Cooking with Younger Children

Cooking with your children can be a great opportunity to teach them life skills as well as bring you closer together. First and foremost though – you must remember that when working with young children you will need to be patient. You will probably have more messes than perfectly executed soufflé. But your persistence will be rewarded and they’ll eventually nail down the techniques. You’ve just got to wade through the messes that may come first.

There will probably be some things your younger children will want to help out with, such as cutting up vegetables. While you may be hesitant to give them the chef’s knife, a good compromise would be to give them a plastic knife to cut some softer or smaller bits up with. A lot of times children will just want to mirror what it is you’re doing, so make sure it’s either something they can do or there’s a similar, safer activity that you would be willing to let them do instead.

In the end, remember that as you try to teach your children, it is not about how perfectly their food turns out but about the fun you have learning how to do it. If your child feels like they are always getting in trouble when trying to cook they won’t want to come near the kitchen. If you make it fun and more about the time you spend together, you’ll find them eager and excited when it’s time to cook dinner.