Montessori Toddler in the Kitchen
Little Bee is a very capable toddler who enjoys helping Mama cook in the kitchen. According to him, it is another fun developmental task that is enjoyable. For Mama, this process is prepping Little Bee to be a helpful and important part of our family.
This last week Little Bee and I were ill with a yucky head cold and Daddy was so kind to make us a delightful warm lentil soup. Plus, Mama put together 10 Montessori toddler in the kitchen activities for Little Bee to enjoy. These activities were inspired by Jennifer's 30 Day Montessori Challenge on her blog, Study at Home Mama. Visit "Challenge #4 - Set Up an Invitation" for ways to invite your child to explore the kitchen.
Fall Comfort Food - Lentil Soup
This delightful lentil soup recipe was passed down from my mother-in-law and modified by my husband. In our family, we call it "Daddy's Lentil Soup." In my humble opinion, it is by far the best lentil soup EVER! 🙂
Lentil Soup Recipe
10 Montessori Toddler in the Kitchen Activities
Little Bee enjoyed using his dinner knife to cut several pieces of chives for our Lentil soup recipe. This was his first attempt at using his dinner knife and it was not an easy task. We will try cutting something easier next time, like a banana!
I love these series of photos of Little Bee and his first introduction to a vegetable grater. I didn't show him how to grate the carrot because I believe he isn't developmentally ready for that yet. However, I thought it would be fun to give him the grater and a few carrots to see what he would do with it without instruction. And he did exactly what a tot should do, he stuck the carrots into the holes of the grater. This activity made for several super cute photos and a few chuckles from Mama. 🙂
Little Bee loved helping Mama scrub and wash the potatoes! This was one of his favorite activities while helping Mama in the kitchen.
I set up several transfer and pouring activities with lentils for Little Bee to enjoy. He LOVED this activity and it kept him busy for about 40 minutes. And yes, the lentils were messy all over the floor. So after Little Bee was done with this activity, I showed him how to help Mama clean up.
Little Bee enjoyed stacking kitchen gadgets. This was a great activity to expose Little Bee to utensils and gadgets that are used in the kitchen. He loved playing with different sized funnels, heavy metal measuring cups, and squishy plastic containers.
We played a couple fun matching games by matching the same kind of veggie to it's pair and also by matching a veggie to a picture.
Little Bee poured cups of water into the pan for our lentil soup recipe. Pouring water is always a big hit with a tot! 🙂
Toddlers love to play and make a giant (what we might call) mess! So that is where patience, consistency, and a ton of grace come into play as a parent. We have to show the child how to clean up the mess in a kind loving way... over and over again. This is the key to how a young child will learn - consistency and kindness.
Little Bee helped Mama wash the dishes as part of our clean up duties.
For more yummy recipes visit, "Fall Harvest Recipes, Montessori Style."
I always love reading your posts. You always have such great ideas for getting the little ones involved and learning. 🙂
Thank you! You are too kind 🙂
I love how you are prepping your toddler to be helpful. Although it may be inconvenient at times it’s so worth it for the end result and the happiness on their faces as they try and help and learn to accomplish new things. My girl is only 10 months old but she loves to “help” me unload the dishwasher. She usually stand there and bangs some pots around, occasionally tries to lick the dishwasher (clean dishwasher!), often getting in the way but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Yes! I agree! 🙂 My pictures glorify the process of a tot actually “helping” in the kitchen, when in reality it takes consistency, kindness, and patience with the tot in the kitchen. However, I love it too! 🙂
The recipe looks yummy! And love all those cute pictures 🙂
It was really fun taking all those pictures with Little Bee!
I love it! the soup looks really good and I bet my little one would love doing some of that stuff in the kitchen! Thanks for the ideas!
You’re welcome! The soup recipe is AMAZING! 🙂
My son loves to help me in the kitchen when I’m making dinner or doing the dishes, these are all wonderful ideas for us to include for next time so he can help me out a little more :]
Wonderful Jackie! 🙂 I kind of thought these activities up as I was going along. They just popped into my head. I am sure you will find some creative and fun ways to engage your son in the kitchen! Have fun! 🙂
I’ve always taken a super conservative approach to my kids in the kitchen, but posts like this are giving me more confidence in getting them involved. I hardly let my daughter use a butter knife until she was five! I guess I just needed concrete ideas. Thanks!
You are welcome! Enjoy! 🙂 The kids love it.
I really admire your attention to detail and creativity! Learning opportunities are everywhere and your emphasis on patience with our kids as they learn tasks is so key.
Thank you so much! Some days are more patient than others… 😉
Looks like fun! Where did you get those cute vegetables cards?
I bought them online – second-hand.