June 9, 2008 | Organizing, Kids clean, Lifestyle
Our good friend Jeana posted at her blog last week about having her 2 year old help her in the kitchen with tasks as mundane as unloading the dishwasher (though how can it be mundane when a toddler is handling your dinner plates?) to actually making salad, complete with cutting vegetables (again, toddlers and knives might not be a good mix in all situations).
Anyhow, we thought it might be a great idea to create a kid-friendly work space in the kitchen to encourage kids of nearly all ages to chip in. Kids have very little control over the world around them, so they love it any time they have a place of their own. I’m working on making a space for my kids in my kitchen, and it only involves a little rearranging. Here are some thoughts.
The first and foremost necessity for young kids in the kitchen is a sturdy step stool. We’re not talking about the plastic Dora the Explorer type you find at WalMart (though we’re not knocking Dora or WalMart, just to be clear). We’re referring to the kind of step stool my grandma used to reach the oft-used slow cooker in the cabinet above the refrigerator. You know, the folding type with the sturdy metal frame that actually gives you a bit of height. Fold it in a nook near your child’s cooking space, and look for one light-weight enough and easy enough to unfold that they can do it themselves - or at least with minimal help. Empower those tots!
Next, fill a cabinet at their level with the things your child (or children) will use to do the tasks you assign. Prep bowls, mixing bowls, ergonomic spoons that fit their hand, knives at your own risk (and theirs). Just remember - the more fun and colorful they look, the more enthusiastic your kids will be about spending time playing cooking in the kitchen with you. Also, the easier it is to locate things (i.e., the more organized you can make it), the greater your success will be in keeping them in the kitchen. Use things like wire shelving to make everything easily visible.
Finally, add the appropriate clean-up tools to their space. Our favorite is a paper towel holder affixed to the inside of their kid-friendly cabinet, with a dustpan and floor brush hanging next to it. Make clean-up easy and accessible to them and they’re more likely to follow-through when you ask them to sweep up the crumbs or wipe up the spills.
Note: cooking and clean-up are more fun when there’s fun music in the background - if you don’t have a music source available, by all means exercise those rusty vocal chords with your own renditions of food-related classics like, “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly”, “On top of spaghetti”, “Hot cross buns”, and “I love to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas”. Kids like it when their parents act like toddlers, so ham it up.
Venture out this summer into kid-cooking and into greener life by making your own jam. It’s easy, and it’ll keep you buying local produce and keep nasty additives out of your pantry. Inside fruit pectin boxes you’ll find a recipe for freezer jam that requires no cooking for most fruits. Mash, measure, and mix. And then slather it on thick for awesome PB&Js. Not only do my kids love to help make it, they’re oh so proud to eat it on sandwiches and brag to anyone in earshot that they made the jam.
Note: We’ve found really nice kid-friendly knives through Pampered Chef, and the knives in jack-o-lantern kits usually have blunt points and work well with kids.
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Melissa Lee says:
Oops…
As I was saying…
I don’t know when I would refer it, but if I ever list blogs I enjoy I would love to have permission to mention you. Great job.
June 18th, 2008 at 9:53 pmDiscontinued China says:
oh man i dont think i could let my kids do that… i know there would be broken dishes and falling appliances :S
July 14th, 2008 at 4:58 pm-Mary