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Preparing meals for the family doesn\\u2019t have to an overwhelming, daily project for mom. Kids can help! In this podcast episode, I\\u2019m\\xa0again joined by Katie Kimball, who shares\\xa0her expertise on teaching kids to cook real food in the kitchen.

Teaching Kids to Cook

Katie Kimball has created an excellent course called Kids Cook Real Food, which helps moms teach their children cooking skills from a very young age and facilitates children helping prepare meals. She is also the founder of KitchenStewardship.com, a blog that encourages other moms to take baby steps to better nutrition for their families while balancing their limited time and budget.

Why Teach Kids to Cook?

Katie Kimball is mother of 4, and the\\xa0desire to create her Kids Cook Real Food course came out of necessity in her own life. Here are a few reasons she highlights for teaching kids to help in the kitchen:

1. If kids learn how to prepare healthy food well, they will be much more likely to continue to prepare and eat healthy food as adults
2. Teaching kids to cook saves time. For example, one child who learned from Katie\\u2019s course is only 3 years old, but now insists on making her own peanut butter sandwiches every day.
3. When kids work with the food themselves, they are more excited to eat it.
4. It helps kids build authentic self-esteem.

What About Kitchen Knives?

In our Western culture, we can often overprotect our children from simple tasks with sharp kitchen knives. As\\xa0Katie Kimball\\xa0explains, knife skills are not only safe to learn, they are also important.

Here\\u2019s why:

• Cutting raw vegetables is integral to healthy eating habits. Becoming confident in this area is very important.
• Using real tools like a kitchen knife builds real confidence in children.
• Age appropriate knife skills\\u2014going from a butter knife, to a paring knife, to a chef\\u2019s knife\\u2014is a safe and valuable learning process.

Katie Kimball goes on to share several other benefits of teaching kids to cook healthy meals:

• Kids learning how to talk about food, and therefore have better manners when visiting other people
• When kids understand herbs, they can choose and play a powerful role in process
• Kids feeling valued and validated
• Kids understanding that food prep is real work that takes time\\u2014and thus are less likely to waste

Appropriate Cooking Skills for Young Children

Helping out in the kitchen is not a task reserved for older kids. Katie recommends these skills as good starters for younger kids.

Age 2\\u20135:

\\u2022 Carrying plates
\\u2022 Butter knife skills: cutting bananas, spreading butter, etc.
\\u2022 Peeling
\\u2022 Pouring (start with a little creamer pitcher)
\\u2022 Sorting
\\u2022 Measuring

Age 6\\u20138

\\u2022 Advanced measuring
\\u2022 Reading recipes
\\u2022 Paring knife skills: somewhat soft fruits and vegetables
\\u2022 Stove safety

Ages 8\\u201312

\\u2022 Chef\\u2019s knife for all kinds of cutting
\\u2022 Advanced stove work
\\u2022 Oven skills

Resources We Mention

\\u2022\\xa0Kids Cook Real Food Course\\xa0(awesome course- my kids love it)
\\u2022 Kitchenstewardship.com

Kitchen Skills for Kids

Katie Kimball has offered her 3-video series for teaching kids how to help out in the kitchen. It\\u2019s called, Kitchen Skills for Kids, and it\\u2019s for free to listeners of the podcast.