The Best Cooking Tools for Kids Who Love to Cook
Cooking with kids can be really fun, especially when they have the right tools. Kids need their own tools for two reasons: 1) It’s safer! and 2) It will actually help them do their job better. Kids need smaller tools to fit their smaller hands. Have you ever chopped with a knife that was too small or too big? Or tried to cut with right-handed scissors as a lefty? There’s a noticeable difference in your abilities when you’re holding the right tools.
We’re here to help make kids’ experiences in the kitchen “more happy” with a curated list of our favorite kids tools. These tools are ones that we use regularly in our cooking classes and in our own homes. Our goal is for kids to have a positive experience in the kitchen…so they’ll want to come back and do it again!
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Colorful Safety Knives
These colorful knives are made of lightweight, hard plastic, so they’re easy and safe for even the youngest of kids to use. We prefer these to other kid knives we’ve seen that are more pointy (not safe for eyes of the kid of the grown up helping!) and/or are white in color (easy to stain!). Perfect for cutting softer foods, like bread, berries, cheese, zucchini or pears. We teach kids to use these knives by holding the food with one hand and using their dominant hand to cut the food with a sawing motion.
Wavy Choppers
These choppers are SO much fun for kids to use. Fruits and veggies instantly become “fries”! The handle is plastic and easy for kids to hold onto. The blade, however, is stainless steel, so it’s recommended that kids use this tool with supervision. We teach young kids to put both hands on the plastic handle to push down to chop firm or crunchier foods, like apples and carrots, or veggies with a tough skin like cucumbers. Older kids can hold the food steady on the cutting board with one hand, and push down to chop with the other. For safety, always make sure food is resting flat before chopping. No wobbly apple chopping here!
Silicone Cupcake Liners (aka Snack Separators)
These get used on the daily in our homes! Yes, the round ones are great for baking muffins or cupcakes, but we use these more often for kiddo lunchboxes. Great for holding and separating lunch items or snacks for school or at home! They are also perfect for kiddos who don’t love when their food touches but you’ve moved on from the plates that separate food items. Just put some nuggets on any plate and use a cupcake liner for ranch or ketchup. We love the rectangular shape for carrot or cucumber sticks and the square shapes hold crackers and cheese squarely.
Small Rolling Pin
We highly recommend this French rolling pin for kids to use for rolling dough: pizza, cinnamon rolls, pie crusts, cut out cookies, or playdough! We love the small size for little hands, and the tapered edges make it easy to grab onto. We prefer this all-one-piece style to the rolling pins with stationary handles on the sides. Kids seem to find this style easier to work with and you’ll be amazed by how well they can work with them.
Mini Spatulas
These mini-size spatulas are perfectly sized for little hands. Use these for mixing and smearing. They’re perfect for dips, batters, and sauces, or for getting that last little of jam out of the jar. We reach for the spoonula most often because it pulls double duty, both scooping and scraping the sides of the bowl!
Scooper
If you’re going to grab one speciality tool for cooking with kids, this is it! We ADORE these scoopers for portioning everything from cookie dough to muffin batter to energy bites. It’s kind of a foolproof way to make any batter a LOT cleaner, especially when cooking with kids. You’ll be amazed by how great kids do with scoopers. When teaching kids to use this tool, we always say, “Scoop, Scrape and Squeeze!”
Slam Chopper
This is a great tool to have if you’re not quite ready for your kids to use knives. We love how quick and fun chopping veggies and fruits can be with this “slam” chopper. There are several other neat chopping blades, but we particularly like this for the stainless steel dicing blades. Great for tear-free onion chopping! Like the wavy chopper, we recommend supervision while using the slam chopper. It can be really safe and fun for kids, but it is sharp too.
Food Picks
Food picks are just another way to make eating fun! There is quite a body of research about how visual interest increases the likelihood that kids (and adults) will eat food that is put in front of them. Our kids love to use these when eating their school lunches or snacks. And truth be told, they’ll often eat more fruits and veggies when they can eat them with a fun food picks that’s shaped like a car, animal, doggie, or heart! Please click on individual pictures to be directed to specific styles of food picks.
Kid’s Apron
Of course, every chef needs an apron. Ideally one that washes up really well! Aprons are absolutely essential to cooking with kids to prevent some pretty big messes on their clothes. We love aprons with pockets and that are made from a canvas material for regular at home use. They don’t stain easily and they can stand the test of time. We also love these handmade aprons (made with love by our own team member!) for just a fun way to add color to your kitchen.
These are the tools we’ve come to rely on for cooking with our kids. We hope you find some favorites for yours!