Step2

Comments about Step2 Creative Cooks Kitchen™:

My daughters are 8 and 11. They've been wanting a play kitchen for years and grandma delivered for Christmas. My friend and I put it together, and my girls played with it for hours. They even put the "soup on" before bed and "checked on it" in the morning. They love the spot for "Rosy" the dog and storage is awesome.

Comments about Step2 Creative Cooks Kitchen™:

Once put together, this kitchen has many attractions for my 20 month old (sounds, dog bed, lots of doors and compartments), but Step2 has skipped a step in construction. The instruction manual shows one putting it together with a manual screwdriver, but there are no pre-drilled holes in the plastic. Instead you have to pre-drill thirty-some holes yourself estimating their location and then attempt to have the screws stay put as they should. It takes forever and causes the kitchen to be less secure. For the money, Step2 should pre-drill the holes and/or change their instruction manual (I looked at it online before purchasing the kitchen). We returned the first kitchen thinking it was a defect, but the two others in the store were also missing the pre-drilled holes.

Comments about Step2 Creative Cooks Kitchen™:

This kitchen is our favorite! We've tried a couple others and love this one because it's large enough for at least two children to play at once. It also has lots of little storage compartments and containers to keep everything together. We love the moving parts, and bright colors, and the solid construction!

Comments about Step2 Creative Cooks Kitchen™:

Throughout this year I have vowed to put every single product that I receive together by myself if possible (Step2 sent me this secondary to I am a Step2 Test Drive Mom), so I was determined to assemble this kitchen without help. The instructions were for the most part easy to follow (very little wording with the majority of them pictorial) except for a few parts. There were two steps I had a hard time figuring out where the assembling was occurring- secondary to close-up shots with no frame of reference. Once I figured those out the rest was simple to complete except for the placement of the screw holes for the microwave buttons were in the wrong place.

I love how bright and colorful this kitchen is….it can easily be used by either gender and there is tons of space for multiple children to play simultaneously. This is the first kitchen I have ever seen that has a pet center and a recycling bin both of which lead to great learning lessons. My kids will practice remembering to feed their "pets" (stuffed animals) and take turns emptying the recycling bins. Some other great features…the sounds found on the stove (boiling water and the sizzle of the frying pan), the phone and the microwave buttons.

I also like the little features….the stickers that make the pet bowls look like they are full of water and food, the food cooking in the microwave and stove, the "features" of water and ice on the refrigerator and the oven temperature. The accessories are great as well…an oven mitt, dish towel, plates, cups, bowls and utensils. There are also hooks to hang the accessories above and on the side of the stove/oven and a plate rack on the top of the kitchen set. There is tons of storage found in the upper cabinet, the baskets under the sink and the deep refrigerator and freezer. Another cool feature the shutters that open and close.

I would definitely recommend an electric drill to help speed up the assembly process but I was pretty impressed that I was able to set-up the entire kitchen by myself.

It is sturdy and allows more than one child to play at a time which were my main requirments. We also get the added bonus of all the cool features I described above!