It’s easy to hand your toddler a tablet or phone to distract them while you to cook dinner. But instead of letting them swipe and tap the time away, how about getting them to pour, stir and measure? Toddlers love to help in the kitchen. If they start at a young age, it can inspire a lifelong love of cooking—and of food in general. Kids who learn to cook are less likely to be picky eaters, and more likely to enjoy a wide variety of foods (especially vegetables) as they grow.
Not sure where to start? You are the best guide of what your toddler is capable of doing, but begin with these suggestions, which are appropriate for toddlers ages two and up.
1. Prepping It’s important to start by teaching the first step: hand washing. After that, toddlers can help with tearing lettuce into pieces, taking peas out of the pod, shucking corn and picking herbs off stems. Seat your child comfortably, provide a bowl and be prepared to sweep afterwards (mess is always part of cooking, so don’t stress about it).
Tips For Kids Helping In The Kitchen!
2. Measuring They may be too young to grasp the mathematical intricacies of half-teaspoons and quarter-cups, but they can certainly help scoop herbs and spices into small spoons, or add ingredients into measuring cups.
3. Pouring Once measured, those ingredients have places to go! Toddlers can learn to pour both wet and dry ingredients into soups, stews, salads and baked goods.
4. Sampling Part of cooking is tasting along the way. Let your children try the shredded cheddar before it’s added to the cheese sauce, or the raw green beans before they are steamed. This also serves as a teachable moment to explain that not all ingredients can be eaten raw. They should learn not to eat eggs, meat or poultry until they are fully cooked.
Simple Tips For Letting Kids Help In The Kitchen
5. Mashing Making guacamole or banana bread? Toddlers can help mash soft foods like avocado, banana or cooked potatoes. It may help to seat them on the floor for this one, so the bowl doesn’t fly off the table. (I speak from experience!)
6. Crafting Food is like art class. Use a pastry brush to “paint” marinade onto salmon, or egg wash onto pastry. “Cut” with cookie cutters to make fun shapes like hearts in sandwich bread or stars in sliced cucumbers. Or “glue” dough together for wontons, spring rolls and dumplings.
7. Stirring Wooden spoons and metal bowls make the perfect toddler drum kit (we’ve all been there!), but they are also ideal unbreakable kitchen tools for teaching your child to gently fold, whisk or stir ingredients together—especially when baking.
A Functional Montessori Toddler Kitchen — Montessori In Real Life
8. Sprinkling Perhaps your artistic toddler can add the creative finishing touches. Let them “snow” some parmesan cheese on top of pizza or pasta, add nuts and seeds to a salad, or toss some fresh herbs onto fish or chicken.
9. Cleaning Spills are inevitable, and kids should feel confident even if things get messy. Have dish cloths and a broom handy for messy moments, and let your kids help sweep and wipe countertops.
10. Doing dishes Fill the sink with soapy water and a sponge, and suddenly your toddler will be a huge asset in the kitchen! They can help wipe down lightweight plates, bowls and cutlery (make sure there are no knives in the sink) while having fun in the bubbles. This is often the most fun activity of all!When it’s time to get dinner on the table after a long day, the last thing busy parents want to do is keep their toddler in the kitchen. Kids at this age, though, love to help out Mom or Dad in the preparation of family meals. And involving your kids can be beneficial to them in the long run. In fact, picky eaters are more likely to try new foods when they’ve helped prepare them. It doesn’t have to happen every night, but with a little guidance and some foolproof tips, meal prep can become a fun opportunity for parents and toddlers to enjoy some learning and bonding time together.
How To Build A Kitchen Helper — Montessori In Real Life
Evidence shows that children who help Mom and Dad in the kitchen are more likely to eat the food they helped prepare because it helps them better understand what it is, where it came from and what it looked like before it landed on their plates.
While the fact that toddlers this age love to “do it themselves” can be maddening at times (like when his desire to feed himself ends up as an oatmeal modern art experiment on your dining room wall), you can use his newfound independence to help you with meal prep. Make him ‘Mommy’s little helper’ and he will feel happy, needed and maybe even willing to try new foods. Sometimes all it takes is pausing during a meal prep task to ask yourself, “How can my toddler help?”
When your little one is in a good mood, try involving her in your grocery shopping by letting her choose a new fruit or veggie for lunches or dinners that week. Help her pull the celery, corn, carrots or kale off the shelf and put it in the cart.
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You might not have time to do this every shopping trip, and that’s OK! Try it once or twice, or make a separate trip to the store or a farmer’s market for a half-hour adventure just to explore and not to shop.
Sometimes we keep our kids out of the kitchen altogether because we’re afraid they’ll hurt themselves, and we don’t want to take the risk. By putting dangerous items, like knives, safely out of reach, you can feel comfortable bringing your toddler into the kitchen to help you get a meal ready.
With your help, she can rinse produce in the sink while watching and mimicking what you’re doing. From the ground, kitchen table or stool at the counter she can mix ingredients; spread cut veggies on a baking sheet; shuck corn or snap beans; tear salad greens; or help pour ingredients into bowls. If actually helping is a little beyond her right now, involve her by giving her plastic bowls and measuring cups to pour water into or scoop dry noodles out of. Or offer her a small piece of dough to play with.
Toddlers In The Kitchen Tips For Cooking & Baking With Your Toddler
In the dining room, your toddler can help get dinner ready by setting napkins and silverware out for everyone. When he’s ready and you think he can handle it without getting too frustrated, help him scoop a few spoonfuls of food onto plates.
Whether you want to improve the communication within your family, help your kids develop a healthy relationship with food, learn about different safety tips, or develop your kids’ emotional well-being, we are here for you.
In order to deliver the most relevant content for your family, please let us know your child(ren)'s date of birth or your expected due date.If you have kids, then I’m sure you’ve had the breakfast/lunch/snack/dinnertime battle of needing to make food but having a hard time doing so while keeping your little one occupied at the same time. Or maybe you just love baking/cooking and want your little one to join in on the fun with you as an activity you can do together! Either way, getting kids and toddlers helping in the kitchen is a great way to keep them occupied and have them learn to help around the house and develop a sense of pride in a new skill as well.
The Benefits Of Cooking With Children In The Kitchen
Before we go any further, let me say that this does involve letting kids use different kinds of objects that may be sharp or have the possibility of cutting skin. If you don’t feel like that’s your thing, then some of these suggestions may not be for you and that’s OK. I remember feeling so nervous when we were starting to let Lola use kid scissors and it freaked me out that she could indeed cut herself with them at some point. Even though it scared me, I also wanted her to be able to learn the skill, so we just forged ahead and kept showing her the proper way to hold them, carry them, where to keep her other hand so it didn’t get in the way of the blades. Now she cuts like a champ and you can tell how cool she thinks it is that she can cut paper like a big kid. Even with all that though, we still store the scissors up high away from her reach and make sure she’s only using them when we are right there with her. It’s basically the same thing for learning stuff in the kitchen as far as our comfort level goes. It’s always supervised (and very closely so in the beginning and with small kids) and as they get older and better you loosen the reins until they can do it all by themselves.
Start them off small/age appropriate: Depending on what age your child is, you can have them simply help dump in ingredients and stir, or have them start with cutting very soft foods with dull cheese spreaders
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