Kids in the Kitchen - what can they do?

cupcakechef

cupcakechef

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A piece out of Australia last week about kids in the kitchen revealed a few interesting statistics.

Here's a snippet from the article:

New research reveals almost half of Aussie kids are not learning how to prepare a healthy meal but a survey of 821 parents found 44 per cent said they did not have enough time to let their children help out in the kitchen at home.

More than two-thirds of primary age children do not know how to boil an egg while just over half of them can make a cheese toastie, the study found.

The study found 27 per cent of primary-school-aged kids never help with the cooking at home and 43 per cent of parents say their kids know less about cooking than they did at the same age.

If you have kids that are old enough, do they help you in the kitchen? Do you take the time to teach them how to do things around the kitchen?

Do you think there's enough emphasis on cooking in school? I know when I was at high school we did have a brief home economics class where we learned some recipes, but I predominantly learned how to cook from observing family members cook.
 
We don't allow children in the kitchen unless he is 8 years or older. And the most he can do is to watch how it is done. But not really in the stove area, he can only watch in the preparation of the ingredients and if he has questions, it can be answered by a demonstration. A kid of 12 is allowed in the cooking area and also in helping prepare the ingredients particularly in washing the vegetables. But we are careful with the knife because we find it dangerous to be handled by children.
 
My twenty-five year old 'kid' is hard work in progress. If I could turn back the hands of time, it'd be a totally different story. I would have insisted he join me in the kitchen. I would have brought him in the kitchen in a pram!
 
I did not teach my girls to cook when they were growing up, one can not cook is trying hard to learn but really does not care to learn to cook. The older daughter has taught herself to cook and is very good at it. But makes such a mess in the kitchen I almost wish she would not cook. Which is the reason I did not teach them to cook in the first place. I was working a single parent and not very patient at the time. Now I live with two teenage grandson's who are being taught to cook for themselves.

I think all children should be taught to cook so that they can provide for themselves. Today you can go to the store and purchase whole meals already cooked but it is costly. I have a friend that goes to the store and purchases her meals for the week already cooked so that she does not have to do any cooking now that all of her family is living away from home.
 
Pat said:
The older daughter has taught herself to cook and is very good at it. But makes such a mess in the kitchen I almost wish she would not cook.
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Sounds a bit like my husband! :laugh:
He can definitely hold his own in the kitchen and has a few signature recipes that I love - but the clean up is a massive undertaking. Sometimes I literally look at the amount of dishes he creates with a face like this :eek:
 
My kids have always been in the kitchen with me, for as long as I can remember. Of course when they were babies they were mostly in their seats watching, but as they got older we started including them in what we were doing. My son could successfully crack eggs by the time he turned 3. Safety was always a top priority and we've just always been the type to alert them, watch them, and guide them from early on so things such as hot pans, heavy glass, or stovetop burners were things to watch out for. My son is 14 and makes meals for us all the time. My daughter, who is 12, loves to bake and even tries coming up with her own recipes now and then.
 
I always allow my nephew to help me in the kitchen if he wanted to, I know it will teach him about good work and cooking in general. The thing I do is never let him near sharp or hot objects. I let him stir the batter, clean the vegetables or carry some sort of ingredient when I'm cooking. I want him to know that he's never useless when helping because assistance is a good thing and he will learn that when he's older. If I tell him no then what good will that be for his personal growth? We all learn at a gradual pace so let them start young.
 
I brought my brother and sister up. I have also looked after other people's children and I never restricted access to the kitchen. In my opinion they should know when they need to stay away from you, when they can help, when the should stay away from a cooker and what dangers there are in a kitchen and they should learn this from a young age. Even at 2 years old my sister would be allowed to stand on a chair (restricts what she can get hold of) and 'help'. Children of all ages need to learn what hot means, what sharp means and more importantly what No means and they can't do this if they are not taught this. Yes you need to be careful and you need to allow more time in the kitchen to deal with children around you but preventing children from accessing the kitchen or even worse never teaching them in the first place is not the answer in my opinion.

I found the my sister and brother both loved standing on the chair at the kitchen counter scrubbing potatoes and carrots clean for us. So what that it took ages, so what that we had to clean some of them again, so what that the kitchen floor (and often them as well) got soaked. They were learning and enjoying themselves (one tip, use warm water not cold for this and have them in old clothes!), that was all that was important.

I have had friends' children making bread with me, so what flour went everywhere, and that they were covered in it and we have to clean them up, wash their clothes before they went home. The went home happy as anything, exhausted and with a loaf of bread for their parents and they enjoyed it. It is easy enough if you want to make it so and a child can learn about what is hot, what is sharp, what they are and are not allowed to do or even the little things like how to hold a knife (a small, not very sharp but sharp enough paring knife is ideal for this) how to hold a carrot to chop it etc. The key thing I have found is that they are high enough to be able to see. They are only a major danger in the kitchen when they can't see what is going on and try to pull things down so they can see into it. Stand them on a chair and they can see what is going on and they won't get under your feet at the wrong point. Just plan what and when they are allow to help and work around that. It is easy enough when you want it to be.

