MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN A GOOD MOOD! I love to bake and cook with my kids more than anything, but I will be the first to admit that I have to be in the right mood for it. There is nothing worse than starting a project in the kitchen when you are already at the end of your rope.
USE A KITCHEN SCALE This is especially helpful with toddlers. My kids are 2 and 4, and if I let them try to level off measuring cups, the amounts for baking end up all wrong. A kitchen scale is the perfect compromise because they do the scooping all by themselves while I watch the scale, and I can take a little out if they scoop too much. Older kids can work on their numbers by using the scale.
BUSY WORK The best jobs for kids in the kitchen are ones that keep them busy. My absolute favorite example of this is to hand them each a head of garlic and tell them to get to work peeling and separating the cloves. This keeps them busy for so long while I am cooking, and they feel like they are helping.
LET THEM MAKE A MESS This is the hardest part. I don’t know about everyone else’s kids, but mine will not do anything longer than 30 seconds if I don’t let them do it the way they want to. It doesn’t matter if it’s a craft or cooking or baking, if I left them make the mess, it will keep them busy and happy longer. Most things just take a quick wipe down of the counter and a vacuum under their stools. This does go back to being in a good mood though!
INVEST IN SOME KIDS’ KITCHEN TOOLS Check out my shop page for some of my favorite kids’ kitchen tools. A toddler-safe knife set is amazing. My kids love to chop stuff. A kid-safe vegetable peeler may be the best thing that has ever happened to me. My son loves to peel a giant carrot and eat it for a snack every day. It’s his favorite activity.
Kitchen activity ideas for kids
NOODLE SCOOP One of my favorite messy examples of a kitchen activity that keeps my kids busy while I am cooking or baking is scooping and pouring raw ingredients like pasta into containers. I give them a container of pasta noodles or something (I keep a few on hand that I just use over and over again but never actually cook with) and some measuring cups and spoons. Other good ingredients for this include rice, lentils and dried beans.
HERBS I grow a lot of herbs in my garden just outside the kitchen door, and the kids love to pick them. They like it so much that I can often be heard by my neighbors shouting at them to “pleeeeease stop picking my herbs!”. One of their favorite kitchen activities is to pick herbs, use their plastic knives to chop them up, and then they make creations with them.
Sometimes they mix up potions in plastic containers with water. They also love putting the herbs in an ice cube tray and freezing them. They like to sniff them and try them. They love to use them to help me cook just about anything as well. My son will try anything if he helped make it.
ORGANIZE THE PANTRY My kids have a strange fascination with the pantry. One of their favorite activities is just too make a giant mess in the pantry. It doesn’t matter if you have an actual pantry or just some cupboards where you store your food. Let them go crazy moving things around, and it will keep them busy for ages. I always tell them that I need help “reorganizing the pantry”.
GROCERY SHOPPING Give your kids reusable or paper grocery bags and let them fill them up with toys or even actual pantry items. Let them pretend they are grocery shopping. My kids always load up, carry everything to a new location and unload like they are “putting away the groceries”. Yes, it makes a mess, but we always make it a game to clean up again.
DISH WASHING Move a couple of stools or chairs in front of the sink. Fill the sink with some soapy water and give them some plastic dishes. Let them go crazy. Keep a few towels on hand!
LETTER SEARCH If you have a child who is working on learning their letters, have them look for items in the kitchen that start with that letter. We have a toy grocery cart, and my kids love going through the pantry and spice drawer to find things that start with whatever letter we are working on. They load them all up in the grocery cart.
