An important life skill is cooking or preparing food. It seems like my kids are constantly eating. Not just three meals a day but snacks in between as well. Getting them to prepare food on their own frees up my time in the kitchen and gives them some much needed independence.
Teaching your child to prepare food or cook a small meal is a great way to teach independence and ensure that they will be able to provide healthy food for themselves in the future. A child knowing how to cook also comes in handy if a parent or guardian is sick and needs help or is asleep and the child is up early for the day.
A while back I remember a friend posting on instagram her child had made dinner for the whole family while she was sick and supervised from a nearby couch. She had already taught her 6 year old how to prepare a favorite meal a few times when she was feeling well. Now that she was sick she guided her through the steps from a distance while she got some extra rest.
It is also nice if your child can prepare something to eat for breakfast if they wake up on a weekend early and mom and dad want to get a little extra sleep time. A child who can make a bow of cereal or toast and butter some bread doesn’t need to wake mom up as early and can watch Saturday morning cartoons with a full belly.
Reading a Recipe
Cooking food comes down to following a recipe. A recipe is basically an order of steps to prepare a collection of food items or ingredients in to a small meal or dish. Explain to your child that a recipe is the instructions we need to follow to prepare food to eat. Sometimes recipes work out, and sometimes they need to be changed a little to fit our appetite or tastes.
Recipes start with a list of ingredients, I recommend also adding notes of what utensils, dishes or small appliances they will need to use. Then encourage them to get out everything they will need. I like to make sure I have everything before I start a recipe and realize I am missing a key ingredient. If your child is not reading yet or is only reading beginner words I would recommend drawing out and coloring the items they will need. To make toast you could draw a loaf of bread, the toaster, a knife and butter so they can associate an item with the word.
Teach your child the different units of measure, and what cup, tablespoon and teaspoon measurements mean and look like. The words tablespoon and teaspoon can sometimes be abbreviated in recipes and on utensils. My tablespoon is shortened to just “T” and my teaspoon is “tsp”. Be sure to explain the difference because switching those two up can make a major difference in how a recipe turns out.
Cooking Safety
Kitchen safety is always important to teach. Some recipes will require the use of knives or a heating element and teaching safety can keep your child from getting hurt.
If you have an older child who will be using a sharp knife for cutting, dicing or mincing explain the differences between each type of chopping and how to use a knife properly. We recently started allowing our 6 year old to help chop. We waited until age 6 because we thought she was the most responsible at this age and wouldn’t hurt herself. We still caution her when she is using a knife to chop vegetables and encourage her to go slowly and take her time.
When a recipe requires a heating element be sure to explain the caution they need to have when touching a hot object. Even if they are only using a toaster or microwave, dishes can be hot and food can be hotter when removed from a heating element. Have them test an item before touching it, and use hot pads or an oven if the item is hot. If your microwave is high and they are removing something liquid help them learn to keep the dish steady so as not to spill the hot contents. Our microwave is above the stove and too hard at this stage for my children to get something out, even I have tipped a dish too far to one side from time to time spilling hot food everywhere.
We haven’t had our children cook something on the stove or in the oven alone yet. We stand close and supervise when they use the stove and are there to help move items to or from the stove. Our kids do add items to a pot or pan and stir so they are familiar with how to behave and handle their bodies when around the stove and oven. As they build up muscle and are able to carry an item from the stove we will introduce that aspect of cooking and safety measures needed when doing it.
Cooking Timing
The last element of following a recipe and preparing food is time. Time for a dish to cook or bake is the most common time element in cooking and I also like to prepare multiple dishes so they are done close together when making meals.
When preparing food and time is part of the recipe instructions practice using a simple kitchen timer and have your child setting it change it and turn it off multiple times. You can also practice with a phone timer or setting the microwave or oven timer. This is a great way to practice learning time and experience waiting for specific time intervals as well.
When your child advances to cooking multiple items for a small meal help them plan out how long each dish takes to prepare. If a main dish takes 30 minutes to complete and sides only take 10 minutes have them get started cooking the longest dish first and wait until only 10 minutes of cook time remain before starting the sides. This aspect of cooking isn’t always smooth sailing. Often times it may take longer to prepare than the recipe author suggested or the actual cooking can take longer. Sometimes multiple dishes may require a step at the same time and you need to task switch from one dish to the next and can get frustrated or anxious. The timing aspect of cooking is a skill I am still mastering even after years and years of cooking for myself and family. Sometimes it goes well and other times sides are done and cold way before my main dish. Encourage your child to do their best and continue working on timing as they progress to more complicated recipes.
What age should you start teaching your child to cook?
Kids can begin to help in the kitchen as soon as you are ready to help them. Sometimes I like cooking alone because it means I get a break from other people. Sometimes I like having little helpers because I get to help them learn and we can bond over shared experiences. So when you and your child are ready for some kitchen time I say go for it.
Here are some ideas of things to do with our littlest learners:
- Wash vegetables or fruit – teach them the names of the foods, talk about colors and textures and see what they think about each item.
- Stirring – with our smallest kids start with cold items or room temperature mixtures.