Put a chair alongside you and keep sharp or hot objects on the other side of you and they are often more than happy. Get them to crack the egg into a bowl for you (plastic bowl and something like a normal dinner table knife to break the shell with is quite useful at this point - as is the trick of using the shell of the broken egg to fish out the other pieces of broken egg shell... and a small whisk or fork to whisk the egg and they are kept occupied whilst you chop something else up)... Children are especially useful for grating things (cheese, lemon rind), weighing things out, even accurately with things like herbs and spices, 1tsp of this, 1tsp of that... 8oz of flour, 250 ml of water they are all things children of most ages can do for you, some with more supervision than others, but teaching them to match symbols even if they don't understand what the symbol is (I'm thinking about 1 tsp, 1 tbsp, 1/2 tsp, 1/2 pt, 10 fl oz, 8 oz, 1 cup 'symbols' here - they don't have to know what tbsp stands for but that can be taught that over time)

In fact I think I can feel a thread coming on of a list of things children can safely help out with in the kitchen....
 
I've let my kids help out the kitchen since they were about 3 or 4. When my youngest was about 3 he started off just pushing a chair to the stove and watching me cook. He learned about kitchen safety and hot stoves and boiling water. He was always well supervised. He then moved to putting the pasta in the pot. Now at six he helps stir fry chicken in the pan, he pounds the chicken breasts for lemon chicken. He love to stir pasta sauce and season it with salt, pepper, garlic powder. My oldest son is a preteen and can make omelettes, shrimp, and wants to learn how to make different dishes he loves. He can use measuring cups well. He is starting to have great knife skills and can mince garlic, onions, and chop vegetables. I think learning to cook is such an important life skill and starting when kids are young helps them.
 
No kids of my own, but I've had Beavers through to Venture Scouts in the kitchen. Be it inside or outside. It takes away some of the "mystery" out of their food for them.

I'll be the odd one out on here and say that I'd be willing to let most of them use the same equipment as myself. A blunt knife being more dangerous than a sharp one.

The cooker being off-limits to the younger ones, as well as the washing up(hot water) but let them dry up.
 
classic33 said:
No kids of my own, but I've had Beavers through to Venture Scouts in the kitchen. Be it inside or outside. It takes away some of the "mystery" out of their food for them.

I'll be the odd one out on here and say that I'd be willing to let most of them use the same equipment as myself. A blunt knife being more dangerous than a sharp one.

The cooker being off-limits to the younger ones, as well as the washing up(hot water) but let them dry up.
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Agreed.
But I'm happy for them to do the washing up. It won't hurt for the water to be a tad cooler and their skin is the same as ours. Also there is no harm in them washing up and it having to be redone once they have gone home. It's a concept that they need to learn, they don't have to perfect it at the first attempt!

Plus I have had children in the kitchen (I have a brother and sister who are a generation younger than myself, so brought them up) and I child sit from time to time with one girl, now 10, who has learning difficulties yet loves helping out. So what if I need to make sure it is a plastic glass she has? In the kitchen she can still help out with supervision and is the most delightful little girl. I treat her no differently to her sister (who is younger but more ' advanced '). There are ways and means, you as the adult just have to be creative and on your guard.

The articles I linked to earlier are good at giving ideas on what each age group can and can't do in the kitchen.
 
On camp, time can often be limited. Which is why the washing up isn't done by them.

Never met anyone else with a purple arm yet though!
 
Interesting thoughts about the sharp objects. I am always amazed that children now seem unable to deal with anything more dangerous that a plastic teaspoon whereas a few of centuries ago boys were being trained for war with real swords and even a few decades ago boys and girls seemed to manage quite well when as scouts or guides they were given knives for use in camp etc. Children are not stupid if they are not treated as such and IMO the 'Oh everything is a happy world of fluffy clouds and harmless rainbows' attitude is both short sighted and dangerous. Children will grow up - they will have to survive on their own [even if it's only while at college] the sooner they can look after themselves the better and maybe happier they will be [ and this 100% includes boys ].
 
I think if we knew the kids are already at the right age to be in the kitchen there is nothing wrong if they will be there to watch the elders how to prepare and cook foods. It is just a matter of guiding them about the do's and dont's in the kitchen so that they will know what to do.
 
Both of my kids have been helping me in the kitchen since they were around 5 years of age. While evidently I keep an eagle's eye on whatever they are doing, gradually over the years I've been allowing them to do more and more (they are now aged 9 and 13).
The first years they would be allowed to do tasks such as sifting the flour, cracking the eggs, stirring, putting the cut veggies into a dish etc, but as they grew older I finally allowed them to cut vegetables ( soft ones though, nothing like cabbage or carrots for example), cut and melt butter or fry things such as pancakes or scrambled eggs. They really love cooking and never miss out on helping me out. I think that it's a good thing to allow kids to discover cooking at a young age, and both are boys must I add, after all many of the best chefs are men ^^
 
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