Kids Cooking – 7 Tips for Teaching Children How to Cook

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Cooking is an essential life skill, but it’s not always easy cooking with kids. Here are seven tips to get kids cooking + easy recipe ideas.

adult teaching child to cut a capsicum

Learning to cook is one of the most important life skills every child should learn.

It will ensure they can prepare their own meals when they leave home and empower them to save money while eating well.

While young kids have been cooking around the fire for thousands of years, nowadays, for many reasons, kids aren’t being taught this vital skill.

Sometimes, it’s because parents are just so busy working long hours, and when it’s time for dinner, the last thing we have the energy or patience for is the kids in the kitchen.

Sometimes, it’s because we can’t deal with the extra mess having kids in the kitchen creates (see point one about being overworked and tired – extra mess can be a final straw).

Sometimes, we’re scared of handing our children a sharp knife or having them handle burning hot stuff.

Side note story: I taught cooking at Scouts last year. The kids’ previous lesson was knife-sharpening! Picture it: eight very exuberant kids waiving the sharpest knives around, flour and water everywhere from making the pizza dough, me trying to teach knife safety— ‘Stop waving the thing around!’—and how to cut pepperoni without ending up with a finger on their pizza. I get it—teaching kids to cook can be stressful!

Teaching children to cook can be challenging, especially when they are young.

But the payoff is worth it when they are older. Not only do they have the skills to be confident and independent adults, but it takes the pressure off you when they can make their own breakfast or lunch and maybe even take a turn cooking dinner.

Below are 7 tips I’ve found useful so far when teaching my own children to cook and an amazing resource we’ve used during our learning process.

But First: More Reasons to Cook with Kids

To recap, the benefits of cooking with kids (in case you need further convincing).

  • Learning to cook is an essential life skill.
  • Learning to cook empowers kids to be more independent.
  • Having real-world skills and independence is good for confidence and self-esteem.
  • Cooking is good practice for gross and fine motor skills.
  • Cooking can be a creative outlet.
  • Cooking encourages healthy eating. Kids are often more likely to eat meals they have helped prepare.
  • Cooking introduces children to a variety of fresh foods and interesting ways of preparing and cooking those ingredients.
  • Cooking teaches kids other skills, like reading (reading the recipe, expanding their vocabulary), how to follow instructions, maths (measuring, weighing, fractions), and science (e.g. how cakes rise, the effect of heat on food etc.)
  • It can be fun and super satisfying to accomplish something. I know my kids are always proud when we eat the muffins they have made or the dinner they have prepared.

Tips for Teaching Kids To Cook

cooking bacon
Cooking bacon in a splatterproof mask, age 4.

The above picture is of my son cooking bacon at age four. He is now fourteen (where did the time go?) and still likes bacon. Cooking a variety of family dinners was one of his challenges for his Peak Scout Awards. The omelette below is one of his creations.

veggie breakfast omelette

My daughter, on the other hand, is the baker in the family and bakes at least once a week. She would bake more, but her mean mum can’t always handle the mess right before dinner time.

While they are able to cook with the stove and oven, having a sandwich press enables the kids to independently cook a range of easy meals quickly and easily, and they use it a lot.

Here’s what’s worked for us when teaching the kids to cook.

1. Make Time for Cooking with Kids

Life is busy. It can be hard to find time (or the energy or patience) to teach kids to cook.

And I’ve found that if I’m tired and cranky, or the kids are tired and can’t focus, it’s better for everyone to cook together on a different day.

That way, cooking remains light and fun, not something to dread.

Good times to cook with kids are the weekends and during school holidays if you have the time off work.

A relaxed Sunday brunch is a good time to teach the kids how to make scrambled eggs and cook some bacon (even if they need a mask for the bacon splatter).

2. Teach Food Safety and Basic Hygiene

No one wants food poisoning or burns as part of their cooking experience!

So it’s important to teach basic food safety alongside cooking skills.

I have worked in our school tuckshop for nearly ten years, have a food-safe handling certificate, and have spent years teaching kids and adults some basic food safety practices.

Some important safe food handling skills include:

  • Wash your hands before cooking. You don’t need to wear plastic gloves for everything at home like some people do on Instagram, but clean hands are a must.
  • Not touching your face or hair while cooking (or washing your hands afterwards – it is surprising (or maybe not after 2020) how many of us do this unconsciously (even with gloves on – better to just wash your hands).
  • Keeping raw meat and other ingredients separate, including using a different cutting board.
  • How to hold a sharp knife, cut so you don’t cut your fingers, and walk with it so no one gets hurt.
  • Not leaving food out to go bad – i.e. teaching them about the danger zone (above 5°C and below 65°C) and not eating leftovers that are older than three days.
  • How to work around hot appliances, like turning the pan handle away so it doesn’t get bumped.
  • Only licking the bowl and the spoon after we’ve finished and everything is in the oven (no need to spoil all of the fun!).

I also have rules about running, jumping, and dancing in the kitchen, especially while handling sharp knives or hot things on the stove. I also prohibit siblings—or others—from fighting in the kitchen. I also remind myself to shut the dishwasher and oven doors to avoid tripping.

