Cooking with 4 yo

[ilovetosleep]

My 4yo DS would love to help in the kitchen but he is SO impatient and wants to do every single step, doesn't understand that he can't stand at the hob, wants to taste every single ingredient, its all so hectic and frantic and I always end up regretting it - and we've only attempted baking!

But I want to rectify this, I know he'd love it and I know I need to relax a bit more. Does anyone have any meal suggestions that would be really easy for him to help with, or any recommendations for safe knives etc that he could maybe start learning to chop with? I really need to work on his patience and impulse control for this to work but I'd like to start!

Thanks in advance

Not sure if I can help with your other questions but I can recommend a knife. It's this one. They turn up on eBay if you're lucky

Naan bread pizzas! Can present the veg pre-chopped and move on to.chopping.

At that age I used to get my dd to stir risotto (perched on a chair at the hob while I stood next to her). I did the chopping, she'd drop it - from a height - into the pan and keep stirring.

Also, not v exciting for us, but making sandwiches was fun at age 4...

I have this knife for my 4yo DD. It looks like it's unavailable. However there must be other children's knife out there. They are as blunt as a table knife. But we put it in the knife block and DD1 thinks she's got a real knife, which is what you want really. She chops bananas, avocados etc with it.
www.amazon.co.uk/Kinderkitchen-Childrens-Dog-Knife-Teeth/dp/B001UK3FC4

I don't let her cook at the stove or handle raw meat. I don't trust her. But she helps make cakes and cold puddings. Also she put stuff on her own pizza (we use a breadmaker dough, but naan bread would be fine). She chops fruit for snacks too.

Cold puddings are things like eton mess. She helps chop the strawberries, sprinkle sugar onto the fruit. Then pour the cream into the mixer and starts it. Then break the merignue nests into the cream and strawberry mix. I found they are perfect as she can make with every step.

I let my 4 and 5 year olds just get on with following recipes now. Have been doing for around a year. They can read the basic recipes themselves, although know common ones by heart now anyway so don't need to be able to read

Favourites are bluberry muffins and lemon and orange cookies.

They do all the weighing and mixing, and rolling into shapes or mix into cases. I just do the oven part. I don't stop them licking spoon or making less than perfect shapes as figure that's how they learn

Have a look at this link for safe chopping. It doesn't show the 'fork secure' - but that really is just using the fork to hold food still rather than fingers (similar to cutting food at the table). If you're not sure about using sharp knives yet, practice using a table knife and cutting bananas or strawberries. These could then be used in other dishes - such as fruit muffins, mixed with yoghurt etc. If impatience is a problem, try to organise everything before letting them start - so you don't get distracted or leave fruit unwashed - so they can do the rinsing; give a cloth to 'scrub down' when you need to take over etc.

There are loads of good ideas on the 'Lets get cooking' website - it's also worth looking at the Tesco Eat Happy site for free holiday cookery lessons - although they do get booked up quickly.
letsgetcookingathome.org.uk/sites/default/files/resources/LGCT018_Safe_Peeling_Chopping.pdf