It’s essential to encourage and nurture a child’s natural desire to help with the exciting process of cooking. No matter what you’re preparing or doing, children’s help in the kitchen can take the form of age-appropriate tasks: washing vegetables, peeling boiled eggs and potatoes, garnishing a salad or sandwiches, stirring ingredients, or even cutting food. And even if strawberry juice seeps from the holes in a misshapen dumpling, some cream ends up on their clothes, or flour covers the floor, is a bit of spilled dough, dirty clothes, or a messy floor really worth a child’s hurt feelings and disappointment? Of course not. If you occasionally make interesting dishes together, the benefits will far outweigh any mess!
Why Involving Children in the Kitchen Matters
- By involving a child in cooking, beyond the goal of raising a helpful assistant and preparing them for adult life, you’re also achieving many other objectives.
- Helping in the kitchen is an important step for a child in realizing their own sense of value and significance. After all, they’re being trusted, just like an adult.
- When kids cook on their own, they acquire new skills, learning independence and responsibility.
- The young cook exercises math and logic (counting eggs, spoons of sugar, drops of lemon juice, pinches of salt) and learns about time.
- Picky eaters often develop a better appetite since food prepared with their own hands tastes much better than what someone else makes for them.
- Cooking is a creative process, so making something delicious for dinner also nurtures creativity.
6 Rules to Follow When Children Cook at Home
To ensure that the shared kitchen experience brings joy and satisfaction to all involved, keep these simple rules in mind:
- Explain kitchen safety rules to your child and ensure they’re followed strictly. The kitchen isn’t a place for running or playing, as there are too many dangerous items around.
- Buy or make a personal apron for the little chef (a waterproof one is ideal). This way, you’ll have less laundry to do.
- To help them reach the counter, stove, or sink, get a small, sturdy stool that will instantly give your little chef a “height boost.”
- Instill the habit of cleaning up after cooking. Children usually enjoy washing dishes because they love splashing around in water.
- If your child is cooking alone, avoid scolding or making fun of them if things don’t go as planned. And if it seems to you that making a neat pastry is easy, try to remember how your first one turned out.
- When cooking with your child, be prepared for the process to take a little longer. But this extra time will be well-spent bonding with your child, making it worthwhile.
Involving children in the kitchen is invaluable, so encouraging and nurturing their desire to help with the cooking process is very important.