True, right? My kids are constantly trying to find ways to get me to let them use knives. My kitchen tip for the day? Start them while they are young! I allow my seven-year-old (my oldest) to use a “real” knife with supervision, and the younger ones gather around like she is a knife goddess. I do have kid-friendly knives, but I only ever think to let them cut Playdoh and pancakes. Pretty boring if you ask my kids.
So, today I had a stroke of mommy genius. Why not serve an entire lunch of things they can cut?! Bread, lunch meat, cheese, avocado, peaches, bananas, cooked broccoli, green beans . . . I don’t mean to say that these things need cutting – I just mean a whole plate full of stuff they can cut until their little hands grow tired. Or they get full. Or it’s time for dinner.
What a great way to practice knife skills and get permission (even encouragement) to play with their food! Also, the perfect opportunity to be considered Super Mom for the day.
My fellow homeschoolers – this is your kithcne chore training and fine motor skills practice for the day with your little ones. If you have older children, sneak in a little math! Depending on their math maturity, see if they can cut in half, thirds or fourths. Tell them to take a piece of food and have them cut it in enough pieces so that everyone at the table can have two, or three, or five pieces.
Just make sure you set the table with plenty of napkins.
For more great kitchen tips join me at Tammy’s Recipes.
Good ideas here, Jenna! 🙂 Do you think stainless steel butter knives are “kid friendly” if used while sitting at the kitchen table?? That’s all we have… 🙂
Tammy
Absolutely! Butter knives, plastic knives or knives specifically made for kids would all work. Have fun :).
[…] favorites – Banana Ice Cream! And, another bonus tip for the day – remember my tip on letting your smaller children cut their lunches to pieces? Well, here is another way for you to get a task done and let them cut. Once you train them, […]
Cute post! 🙂
I like your idea of letting them cut a lot stuff and learning from it too. Let them earn that knife 😉