Occupational therapists work on the “skills of living” and aim to promote function in everyday tasks. This can include skills like dressing, simply getting around, and cooking. You may not realize that doing tasks in the kitchen, while seemingly commonplace and innate to most people, can be really difficult. OTs use work in the kitchen to assess a plethora of capabilities besides the obvious (Can you cook?), like initiation, sequencing, strength and balance, safety judgment, organization, and working memory, just to name a few! Truly, working in a kitchen is a fabulous way to practice life skills needed everyday in other areas outside of the kitchen. This absolutely applies to children as well, which is why incorporating little ones into cooking tasks early on is a great way to promote their life skills in all areas. Kiddos get to work on the many skills they are already practicing in other areas of life when getting down in the kitchen, like counting, following directions, patience, cause and effect, and fine motor skills. Also, working together in the kitchen promotes bonding through participation in meaningful activities as a family. Now at two and a half, Waverley loves when we bake together. She feels such a sense of pride and accomplishment when she helps to create food that we then consume. Most recently, she helped bake Nate’s birthday cake and was beyond tickled when it came out of the oven, all fluffy and making the entire house smell amazing. Cooking is the perfect opportunity for little ones to learn contribution to the greater family unit, creation from beginning to end, and about their own capabilities. Cooking promotes independence and confidence, two traits all children need.

 

I won’t bore you with too many details about why cooking with kiddos is important and why it is wonderful habit to start. Instead, let’s talk about the how, as in how in the world does one cook with a toddler and not burn the house down or end up with a completely ruined finished product? A lot of the people OTs work with have brain injuries, therefore we are adept at adapting the kitchen to work with all ability levels. Here’s how to successfully cook with your toddler to ensure everyone has a fun and productive experience:

 

1. Safety First: Me, Sargent Safety, at your service.

• First, ensure there is a safe spot for kiddos to help, either with a height-appropriate stool or (gasp!) sitting on the counter. We utilize both depending on the recipe and how enthusiastic Waverley is at the moment. Sometimes, she just likes to sit in her counter chair to watch and wait until she can mix everything up.
• Second, go over the sharps/hot rules every. single. time. I like to think at this point Waverley knows to avoid sharp knives, yet she never ceases to amaze when she excitedly reaches for chopped chocolate or fruit as I am chopping. Heart attack. The same goes for hot pots that you may bring over to the main cooking area.
• Third, create a safe distance they can stand to watch when you put things in/take things out of the oven. Waverley, bless her cautious little heart, will back up about 7 feet with her arms out like a traffic director– “Whoa, stay back, everyone. That’s hot.”

 

2. Choose The Recipe Wisely: To ensure a pleasant, relatively stress-free experience, try to avoid any recipe that has time-sensitive components or requires extra precision. I’ve definitely ruined a few batches of mousse and custard as the tempering was thrown off by my little sidekick. We stick to baking basics, like cookies, brownies, cakes, waffles, pancakes, quiches, etc. These usually turn out if a recipe isn’t followed exactly yet have plenty of opportunities for adding and measuring a variety of ingredients.

 

3. Set The Scene: I highly recommend having ingredients set out to avoid turning your back only to find your precious toddler wreaking havoc. A great task for older kiddos is to retrieve all of the ingredients from the cupboards, however, unless something is unbreakable and low to the ground it is best to lay out the ingredients beforehand when cooking with toddlers. I usually try to have measuring cups and bowls out as well. If several sets are needed, I make sure Waverley has plastic measuring cups to work with and I’ll take the glass sets. If a recipe requires more precision, I pre-measure an ingredient in a ramekin so she can dump it in the mixing bowl yet is not actually doing the measuring.

 

4. Embrace The Mess Yet Encourage Clean-Up: Toddlers are a moving tornado regardless, yet when cooking it is even worse. Inevitably flour is sprayed everywhere, eggshells get in the batter, and sprinkles can be found on the floor for a week. Trying to keep the cooking environment too clean just makes everyone miserable and seriously sucks the fun out of the experience, so it’s important to let it go and plan extra time to clean up afterwards. The kiddo should absolutely participate in clean-up– do not save it for nap time!– as this also teaches a valuable lesson in responsibility and reinforces clean-up in other areas (i.e., putting toys away before bedtime). I typically man the counter wiping yet Waverley is great at bringing plastic bowls from the counter to the sink. She will also try to put them in the dishwasher, which I always let her do even if I know I’ll reorganize it later.

 

5. Promote Exploration: A huge component to the learning process of cooking comes through exploration. Let little kiddos explore the textures of different ingredients; they’ll love squeezing dough to help knead, letting flour run through their fingers like sand, or poking at whipped egg whites. Let them taste the ingredients, too, even if it seems gross. Waverley is always curious what everything tastes and smells like as she puts them in the bowl (she’s tried baking powder once and her curiosity was immediately satiated). Let them experiment with toppings, if applicable. Waverley’s favorite task is decorating cookies with sprinkles. It becomes a new artistic outlet.

 

6. Facilitate Learning: Cooking is the perfect opportunity to practice essential learning skills. Count every scoop and have your kiddo siphon off the necessary number of eggs. As kiddos grow older, subtraction, multiplication, and fractions can be discussed as well. Talk about the sequencing of tasks as you perform them and read aloud what the recipe calls for next. Tell them where ingredients come from. Talk about the different ingredients and how they work together, especially with older kiddos. Cooking with school-age children is like a fun science experiment: e.g., what happens when you choose baking powder instead of baking soda? How does lemon juice react with each? Their fascination at that age is infectious.

 

7. Enjoy The Final Outcome: Don’t forget to actually eat and enjoy the fruit of your labor! Sometimes I’ll bake just two cookies on the spot with the intent to save the rest of the dough for later (or usually because I freeze the cookie dough) so Waverley can immediately see the task through full-circle. It’s a powerful tool for kiddos to see the effort that goes into creating something, taking the time to clean-up, waiting patiently for it to cook, and then to actually sit and enjoy it. I believe this instills a deep sense of appreciation for where things come from.

 

I think you’re all ready now to embrace the challenge of cooking with your toddler. I hope you have a fun and memorable experience!

 

(Photography by Kristian Irey)