Few activities have the kind of multiple benefits cooking does. It’s part science, part math and part creativity. A preschooler who’s learning to potter around in the kitchen with his mother gets a rare chance to create something that can compare equally with something created by his parents, giving him the immense sense of accomplishment so vital at this stage. Plus, it’s the most useful domestic skill there is – the earlier they begin getting involved in preparing food, the more likely they are to continue this hobby right through adolescence and youth.

Obviously, there’s a limit to how much you can get your kids to do when they are in the kitchen. The kitchen is full of objects that could injure a young child – knives, hot dishes. Always make sure you are with your child at every moment, as you prepare the dish.

Even a 2 or 3 year old child can begin helping Mommy in the kitchen. Blunt knives like a cheese knife with a rounded point (never use knives with a sharp point to help your budding Nigella Lawson) can be used to spread cheese on crackers or bread. It helps eye hand co ordination and she gets the satisfaction of preparing a snack for her self from scratch! Show her how to hold the handle of the knife deftly to spread cheese on the cracker. She can also use the knife to slice up bananas, and other ripe and soft fruit.

When they’re a little older and more careful, you can progress to other harder vegetables using a serrated knife – these are safer than regular knives, but you’ll still have to be watchful when she handles it.

There are plenty of other chores she can help with in the kitchen.

• Greasing pans
• Washing vegetables
• Handing you ingredients
• Ripping up leaves for a salad
• Measuring flour and sugar for baking a cake

Get her introduced to smaller easy to use kitchen gadgets. Teach her to use a hand mixer (always under constant supervision) to beat the eggs for a cake. Kids this age find beating with a spoon really hard to do.

Get her to weigh out the ingredients for bread before she goes to bed and have her wake up to warm oven fresh bread that she helped bake.

Don’t forget to kit her out for the job – a child sized apron is a must. Get her small sized wooden spoons, blunt knives with smaller handles and a chopping board that she finds easier to handle. It makes her feel she’s contributing as much as you do to the family’s meal preparation.

This is one of the best parts about what cooking teaches your child – the concept that cooking for the family and others is not a dull, chore but a fun hobby that yields terrific results!

Encourage your child to have her own tea party. Invite your parents or siblings over. She can make cheese and cracker snacks, slice some fruit. Help her make some fruit juice or drink to go with the snacks. Help her add finishing touches to the presentation – add toothpicks to pick the fruit, and a few mint leaves decorating the sides of the plate.

Here’s a great video about cooking with kids, and a mini pizza recipe that any child can make.

Bon Appetit!