Introducing Your Toddler to Cooking in the Kitchen

There are several life skills that your kids' schools will fail to teach them. One of them is cooking. Parents also appear to introduce children much later to the kitchen than to other learning experiences. However, when we signed our 2.5-year-old toddler up for Montessori school, the kitchen was the first place that the kids started. With the appropriate tools and environment, toddlers can be immensely helpful in the kitchen, even in their early years.

Tools of the Trade

Having the right equipment ensures your child both enjoys and remains safe (most importantly!) in the kitchen. This could include:

Crinkle Cutter Kitchen Knife (for fun shapes and textures)
Small Wooden Cutting Board
Creamer Pitcher
Peeler
Porcelain Mortar and Pestle (tends to be lighter for smaller muscles than stone)
Mini Colander
Kids Plastic, Serrated Knives
Kids Scissors
Mini Tongs
Mini Whisk
Kids Apron (add a fun picture or phrase for extra excitement!)

The most important thing here is ensuring that sharp and potentially dangerous tools are kept to a minimum and that supervision is always a top priority.

The Right Environment

Ideally, your toddler has a kitchen that is their height, but that's not a luxury we can all afford unless it's a plastic kitchen. But, there are small changes that can allow your child to feel comfortable in the kitchen without significant remodeling:

Reserve lower/bottom drawers for your kid: Use these drawers for your child's snacks, cutlery, cups, dishes, and kitchenware.
Make Water Easily Accessible: Water is a critical aspect of working in the kitchen, from washing hands, cleaning fruits and vegetables, and washing dishes. Your child can have their own sink with a water filter and a plastic tub. Sure, you'll have to wash out the tub for them, but that's much easier than creating a functioning toddler-sized sink.
Kitchen Height Stool and/or Chair: Allowing your child to access the kitchen countertop to help with cooking is key. There are a lot of safe, climbable options out there.

Assigning Tasks and Jobs

Children, like adults, want to be in charge. Giving them tasks they can comfortably own will excite them to join you in the kitchen! Examples might include:

Choosing and putting spices, herbs, and seasonings into mixtures
Chopping up bananas, strawberries, mushrooms, and other soft foods
Making trail mix or mixing together basic ingredients
Squeezing lemons, limes, and oranges (they're also great at helping hold a handle while pouring liquids)
Drying washed product
Crushing coffee beans
Shaping cookies from cookie cutters and topping with frosting or sprinkles (why not both?)

Favorite Recipes

Favorite recipes are equally delicious and easy to cook with little ones, like:

Banana pancakes
Ants on a Log
Guacamole and salsa
English muffin pizza
Mini-quesadillas
Chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies
Marshmallow fruit dip
Deli meat wraps with fresh veggies

The Rewards of Cooking with Littles

Engaging a Toddler's Senses

Toddlers love to get their hands dirty and feel the world around them. They're constantly interacting with the world around them using all five of their senses. The kitchen can be a great learning environment where they can develop lifelong skills and memories.

Learning to Feed Themselves

Probably one of the most rewarding aspects is how quickly the small tasks in the kitchen build self-confidence for toddlers to begin feeding themselves and teaching them caution in the kitchen. Even a year or two after starting, that same toddler who made a mess everywhere in the kitchen can whip themselves up a snack or makeshift lunch without much adult help or supervision. And knowing how to cook usually means the meals that are made are healthier.

In good company

Kids become extremely good helpers in the kitchen when they're trusted to know what they're doing. As the chef, having an extra pair of hands in the kitchen is great, but more importantly, having good company makes the whole experience.