Entire family can have fun in the kitchen A guide to cooking with kids
Children may start their culinary careers crafting mud pies in their backyards, but that creativity and imagination soon may translate into foods they can actually eat. Many kids love cooking because it can be fun and messy, which are two qualities that children find hard to resist. Parents can foster their children’s love of cooking and help them along the way with these tips.
cooking begins and continues to do so after handling foods, particularly raw meat and poultry. Hair should be tied back, and separate prep surfaces should be designated for produce and meats.
• Assign age-appropriate tasks
Consider age and maturity levels when assigning tasks in the kitchen. Even children • Be patient as young as 3-years-old can Going into the cooking expechop food if they are provided rience knowing there will be a a serrated butter knife with a mess, typically when young chil- rounded point and soft vegetadren are involved, can help you bles or fruits. prepare. Toddlers have not yet This helps teach knife skills mastered manual dexterity, so that kids can develop more they’re bound to spill and drop. thoroughly in the future. ChilPut a plastic tablecloth under dren can mix and add ingredithe work area and on the floor ents as well. As kids get older, to help catch what falls. Also, parents can decide the right cooking with youngsters likely time to let them use the stove. will take more time than it nor• Experiment mally would, so set aside extra with dough preparation and cooking time. Kids can have a blast with • Teach kids dough, particularly rolling out good hygiene pie crusts and pasta. They also Hygiene is important and can can make dumplings and then prevent foodborne illnesses. fill them with vegetables. Many Make sure everyone involved cookware retailers sell small in cooking, including children, rolling pins that are easy for kids washes his or her hands before to handle. PAGE 42
The entire family can get in on the action when kids participate in the kitchen.
• Practice measuring together
educator Julie Negrin. Negrin notes that children between the ages of 10 and 12 Let children read the recipes can start working independentand be in charge of portioning ly in the kitchen so long as an out ingredients. This reinforces adult is in the home. Ultimately, classroom lessons about temchildren can cook without close perature, ratios and fractions. supervision. Children also can be involved • Move on to more in cooking by helping to draft sophisticated tasks shopping lists and taking trips to Around age eight or nine, the supermarket. children can take on jobs like This shows kids the complete opening cans, scooping batter, process of gathering ingredients pounding poultry, proofing yeast, for meals, what they cost and skewering kabobs, and slicing how they are made before foods bread, according to cooking make it to the dinner table.
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