Cooking is meant to be fun, but it’s still important to teach safety rules because there’s nothing fun about getting burned.

Looking for other important skills to teach children? You might also like fun ways to teach kids about money.

3. Accept There Will be Mess

When kids cook, there WILL be mess.

I’m not a fan of the mess that results from children in the kitchen. It comes a pretty close second to fighting over who gets to do what.

But mess will result when kids are involved. Embrace the mess as part of the process—accept that mess is 100% likely to occur—and stress levels will go down for everyone.

And then arm them with a cloth, a dustpan, and a brush so they can help tidy up afterwards! This is another important skill.

4. Use Regular Untensils

There’s no need to buy special kid’s utensils, although an Iron Man mask apparently helps with bacon splatter.

For most things, children are quite capable of using regular cooking utensils.

Apart from a toddler’s knife and fork for eating, kids’ cooking utensils are usually an unnecessary expense. They clutter up the kitchen, and kids quickly grow out of them as their competence increases.

This is speaking from experience. I bought different fancy cutters that other parents recommended as good for teaching kids to cook, and they ended up unused. The kids wanted to use the same things we did anyway, and the proper utensils did a better job.

For cutting, when kids are little, give them a normal table knife and start them on soft foods like a banana. Then they can graduate to a paring knife, which is sharp and can cut through harder foods but still small enough for them to hold.

If a wooden spoon is too large for them to hold when baking, they can use a metal dessert spoon.

5. Give Kids Age-Appropriate Tasks, But Don’t Underestimate Them

‘Age appropriate’ can mean different things to different kids, depending on their interests, maturity, coordination, and strength.

I think, sometimes, as modern parents, we can underestimate what our kids can handle. I’ve also learned that some tasks I thought were easy, like peeling a carrot, require more strength than little hands can muster, even when they have the coordination.

When you think your child is ready to help in the kitchen, generally around the age of 2-3, start with easy tasks that they can accomplish, like washing, stirring, mashing, spooning, rolling, kneading and tearing.

You can also let them start chopping soft foods like a banana with a butter knife.

As they get older, teach your kids weighing and measuring, spreading, whisking, cutting harder foods with a small sharp paring knife, breading (crumbing), peeling, grating and simple cooking tasks like cooking toast or scrambling eggs.

6. Let Your Kids Choose the Recipes

Letting children choose the recipe makes them feel like they are making an important contribution to the family, and again, they are more likely to eat it if they’ve had a say.

You don’t need child-friendly recipes, although it’s a good idea to offer a selection of recipes to choose from that include skills at your child’s age level so they can have a go without it being too hard (see ideas below).

7. Give Kids Useful Tasks Where they are Actually Contributing

Children know when they’re getting the brush off.

By giving them important tasks during the cooking process, they gain a sense of accomplishment. There’s nothing like the satisfaction of saying, ‘I made this!’.

From mixing the muffin mix to cutting vegetables to stirring the onions in the pan, depending on the child’s age, there’s always something they can do to help.

If children are an integral part of the whole cooking process, from planning to preparing and cooking they not only learn more and gain competence and confidence in the kitchen, they have the satisfaction of a job well done.

That doesn’t mean you need to have children part of the process EVERY. DAY! Life is busy. But if they can help out once a week or even once a month, over time, they develop important cooking skills.

A great way to give them responsibility is to allow them to make their own breakfast. Soaked oats or toasted muesli and fruit are easy but still healthy breakfasts to prepare while you get to sleep in. Everyone’s a winner!

And it won’t be long until they’re cooking entire meals for you.

Basic Recipes Kids Can Cook or Help With

Baking

Baking is a great place to start when cooking with kids. Here are some of the easy recipes my kids love to help cook or, as they have grown older, cook themselves.

Breakfast

French toast is a great introduction to pan frying and with delicious results. My kids make plain French toast nearly every weekend.

Lunch

Easy weekend lunches or lunchbox favourites that kids can help make.

Dinner

With these easy meals, get the kids in the kitchen grating and cutting vegetables, mixing patties, and doing some basic cooking.

Desserts

Easy desserts that kids can help with.

Looking for a More Structured Approach to Teaching Kids to Cook?

kids help in the kitchen challenge

Katie Kimball from Kitchen Stewardship has a great Course for teaching kids to cook. I tried it out with my own kids years ago, and even though I have experience in commercial kitchens, I learned a lot as well.

You can sign up for a free challenge to get a taster of her program.

The material for this challenge comes from her Kids Cook Real Food eCourse.

Cooking is an essential life skill for kids and the best place to learn is alongside the cook in the kitchen. If you’re unsure where to start or not feeling confident about teaching your kids to cook, take the #mykidsmadethis challenge.

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2 Comments

  1. Hi Melissa,
    Great article and I love the tips. My question is: at what age should I start teaching my kid to cook?

    1. Melissa Goodwin says:

      As young as you feel comfortable and the temperament of your kids. From around 18 months old they can start tearing up lettuce or chopping up a banana, for instance, with a kid-friendly knife – great for them to feel they are helping mum and good for fine and gross motor skills.