Melissa and Doug Cutting Food Box

I got this for my 2 1/2 year old daughter who kept wanting to help me cut food when I was making meals. She LOVES this toy! She took right to it, and loves the action of 'cutting', the noise it makes, and her 'knife'. She is a little challenged putting the pieces back together (matching that the hooks of the velcro have to go with loops), but it is not a big deal to help her. My only dissapointment is that the velcro is already showing some wear, even though the toy is a only a few months old. Overall, I would highly recommend this toy, your child will love it!

Wonderful Learning Toy! I bought this for my son--yes, a BOY!--when he was about two years old, (along with a play kitchen set-up, etc.). I wanted him to explore toys that are traditionally considered 'girlie'--he had the 'boy' stuff already covered--he has tons of guns, action figures & military stuff since his big sister is a Marine!

As for this toy--along with just about anything that's made by Melissa & Doug--he LOVED it as a toddler & he continued to play with it off and on until he was in first grade--and unbeknown to him--I donated it to a younger neighbor. This truly upset my son. He was quite attached to the toy although we had lost a couple of the pieces over the years. Oh well, mom blew that one! lol...

At first glance, this may seem like a toy for the toddler crowd, but from our experience, even school age kids love to practice their cutting and creative food-combining skills. I've purchased this set several times as birthday gifts, and it is always a hit! And you can't beat the price for a dependable, high-quality wooden toy.

*** One note for parents or kids who are perfectionists ***
The cucumber, the carrot and the bread connect in many ways--but to get them back together perfectly--you may want to mark them before you first pull them apart so you'll be able to duplicate the original configuration. This sounds odd I know, but the items can 'look askew' if not 'just right.' To fix this problem, I used a fine point black sharpie and discreetly marked the direction & angle on the confusing sections. Worked like a charm!

My 20 months old loves to play cooking. And as soon as I opened this toy up, he immediately play with it. He plays with it for a long time. It's very durable. I am not afraid he will break them. We love the box that came with it. All the food toy fits in the box. I pack them up when we go to his babysitter so he plays with it when he's there.

My daughter, 4, loves fixing sandwiches for me with this. She also bring it along to 'cook' with me when I am in the kitchen. I wouldn't classify it as being an educational, but it is a lot of fun. It is neat how the veggies are velcroed in to allow children to experience cutting them.

The only improvement would be to make vegetables actually look like their real counterpart. I could hardly recognize the cucumber, if that is what it is.

My granddaughter loved it and so did the adults. The only problem was a mis-shipment which delayed its arrival a few days. It's very educational as well as indestructible. It even sounds like you are cutting food because the wooden knife slices through velcro. Very cleaver.