Some of my favorite pretend play toys are those that revolve around cooking. Since children and adults of both genders love to cook and, face it, we all love cooking shows; stoves, refrigerators and the wide variety of cooking toys are almost always a great hit.

These are toys that grow with kids too! Add a toy cash register and playing Mom or Dad evolves to playing restaurant, using budding writing skills to take orders and rudimentary math skills to add up the check.

The problem in many households though is space. While an elegant, child sized, wooden kitchen set works well in a playroom, family room or even a large bedroom, sadly, that’s often not really an option. It wasn’t for us.

But we found a better solution. The Plan Toys sturdy, wooden table top stove that slipped into the kitchen cabinet designated for my son’s “kitchen toys” was not only space-saving, but allowed him to actually join right in when dinner was being prepared.

Easy to pull out and place on the kitchen table or the small child-sized table we kept in the room, he happily imitated our motions and prepared HIS meal while we prepared ours. I’ve given the Alex Toys My First Stove as a gift a few times and have been told that it’s an excellent addition to Grandma’s house too!