluable for containing messes when cooking with toddlers.
We then have a divider that holds whisks, rolling pins, tongs, and spatulas. These are accessible to my toddler and fun for my baby to play with. Finally, we have measuring cups down there. These are fraction measuring cups to help provide visual fractions.
When we bought our house it had a breakfast nook. While a breakfast nook is a nice feature, we decided to use it as a mini kitchen setup for our children. We have our “hacked” IKEA kitchen in there along with cleaning supplies and a small table (code OnTheWay10 for discount).
Though we eat all our meals at the big table together my children love having snack there and it is a place for them to play at times while I prepare food.
This mini kitchen was a gift to my toddler from my mom for his first birthday. She “hacked” it to make it functional. It includes a water canister for accessible drinking water, a cutting board, and storage. This is where we store the children’s plates, bowls, and silverware so my son can set the table. Usually, bowls are next to the silverware organizer but they were in the dishwasher at this time.
On the other side, we have a cutting board, a couple of knives, pitchers, and straw cups. As you can see from the picture above my daughter has started to explore the kitchen. She is just at the beginning of that stage so this day actually inspired a change in the functional kitchen. Most of the knives were moved from below the sink to above. She cannot reach there but my toddler still can. As with anything accessible for children, it is a moving target as they grow and change.
Of course, you don’t need a mini functional kitchen. A low cabinet or drawer works to store these things just as well. The mini kitchen, however, has been very useful for us, particularly in our small apartment. We are big cookers and don’t have lower cabinet space to give to the children. This gave the kids a place to store their cooking and eating supplies without losing space in our kitchen. In our apartment, it was right by the kitchen in the entryway.
Next to the little kitchen is a cleaning supply corner. This is where we store my toddler’s little vacuum, Swiffer, broom, spray bottle, and a rag. This allows him to independently clean up spills or messes. He also often just loves vacuuming!