- Mashing with a fork or potato masher – smashing food can be really exciting. Let them try it out and give your own hand a break. Watch out for the food temp while mashing, usually mashable foods are warm.
- Sprinkling – My kids love to add sprinkles to cookies, cakes and sometimes ice cream. Let them enjoy decorating before they eat something.
Cooking skills to try with 3 – 5 year olds
- Measuring- Kids can use measuring spoons or cups to measure out ingredients.
- Cutting soft ingredients like butter, mushrooms, strawberries using a plastic knife or butter knife.
- Mixing – using either a spoon or hands to mix together ingredients
- Rolling, shaping and cutting dough – we love to make sugar cookies around the holidays and the kids are great at cutting out their own cookies and placing them on the baking sheet.
- Spreading – buttering bread and spreading icing or jelly
- Sorting frozen vegetables or beans
- And everything from above
Cooking skills to try with 5 – 7 year olds
- Cutting using a small knife – teach them proper knife handling and hold to keep fingertips out of danger.
- Cracking open Eggs
- Grating – Warn them to keep fingers away from the grater.
- Beating and folding – show children how to beat cake mixture with a wooden spoon or fold in blueberries into muffin mixture with out smushing them all
- Greasing and lining a cake tin or tray
- Finding ingredients in the cupboards and fridge
- Peel citrus or hard-boiled eggs – I usually get an orange or tangerine started first but eggs they can get on their own.
- Setting the table – encourage them to cherish the ritual of family meals
- Whisking, using a balloon whisk or handheld mixer
- Making salads
- And everything above
Cooking skills to try with 8 – 11 year olds
- Planning the family meal- having a part in the planning will encourage their opinions and help them feel like a valued member of the family.
- Following a simple recipe
- Using a peeler- caution about the peeler touching fingers
- Using heat on a oven and microwave
- Opening cans
- And everything from above.
Kids are able and ready to help pretty early. As the practice and try new things they will learn and get more comfortable in the kitchen. Children older than 11 should be capable of doing most things in the kitchen. But they will also be able to grasp bigger concepts like nutrition and keeping food in stock.
First 5 recipes to teach your child
What will the first few recipes you teach your child be? I would start with something they like, something they would want to eat if they made it themselves. Also something with simple steps, and not too many ingredients required. Here are some simple recipes we have taught our children.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Peanut butter and jelly is a classic and very simple to assemble. You can’t go wrong with a PB&J, we eat them all the time and the kids always love them. On the off chance you haven’t made one yet check out our recipe for Peanut Butter and Jelly. Or if you are a seasoned pro, check out the cute photos of Anderson making one all by himself. You can vary up your sandwiches with your favorite butters, and jelly flavors. Have fun with this one because it can be a good staple meal for a kid.
Macaroni and Cheese
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is another staple in our house. Not because I like it, but because I know it’s something I can serve and not hear any complaints about. Sometimes a mom needs to serve food and have people be enthusiastic about it… am I right? We have a running joke that Anderson will eat anything as long as you don’t call it Dinner… He may have eaten something for lunch and loved it but as soon as its “dinner” he refuses to eat it. Well Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is one thing I can serve anytime of the day and he loves it. I often let him pick out our side dish for the night and if a blue box is in the cupboard he picks it.
What I love about the Kraft version of Macaroni and Cheese is that there are pictures of what ingredients are needed. The time requirement is digital like the microwave and easy for a child to recognize and the steps are simple. We still help with the pouring the boiling macaroni into a colander step. But the kids can do all the rest. They love to stir in the cheese and watch the noodles change color.
Jello Pudding
Jello pudding one of our favorite desserts to have the kids make. It is great to make if you have milk that is about to turn and you need to use up. We buy the instant kind, I have made the mistake of buying the cook and serve version of pudding before and it didn’t go over well, be sure to read the box before purchasing! Jello pudding is really easy to make for kids, nothing is hot, nothing needs cut, just lots of stirring. My youngest (2 years old) really likes to get involved on pudding nights as well we often take turns stirring for 5 minutes and then practice dishing the pugging into bowls. Go with the biggest bowl you have because the powder and milk can fly if you have eager stirrer.
French Toast
Anderson loves to make French toast. He forgets what it is called every time he wants to request it and I love letting him try to describe it before helping him with the name. We usually make French toast at least once on the weekend so Anderson has gotten really good at making it. I always help with the skillet portion of cooking but he cracks the eggs, adds the ingredients, stirs the mixture and soaks the bread. Here is the recipe we use, it has already been halved because we make enough for just he and I to eat but feel free to scale it up for the whole family or down for just one.
No Bake Energy Balls
Another suggestion I have for an intro kid recipe is No Bake Energy Balls. We make these as a treat or snack because of the yummy add ins you can put into the mixture. The recipe has a wait time on it so you child can practice setting the timer and waiting for the mixture to set. We use this basic recipe for No Bake Energy Balls and change it up from time to time based on what ingredients look good at the store or things we have on hand. As long as you have peanut butter and honey you can mix in all sorts of different things.
Final Thoughts
Have fun cooking with your child. It is a great way to bond without devices or distractions. Get creative inventing your own dishes and make healthy choices in ingredients. Your child will learn so much.