Teaching Children How to Use the Kitchen

It is a really fun idea to teach your children how to cook. Cooking a great way to spend time with them and teach them skills they can use for the rest of their life. However, it is very important to be as careful as possible while teaching children to cook, because it can be easy for a child to injure themselves in the kitchen.

An important safety tip to teach children is how to properly handle food. Make sure that you instruct children to wash their hands before and after handling food. Perhaps the most important safety tip for children in the kitchen is teaching them how to use the stove and microwave correctly.

Children develop different skills at different ages and this applies to cooking as well. It's important to know at what age a child is ready to attempt learning skills that will be used in the kitchen.

A general guideline is that children between the ages of 3 and 6 can add ingredients to a mix and stir the ingredients together. They can also help wash fruits and vegetables at this age. Children between the ages of 6 and 8 can usually be relied upon to help set the table and to use a dull knife to cut soft foods. Between the ages of 8 and 10, children can learn how to use a can opener, cook food in the microwave, and select the correct times and temperatures. Between the ages of 10 and 12, children can learn how to use the stove while being supervised by an adult, grate cheese, and use a knife. The ages of 13 through 16 are when a child can learn how to make something with multiple ingredients, and the can do so with minimal supervision.

It's very important that you teach your children basic kitchen safety before moving on to things like preparation and cooking.