Age Appropriate Kid-chen Tasks

Age Appropriate Kid-chen Tasks

When I made the first knife for Eli, I wasn't sure if it was appropriate given he was only 24 months old. The edge was blunt but it was pointy. Then again, so was the wooden knife that came with his toy velcro vegetables. What harm could it do? (thankfully not much!) All he did was try veggies from the fridge but it sparked a question about what should kids be allowed to do in the kitchen?  

Eli's first knife with a Japanese wa handle

 

We naturally thought to see what kids cooking programs looked like and how they approach this. But none mentioned how they considered the cognitive and motor development of little ones. A couple of google searches later, we stumbled on this research "Guidelines for designing age-appropriate cooking interventions for children: The development of evidence-based cooking skill recommendations for children, using a multidisciplinary approach.".

They started with a thorough examination of academic and publicly available sources on children's cooking skills, followed by the selection, analysis, and mapping of these skills to corresponding motor functions. These skills were then categorized based on their motor functions to develop age-appropriate, evidence-based recommendations. Finally, the findings are validated and refined through a two-stage expert review involving a diverse international team. A rigorous approach I completely agree with (as a non-researcher!).

Here are their recommendations with tasks requiring parental supervision indicated in italics

2-3 Years

  • Washing fruit and vegetables
  • Kneading and mixing with hands
  • Tearing
  • Using a rolling pin
  • Rolling mixtures into balls
  • Breaking vegetables into pieces
  • Using a cookie cutter

3-5 Years

  • Stirring and mixing
  • Mashing
  • Spooning
  • Cutting, chopping and slicing
  • Spreading and buttering
  • Using scissors
  • Brushing oil on with a pastry brush
  • Sieving
  • Squeezing

5-7 Years

  • Sprinkling and rubbing in
  • Breading, flouring and dipping
  • Picking and podding
  • Greasing
  • Peeling with fingers
  • Skewering
  • Pouring from a container
  • Crushing and pounding
  • Shaking liquids in a sealed container

7-9 Years

  • Weighing and measuring
  • Using a grater
  • Using an oven or microwave
  • Draining
  • Using a hand mixer

9+ Years

  • Using a peeler
  • Using a can opener
  • Stirring and mixing over heat
  • Using sharp scissors
  • Skewering
  • Unsupervised for all tasks in italics


    It's a useful list we'll be referring to for awhile and hopefully it's useful for you too.

    First thing that comes to mind is with Eli currently at 2+ there's plenty he can't do. So we need to be selective with the  recipes that he doesn't end up standing around getting bored and making a mess (the no. 1 pain point of parents!).

    From interviews with parents, we hear while cooking may be initiated by the kids, they still need to be responsible for much of the prep and being hands on through the cooking. This can be stressful and if the kids could do more independently, maybe parents would be inclined to cook more.

    Next point that stood out was that over 60% of these tasks are tool reliant and as the study points out, the type of utensil used can influence the quality or precision of the task being carried out. 

    Credit Photo:Amazon

    Take 'Grating' for example, there are a variety of graters, some safer than others and requiring different motor skills too! Even as an adult, I can attest to how much easier some of these are over the other.

    Getting kids involved in cooking can be a lot of fun, but it’s important to keep their age and skills in mind. The research shows that picking the right tasks for their development is key, along with some supervision. As Eli grows, we can choose recipes that match what he can do, keeping him interested and cutting down on the mess but we'll be keen to try tools to stretch his repertoire! 

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