Cooking with the Young Child
The best place to start for parents of young children when it comes to cooking is actually outdoors. Mud, sand and water and a Mud Kitchen make a great place for children to begin exploring on their own. Learn more about The Mud Kitchen here.
Inside, young children want to bang around with pots and pans and participate in the kitchen while observing the ways of this world. While I was preparing food, my son had the Tupperware drawer and a basket for his kitchen stash; he knew what snacks and food were available to him and they were made accessible to him.
Useful Pointers for Working in the Kitchen with Young Children:
Hand Washing is first on the to do list before getting into the food.
Aprons are a sweet way to get ready for the time spent working up a meal in the kitchen.
I recommend having a few moistened cleanup cloths ready for spills and quick clean-ups.
I often refer to the recipe for an older child so they know you are following one that tells all. You as the master chef can alter the recipe but your sou chef should not yet.
Preparing a tray for food stuff and pre-measured ingredients is a good habit for little helpers. Dumping and pouring is the first skill to master in cooking and it takes a lot of practice.
Chopping utensils and cutting boards can be used by three and four years of age. Your child can chop with the right setup. I recommend “choppers”. Chopping veggies and making dips is a good place to start incorporating your child’s help with food prep and promoting healthy eating.
It cannot be said enough to provide as many serving bowls as you care to wash such as bowls for apples, pears and peaches. Use a bigger bowl than you need to allow for enthusiastic young mixers who really want to help. Greasing cookie sheets, muffin tins or a baking dish can always be a job for the young one. A paper towel that has the butter or oil added to it already can be handed to the child for this task.
Budding chefs are usually able to more fully engage in cooking by 6 yrs of age, after years of being part of the kitchen work and a healthy interest.
Be careful not to set your children in their seats too soon for the meal or they will be tired of sitting well before the meal is over. Keeping them moving and busy nearby is a good idea until everyone sits down.
Do not forget a “dash” of patience! A lot of patience!
How to Engage your Child and Help them Participate
The kitchen needs safe boundaries and children need to feel like they belong there. As with all things developmental, young children need plenty of experience being around the kitchen to get the lay of the land, and they will of course copy all our behaviors as we navigate our individual relationships with food within our homes.
Do not let young ones help to the point of huge messes and stress. This will backfire and create a kitchen culture that will not encourage budding chefs who want to participate in meal times. If what they are doing is not helpful, let them do only what they can. Set good boundaries for them so that helping is achievable.
Let your children know what they can do in the kitchen. I recommend staying away from the power struggles by clearly naming their jobs. For example, when washing and chopping veggies tell them “you can scrub the potatoes and I will handle the knife”.
It is good to let them know when and how to stop and when to move onto something else. Let them get the napkins and hand them a wrung-out dish cloth for cleaning the table, for example.
Do not forget however that they are becoming experts in eating, so a helping of fresh veggie munchies and fairy tastes are always welcomed while dinner is cooking. A fairy taste is a tiny nibble to give the child a sample and can help to move things along for those who can hold up a process by wanting to help too much. I recommend the fairy taste to anyone who has a kitchen observer around. Tell them first we will cut, roll, add a few ingredients and then you can have a fairy taste.
Try to get into the habit of cooking something each week. It can be helpful to set aside a day and time when this can consistently take place; establishing this as a routine event will help children know what to expect and will also make it easier to incorporate cooking together into your home life. Make muffins, cookies, easy rolls and pretzels, apple sauce, home-made granola and crisps using whatever fruit is in season; this lets children become familiar with their food from grocery store to kitchen, and if you are fortunate, from farm to table.