Cooking is a Family Affair

While cuts are a common and legitimate concern for parents, kids can actually do a lot of tasks in the kitchen with proper food and kitchen safety rules and adult supervision. You are the best judge of what your child can do. Younger kids with good manual dexterity can often do the tasks listed for older children.

Tasks young children can do:

• Peeling with vegetable peeler
• Measuring
• Kneading/punching/pressing/rolling/cutting out dough
• Whisking
• Scooping
• Stirring
• Tossing
• Washing
• Pouring cold liquids
• Plating
• Sprinkling
• Spreading
• Blending
• Greasing
• Shaping
• Setting the table
• Stuffing
• Cutting with a small 8-inch knife
• Cutting herbs with scissors

Tasks older children can do:

• Threading on wooden skewers
• Straining
• Cutting soft fruit and vegetables
• Boiling
• Cracking eggs
• Grating
• Opening cans
• Cutting pizza with the pizza wheel
• Reading the recipe