Cooking and baking with my boys is one of my favorite ways to spend time with them! I love that they’re learning lots of skills and gaining confidence with each new ability. They’re always asking if they can help me in the kitchen—especially when I’m baking treats! Teaching kitchen skills to young children at home provides so many moments for learning and bonding.

Learning kitchen skills at a young age gives children a hands-on way to build confidence, responsibility, and independence. As they stir, chop, measure, and mix, they’re not only developing fine motor skills and basic math understanding, but also gaining a sense of contribution to family life.

Early kitchen experiences encourage healthy eating habits, spark curiosity, and equip them with everyday skills that will serve them well for years to come—all while giving you a chance to connect, chat, and make some sweet memories together.

Teaching Kitchen Skills to Young Children at Home

When I’m intentionally teaching my boys a new skill, I prefer to work with them one on one. It’s less chaotic and I’m able to do a better job teaching and supervising. Sometimes, we work all together—it just depends on what my objective is for the day.

Be okay with a little messiness! They will probably not be neat and tidy as they cook with you, so give them grace and try to be patient with the mess. There might be more messiness now, but they will learn how to keep their station clean in time, and will eventually become proficient kitchen helpers!

Remember—teaching kitchen skills to young children at home may sound daunting at first, but it can easily become part of the rhythm of your day. Make a point of cooking breakfast together each morning or having your child help you make the afternoon snack. The more you practice, the more enjoyable this time together will become!

1. Washing Fruits and Vegetables

Washing fruits and veggies at the sink is one of the earliest kitchen skills I teach my boys. It’s pretty hard to mess up, completely safe, and you can teach them as early as two years old! 

I like to demonstrate how to do it properly first, and then supervise from a distance. Give them a large colander or bowl and turn the cold water on to a trickle.

Cleaning produce is simple and satisfying—especially for very young children.

2. Spreading Butter, Jam, or Nut Butter

Starting around age 3, kids can start spreading using a butter knife or a child-safe spreader. 

Give them a piece of toast or a bagel and allow them to spread butter, jam, fruit butters, nut butters, or cream cheese. 

Guide them in making a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich or another kind of sandwich that requires spreading condiments like mayo or mustard. 

If they like celery, they can make themselves Ants on a Log for a snack. Give them a few slices 3—4” slices of celery with a jar of peanut butter. After they’ve filled the celery, allow them to top the “logs” with raisins.

3. Stirring and Mixing

Stirring and mixing batter is another skill your child can learn as young as two. It’s great for building fine motor skills, and kids think it’s a blast. Be prepared for a little mess as they learn how to do it with more coordination.  

4. Tearing Lettuce or Herbs

Tearing lettuce or herbs is the perfect job for little hands! They can help make salads or or pull leaves off herb stems. Basil, cilantro, thyme, and rosemary are great ones to start with.

5. Peeling Bananas, Mandarins, or Boiled Eggs

Peeling bananas and mandarins is a great way for kids to help at snack time. They’re easy to handle and help encourage independence.

Peeling soft or hard boiled eggs is a step up from peeling fruit, but even a two or three-year-old can manage it! In fact, their tiny fingers seem perfect for the job. My kids love peeling boiled eggs!

6. Scooping and Measuring Ingredients

There are plenty of opportunities for scooping and measuring ingredients—especially with baking! This is where you might have to control the urge to take over. (I’m always having to hold myself back!) It’s messy, but lots of fun and worth it in the long run.

Let them measure out things like flour, oats, and spices. If they’re a bit older, help them find the correct measuring cups.

Kids also adore dumping ingredients into a bowl! If there’s an ingredient I need to measure out myself, they always ask to dump it in.

Scooping batter into a muffin tins requires a little more dexterity, and is a good next step.

7. Beginning Knife Skills

At two, my boys start slicing with a completely safe wooden cutter. Once they’re three, they can use a butter knife, and child-safe knives are a good option. Teach them the proper way to hold a knife so that they reduce the odds of hurting themselves.

With supervision, kids can cut start by cutting soft foods like bananas, strawberries, avocados, cheese, pancakes, and cooked potatoes. When they’ve developed more coordination, they can graduate to cutting firmer foods, like cucumbers, zucchini,  bell peppers, celery, apples, and melons.

8. Cracking Eggs

Cracking eggs takes practice, but young children love the challenge and responsibility. When they’re first learning, I’ll use a smaller, separate bowl to catch shells. My boys have learned to crack eggs as young as two, and they’re pretty good at it!

Pro tip: The best way to scoop out a piece of eggshell is with another piece of eggshell. This tip really comes in handy when your child is first learning to crack eggs!

9. Packing a Picnic Lunch

Is there anything more exciting to kids than going on a picnic? My boys lose their minds when I tell them we’re going on a picnic. Even if they’re too excited about their surroundings to actually eat much, they love the thrill of picnicking!

Sandwiches are an obvious choice for a simple picnic lunch, but we also love packing a charcuterie-style lunch—sliced cheeses, cold meats, hard-boiled eggs, crackers, pretzels, snap peas, mini peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, pickles, grapes, apple slices, mandarins, berries, nuts, trail mix, muffins, and cookies. 

Just pick a variety of ingredients and let your kids help you bag them up!

10. Cleaning Up Spills and Wiping Surfaces

Last on the list is my least favorite part of cooking—cleaning up. It’s good for our children to know early on that cleanup is part of cooking. Teaching responsibility early helps kids see messes as normal and manageable. Sometimes, I like to clean as we go so that the mess doesn’t become overwhelming. 

My young children have always enjoyed getting to wash silverware and other unbreakable kitchen items in the sink, and I’ve gradually given my 8-year-old more breakable items to clean. Getting to play with water and soap suds is great fun for a toddler or preschooler!

Start Small and Stick With It

I hope this post has encouraged you to bring your young children into the kitchen with you more often. If it feels overwhelming, just choose one little skill to work on at a time—like chopping soft foods or learning to stir. And try working with only one child at a time to keep things calmer and more focused. 

Through teaching kitchen skills to young children at home, you create opportunities for meaningful bonding and real-world learning. Preparing food is a big part of life, and it’s important that we teach our sons and daughters how to make delicious, nourishing food. It’s a skill that will serve them well throughout their lives, and they’ll always be grateful that you took the time to teach them.