How to Involve Your Child in the Kitchen

How to Involve Your Child in the Kitchen

If you have a toddler, you know how inquisitive they can be. And messy. And all up in your business. Including them in your daily tasks is a fantastic way to channel that chaos into something productive. 

Today I’m sharing my top tips for getting your child involved in the kitchen. This is a pretty meaty post (no pun intended!) so be sure to save it so you can find it later!

The Importance of Involving Your Child 

Children thrive when they are involved in the process. Whether that process is cooking, picking out wallpaper, or buying clothes, it doesn’t matter. Our children look to us for guidance and to learn. It is important to involve your child in the kitchen for creating lifelong skills, giving a sense of purpose and developing mentally and physically. 

Embrace Being Uncomfortable

I’m going to be brutally honest right now. I like a clean house. I like things my way. And I like my actions to be efficient. None of that is helpful when working with a toddler. They are messy, chaotic. Loud. Sticky. They are quicker than lightning when doing what you don’t want them to do and slower than molasses when you’re trying to be somewhere. 

Messiness

You have to get over your need to control your child’s actions. They’re going to crack eggs and get yolk all over themselves. They’re going to sift flour and get it all over the floor. Toddlers will spill, drop, and break things. But this is how they learn. 

Embrace the mess. Sure, it’s a little extra to clean up. But you can also teach your child valuable skills about cleanliness in the process (more on that below!). 

I had a hard time allowing my son to do certain things because I knew it would create more work for me later. In doing this, I was doing my son a disservice. Kids are messy and I was stifling his learning potential. You have to learn to back off and let them figure some stuff out for themselves, and that means letting them mess up or cause a little extra clean up for you. 

Timeliness

Teaching your child to do something inevitably takes longer than just doing it yourself. But you know as well as I do that your kid will never learn to put on his shoes if you do it for him every time. The same rule applies in the kitchen. Let her shake the salt shaker or stir the sauce. 

(pro tip: put just a teaspoon or so of the spice/herb in a shaker so that they cannot over season your dinner. They’ll learn to control their movements over time.)

Just because it takes a little longer, doesn’t mean they’re doing it wrong. And just because they aren’t doing it how you would, doesn’t make it wrong either. 

How to Get Started

When my son was still a baby, I let him sit on the floor of the kitchen with a pot or a ladle or cups and bowls. He enjoyed making noise and I could keep an eye on him while I cooked. 

Start With Language

As he got older, I’d let him see what I was working on. I’d let him taste whatever I was chopping or stirring. I’d hold up a tomato and tell him what it was called. I would also narrate whatever I was doing in the kitchen. I made sure to include him in my language. This could look like:

• “Do you see Mommy stirring the spaghetti sauce?”
• “First we have to chop the carrots.”
• “Should we use a big pot or a little pot?”

I fully believe my narrating daily tasks helped my son develop his language skills. I also think it helped him see himself as part of the kitchen, rather than waiting for mom to finish her task. 

Give Them Their Own Stuff

If you’re chopping onions, give your kid another onion and a pot and pan. Toddlers love imaginative play and they can make their own pretend soup while you’re getting dinner on the stove. 

Make it Accessible

You may notice your child start wanting to see what’s up on the counter. We got my son a learning tower just before he turned two and it is still heavily used. It allows them to be on your level and actively be involved in the kitchen with whatever is going on. Plus, It’s great for him to work with Play Doh at a level where I can play with him!

Even if your child isn’t necessarily interested in cooking at this point in time, a learning tower is great to have them nearby. 

Helpful Gadgets

When your child is actively wanting to participate in cooking, you can get them their own toddler knife set. These plastic tools are great for teaching the importance of kitchen safety without risk of cutting skin. We will start every cooking experience with the kitchen rules:

• Knives don’t go on skin
• Knives don’t point at people
• We don’t wave knives around
• If we can’t be safe, we will be asked to leave the kitchen
• When mommy says ‘hot’ or ‘don’t touch’ it is not up for discussion

You can make your own kitchen rules as you see fit. 

If a toddler-sized apron gets them excited to cook, get one! Some other single-use gadgets that are super helpful with toddlers are:

• A lemon juicer
• A cherry pitter
• A garlic press

Teach Your Kid Lifelong Learning Skills

Involving your toddler in the kitchen is a great way to practice skills that they can use throughout their lives, not just when they’re little. Below are some examples of how including your child can benefit them. 

