5 ways to introduce kitchen and cooking to children | Kitchen tips for kids

Cooking is a life skill. 

Yes, you heard me right! It is a basic skill which will help anyone in life at some point.

Cooking is an important skill which needs to be taught to children from a young age. 

When you were sick/when you moved to a new country/when you were out of the comfort of home studying or working, have you ever wondered why you never learnt cooking?

I am sure some of you can relate. That's why introducing cooking and the basics of kitchen to children are important to make them understand and appreciate the food. It will not be overwhelming when we let them learn the basics of cooking at their own pace. 

A kitchen is not just for cooking meals. There is a lot more happening in the kitchen than cooking alone. 

• knowing the names of the ingredients
• preparing the vegetables and ingredients
• washing the dishes or loading/unloading the dishwasher 
• cleaning the kitchen counter and the tables
• packing the leftovers

Before introducing cooking to our kids, it is important to introduce them to the basics of the kitchen. Learning the basics makes it easier for them to progress gradually to cooking the whole dish. I am not discussing about cutting the vegetables using a kitchen knife. Well, we don't need to introduce that until the children have grown up and are able to handle it with our supervision (of course!)

If you have a small child who is less than 10 years old but you would like to introduce cooking/kitchen to them, start them with these 5 basic steps.

Five steps to introduce Kitchen and Cooking to children:

1. Learning the kitchen ingredients:

Yes, learning the name and the nature of the ingredients is important. 

Could you imagine using a wrong dal for making a dish? 

Or using a wrong flour just because it is white in colour?

Talk to your children about the ingredients during your grocery shopping or when measuring the ingredients during the preparation. Children are curious to know. Understanding and knowing the ingredients makes it a lot more easier during the actual cooking.

2. Peeling the vegetables and fruits:

This is the stage before they start cutting. Let them use a peeler to peel a carrot skin or an apple skin for snacks. Kids love it when they can see their own hard work turned into a fruitful success! 

3. Unloading/loading the dishwasher or washing simple utensils:

This is a great start to introduce the concept of cleaning to younger children. They would enjoy the process of unloading the dishwasher once the wash cycle is over. It also teaches them that cooking and cleaning goes hand-in-hand. For older children, if you wish, you can encourage them to wash 1-2 simple utensils by wearing a glove (this protects their little hands). 

4. Doing simple tasks to help with cooking:

Simple tasks like gathering the ingredients, washing the produce (vegetables and fruits), spreading butter, measuring ingredients for baking and mixing the ingredients are a great way to engage older children in the kitchen. It teaches them to understand the ingredients and remember the ingredients name for a dish.

5. Cleaning the table after a meal:

Older children can help in cleaning the table after a meal with a kitchen cloth. This is also important to teach them that cleaning after food is just as important as cooking.

It is also important to educate them the rules of the kitchen before allowing them in - to make them understand what would be hot, what areas in the kitchen are not allowed, etc.

Give them some time to learn and practise these steps as it can get a little clumsy with children. Try the steps during your leisure time and have a fun time in the kitchen with your kids!