The smaller your kids are the higher up the worktop seems. So it’s a good idea to provide furniture which will allow your kids to take an active part in the kitchen activities. This will go a long way in making them feel welcome in the kitchen.
Little stools can easily be stored under the worktop. And if kids stand on them, they can see what’s going on.
Maybe you can also spare the room for a little removable table. If the kids sit on the stools, the table becomes their very own worktop.
If there is enough room, your kids could have their own kitchen drawer where they store the things they need to turn into little chefs, for example a colourful chopping board, play knifes, a children’s recipe book, a personal apron, etc.
What is true for child education in general also goes for kitchen chores: Kids need to feel needed to build self-esteem. Easy tasks to give your little chefs a head start include:
- egg-beating
- peeling veggies with a potato-peeler
- pitting apples with a corer
- slicing eggs with an egg-slicer
- decorating cookies or cakes
- preparing fruit for a fruit salad
- putting toppings on a pizza
- Chopping boards must be of an adequate size and they must always rest securely on the worktop
- Knifes must always be held with the blade pointing away from the body
- The hot stove must not be touched; electrical stoves remain hot for a while after cooking
- The handles of pots and pans on the stove should never stick out into the kitchen
- Oven mitts are a must
- Spilled food should be wiped away at once so that nobody will slip
- Electrical appliances are removed from the socket when they are not in use
- Use two spoons for tasting: One goes into the pot and its content is filled into the other one, which goes into the mouth
With the right recipes, cooking becomes easy. We have collected some healthy family favourites for you. By clicking the printing icons you can print little booklets explaining all preparation steps. And if your kids like, they can colour the booklets.
Offering games in the kitchen doesn’t mean you’ll have to stumble over race-cars on the floor. You can easily turn the kitchen into a place of creativity by putting colourful magnets on the fridge or hanging a chalkboard on the wall. This way your children will love spending time in the kitchen. And while playing they will be at the source of healthy food.
Most children love to tinker. So why not turn the kitchen table from time to time into a tinkering station for the whole family? Popular tinkering activities include making Christmas or Easter cards, making seasonal window decorations, making party-hats, making play-dough decorations, stencilling, making collages… Check your local library for books on tinkering or find inspiration in our print-outs.
Have you ever noticed how much beauty there is in our food stuffs? Colourful pumpkins do not only look great on Halloween and shiny red apples can do much more than make a traditional Christmas decoration. Once you start regarding quite usual foods with a decorator’s eye you will see never ending possibilities. How about placing one of the following in your kitchen...
… Glass jars with pasta of different shapes
… A pyramid of old-fashioned or exotic looking tins holding tomato puree, sardines, etc.
… An arrangement of seasonal fruit
… A framed collage of colourful food labels
… A professional photograph or a painting of food
… Your kids’ drawings of their favourite meals
… A bunch of dried chilli peppers
… Glass jars with pickles
… Anything else you would like to see in your kitchen!
Obviously a fruit bowl does not only look very decorative, it also provides the whole family with the opportunity to get lots of vitamins and fibre. And research has shown that we tend to eat more fruit when it’s in view. So why not place a nice bowl or basket full of delicious fruit on a kitchen surface and invite your family to start the healthy nibbling? Apart from the seasonal standards you might like to offer more exotic fruit occasionally as this is a great way to keep everybody interested and to broaden your fruit horizon.
Watching a new plant come out of the earth and grow is a great experience. And with kitchen plants your children can learn a lot: They have to take up little tasks such as watering and tending the plants and if the kitchen plants are edible or bear fruit, they also get a feeling for how the food we eat grows until it is eventually harvested.
If you would like to go for edible kitchen plants, herbs such as cress, basil, rosemary, parsley ore any other herb your family likes to eat are ideal. They can live on the kitchen window sill all year round and they can be used in many recipes. A real winner is the avocado experiment. And if you are looking for quick results, try growing mung beans.
How to grow cress:
Put cress seeds onto a damp paper towel at the bottom of an empty pot. Put the pot inside a plastic bag and seal it. Place the pot in a dark cupboard. Once the seedlings have reached a height of 5 cm, remove the pot from the cupboard and place it on a window sill.
How to grow an avocado tree:
Place an avocado stone in a pot of compost with the pointed end sticking out from the soil.
Water the compost and then seal the pot in a plastic bag. Put the pot on a windowsill. Remove the bag when the leaves begin to appear. Watch your avocado tree grow.
How to grow bean sprouts:
Soak a handful of dried mung beans in water overnight. Put the beans in a yoghurt pot.
Pierce several holes in the lid. Place the pot in a warm, dark cupboard. Twice a day, fill the pot with water, replace the lid and then slowly pour out the water. The beans will be ready to eat in 3 to 4 days.
How to grow flowers
Of course your kids can also grow flowers in the kitchen. This is especially nice in winter. If you buy some bulbs (tulips, daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths) in fall and store them in a cool place, your kids will have a great January activity: They just need to fill a flat bowl or pot with a few pebbles or marbles and add the bulbs and so much water that only the tips of the bulbs show. Then the bowl should be placed in a bright spot (no direct sunlight) and the water refilled regularly. Soon there will be beautiful flowers.
Whether mother, father, grandmother or grandpa is the storyteller – kitchens have a long tradition of being the place where family lore, stories and talk are shared. And kitchen tasks which do not require a great deal of concentration – such as peeling potatoes, podding peas, doing the dishes or fixing a salad – give you an ideal opportunity to tell your children a story. Or you could also become the listener and discover the power of your children’s imagination. Sometimes your children might prefer not to tell a made-up story but to let you know what’s happened during their day. Just go with the flow.