Counting and Math Skills

A two year old isn’t going to grasp ½ cups or ¼ teaspoon measurements, at least not at first. But they will understand counting. Try something like this:

• “We need two scoops of sugar, can you count the scoops with me?”
• “Let’s pour the milk up to this line of the measuring cup. Let’s count how many lines there are.”
• We need three eggs. Can you hand me three eggs?”

You can teach them the names of the tablespoon and teaspoon, but until they learn their numbers, it is best to start simple. As they learn and grow, you can ask them to find the measuring cup with the number four on it or the spoon with the number two. 

Once they’re closer to school age you can do basic addition and subtraction with them. For example, if you double a recipe that calls for ¼ teaspoon of something, double that would be ½. You can show your kid how two of the ¼ teaspoons fill up the ½ teaspoon. 

Patience

Toddlers like to do everything right now, but that’s not always possible when cooking. When you involve your child in the kitchen, you can show them the importance of slowing down and doing it the right way. 

If you have more than one child, taking turns is a great way to practice patience. You can also read each section of a recipe before tackling the next part. 

Allow your toddler to count out the cloves of garlic or open the box of pasta. It might be excruciatingly slow for you, but try to remember that they are learning. 

Teamwork

By treating your kiddo like a teammate, they are more likely to want to work together. Not just with you, but with peers in the future. You can teach them to work together, rather than doing everything for them.

This goes double for families with more than one kiddo. Your kids may need to work together to mix the batter or put the veggies on the tray.

Listening Skills 

Along with patience, your child needs to learn how to listen when instructed. If you ask her not to touch the hot pan and she’s not listening, she could get hurt. You’re going to repeat yourself a lot, but your kiddo will get better at listening and following instructions. 

Family Bonding

Your child will remember cooking in the kitchen with their mom many years from now. They will not remember the mess or the chaos, but that their mother spent time with them. Involving your child in the kitchen early on creates unique opportunities for family traditions and fond memories. 

Healthy Eating

If your kiddo sees you preparing and eating healthy food, she’s more likely to consume it as well. As a picky eater myself, it was super important to me to expose my son to healthy options. Check my post on healthy eating for toddlers for more on that. 

If your son gets to chop the carrots in his soup, he’s more likely to eat them. When I first had my son help me cut green beans, he thought he was so sneaky when he’d pop a green bean in his mouth when he thought I wasn’t looking.

I (playfully) told him not to eat any of those green beans and he’d always sneak a few extra. It became a game as we cooked more and more together. He thinks he’s getting away with something and he’s eating healthy, win-win!

Motor Skills

Your child is constantly learning new things. An often overlooked skill is fine motor abilities. Holding a knife properly, scooping with a spoon, cracking eggs, or mixing are all ways that your child can hone those fine motor skills. Have your daughter pull a pot out of the cabinet or carry a bowl of peppers from the fridge to the counter. Have your son practice holding his fork underhanded versus over handed. They can fold napkins for setting the table or peel bananas for breakfast.

Lessons in Cleanliness

With cooling, there is always mess. Teach your child the importance of cleaning as you cook and cleaning up after themselves. It will serve them for the rest of their lives. 

When my son turned three, we started giving him both autonomy and responsibility in the kitchen. That meant he started clearing his plate from the table, wiping the counters or floors if he spilled something, and putting unused food back in the fridge. For example, if we used carrots in our meal, he became responsible for putting the bag of leftover carrots back in the fridge to be used the next time. 

Helpful Tips

Below are some easy ways to make it easier to involve your child in the kitchen. Do whatever you can to make it more fun for your kiddo!

Prepare in Advance

I always set up all of my increments before baking with my son. If he had to wait for me to measure out baking soda and salt and flour and vanilla, he’d never sit still. By having it ready, he can get involved right away. 

Involve Them Prior

Your child is more likely to be interested in cooking if they have a say in what they make. Using my tips for saving time while grocery shopping, let them pick out pizza toppings or the type of pasta you use. Give them choices on what type of cheese or veggies to use. Let them pick the broccoli off the display or look at recipes online to help prepare the menu. 

Let Them Help

Your three year old can absolutely set the table. Your four year old can help carry the salad to the table. The point is, if they have a stake in the process, they’re more likely to want to do it again. And again. 

Getting to a point where you can involve your child in the kitchen is a slow process. It’s going to be messy and chaotic and a whole lot of fun. Remember to be patient. Remember that they won’t be this small again. And remember that the memories they form now will stay with them for the rest of their lives. 

Have you started to involve your child in the kitchen? Let me know in the comments what your kids favorite meal to make is.