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20 ideas for Montessori in the kitchen
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Having children join in the kitchen is so important for them to feel that they play a genuine, meaningful part in family life. It can take a little more patience and setting up, and of course it's important to offer them age-appropriate tasks and responsibilities, but it's worth it!
Here are 20 ways to get children involved in kitchen activities...
1. Serving themselves and others (family members, friends when they have visitors) water from a jug / carafe into small glasses. We have loved the tiny 5cl shot glasses from IKEA for weaning, also the medium sized 130ml shot glasses ones for the toddler ages and the Flying Tiger drinking glasses from age 5 up.
2. Having cloths nearby / accessible for cleaning up spills - we use Cheeky wipes
3. Mini cutting board and knives for them to be able to get out and use themselves. You can start off practicing cutting with a plastic dough cutter and then a wavy metal crinkle cutter after that - see my blogpost on cutting in the early years here
4. A little flannel with a plastic curtain hook sewed on to it, makes a great child-sized hand towel. It can be placed onto a command hook at the child's height in the kitchen
6. A learning tower for younger years (our son used his from around age 1 to age 4) and then moved on to the Ikea BEKVAM stool which he could move around the kitchen himself
7. Creating a separate functional IKEA kitchen if there is space to do this (see my blog post on this here)
8. A small tray to carry their things to and from the kitchen
9. Keeping children's kitchen crockery and cutlery nearby or in an easy to access cupboard so that they can help to set the table
10. Having child sized crockery, cutlery, cups and water jugs.
11. A mini dustpan and brush (we have one similar to this) + floor cloth (this could be a different flannel that is just used for the floor) for cleaning up mess
12. If space allows, offer separate (low down) small bins / trash cans so that they can easily throw away rubbish as they go. We love the Umbra Skinny Trash Cans and have 2 next to eachother; one for general waste and one for recycling
14. Inviting the child to get involved with measuring for a recipe. This could include using scales for practicing numbers and counting. Also using measuring spoons and cups to help independence. This is a simple way to measure ingredients and can also help with learning fractions e.g. 1/2 a cup
For a younger child, you could place an elastic rubber band on a measuring jug for guiding the child where to fill up to (ideal for younger children)
16. A child sized apron that is easy for them to put on themselves before they join in cooking - we love Marula Tree handmade aprons
17. Child sized tools including spatula and whisk plus a small glass mixing bowl like this 1 Litre bowl
18. Helping to load / unload the dishwasher if you have one at home, and also mini washing up brush like this one for hand washing.
19. A low down, easy to access kitchen cupboard for their own kitchen items
20. incorporating the child's interests into cooking e.g. we bought lego shaped moulds for chocolates when our son was absolutely loving lego. He looked so proud when he was able to make a 3 ingredient chocolate recipe in his lego shaped moulds, completely by himself
