she's been watching me cook more lately and asked if she could make dinner for us one night a week. i said yes before thinking it through. so far she's made a very salty upma and a sandwich that was mostly butter. she was proud of both. i'd like to give her a few things she can mostly do herself, with me nearby for the stove. what did yours start with
I started at about that age in Kerala, making dosa on Sundays with my amma. Batter was ready, I just poured and flipped. Plenty of torn dosas but I felt like the chef. Something where the prep is done and she does the cooking part might work. My 2 year old's version is moving peas from one bowl to another 🙂
Salty upma made with pride is still a win 😂 My 3 year old is at the tear-the-coriander stage, so nothing useful from me yet. Will be back here in a few years.
One suggestion: let her make the same dish three Saturdays in a row before trying a new one. The first time is all instructions; by the third she will remember the steps herself. I learnt to cook that way as an adult, and I imagine it works even better for a child.
My 7 year old does bhel, and curd rice where I do the tadka. If she likes doing it alone, a picture card of the steps on the fridge helps a lot. Kids follow it without asking you every minute.
What does Saturday look like on your end? It may help to decide in advance which parts are hers and which stay yours: knife, stove, draining. Otherwise every step turns into a negotiation halfway through cooking.
Our 4 year old does sandwiches and fruit salad with a butter knife. The tradeoff is the mess. The kitchen takes longer to clean than the food took to make. I've decided that's acceptable on weekends and not on weekdays. At 8 she can probably manage proper dishes.
the mess is real. last weekend's sandwich left butter on a cupboard handle and i still don't know how. weekends only is a good line, i'll keep it.
mine cooked pasta every saturday for about a year from 9. then she got bored and now i can't get her into the kitchen at all. enjoy it while it lasts
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