How to Teach Kids to Cook Safely

Cooking can be a lot of fun for kids and it's usually something they're eager to dive into. But before you teach your kids to cook, there are some important safety issues they'll need to know about. Here are some things to consider in order to teach kids to cook safely.

Having clean hands

To teach kids to cook safely you'll need to begin with the basics. The most basic safety rule when cooking is to have clean hands. Make sure your kids understand how important it is to wash hands before preparing any meal, even if their hands don't look dirty.

Identify and explain potential kitchen dangers

Kids don't always realize that cooking can be dangerous. To teach kids to cook safely it's important that you identify and explain the potential dangers in the kitchen so that they can be avoided.

Begin with the stove. They'll need to understand that they can be seriously burned if they are not careful with the stove. Make sure your kids know to keep pot handles facing the back of the stove and not hanging over the edge to avoid knocking the pots off and burning themselves.

Also, teach them to remove pots and pans from the stove top or oven with oven mitts. Let them know that the handles can get very hot and to never touch them with their bare hands. Explain to them that reaching over a hot pot, even if they do not touch it can burn them if there is hot steam coming from it.

Be on the lookout for other potential kitchen dangers and make sure your kids thoroughly understand them and how to avoid them.

Safe food handling

An important part of teaching kids to cook safely is safe food handling. Kids will need to learn about viruses people can get from food if food is not handled properly. Explain to them the dangers of raw meats and seafood. Teach them how to wash them and keep their food preparation area clean as well.

To teach kids to cook safely they'll also need to know that foods like jalapenos, onions, garlic, other peppers and acidic foods can hurt their eyes if they rub them after handling these foods.

Kids also need to know how to use kitchen knives. Make sure that if you are going to allow your kids to use knives that you take a considerable amount of time showing them the proper way to use knives when chopping, dicing, and slicing different foods. Then monitor them when they use the knives.

You'll also want to show kids how to tell if food is spoiled if you want to teach kids to cook safely. Explain to them where to find the expiration date on packaged foods, and show them what fruits and vegetables and other foods look like when they've gone bad.

Before letting your kids cook make sure you teach them to cook safely. Then they can have fun learning to cook, and maybe give you a break from cooking.