Do your children love spending time with you in the kitchen? If so, maybe it's time to start teaching them simple cooking lessons by letting them help you prepare the family meals. Letting your kids help in the kitchen can be both instructive and fun for you and your little ones. If you are ready, you might want to have some kitchen gadgets for kids that will keep them occupied and help them safely learn the ABCs of cooking.

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The Salad Spinner

Where would a salad be without clean lettuce? Before you start piling on the veggies, you have to rinse your lettuce in running water. A salad spinner is a terrific solution for separating water from lettuce so that you have dry lettuce to tear up into pieces for your meal.

In order to operate a salad spinner, you or your child will put the wet lettuce inside of the basket inside of the spinner. Then, pop the lid onto the spinner. Your kid can pump, pump, pump the spinner and watch the water fly off of the lettuce leaves. Since salad spinners have stop buttons, your child can stop and start at will. When the lettuce is clean, your child can pour off the water and place the leaves on paper towels until you are ready to tear your lettuce.

What child can resist the actions of pumping the salad spinner, let alone seeing the water flying around inside of a clear bowl?
Plastic Measuring Cups

If you have plastic measuring cups of different sizes with wide handles, your little ones can help you measure liquids. You might want to start with water because a small tyke is liable to spill while "helping" you. Water is also easy to clean up, won't stain clothes and is less expensive than liquids such as milk or vegetable oils.

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Cookie Cutters

Just the word "cookies" attracts kids to the kitchen like bees to honey. Children not only love to eat cookies, kids love to make cookies. Many cookie recipes, such as sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies and chocolate sugar cookies, work well with cookie cutters.

Have a variety of cookie cutters on hand for different holidays throughout the year. Your kids will want to have cookies in heart shapes for Valentine's Day, pumpkins for Halloween and Christmas trees for Christmas. In addition, have some "just because" cookie cutters in fun shapes like bears, stars, and even dinosaurs. Your little one will love being able to make choices for the shapes of the cookies that you and your family are going to eat.

Flour Sifters

Yes, flour comes pre-sifted. However, by the time that you get that pre-sifted flour home, the flour has been tossed and shaken to a point where it has settled again. If a recipe calls for sifted flour, you will have better results if you sift the flour before you bake.
Get out those plastic measuring cups again and let your kid help you measure the flour before you let your child sift. You are probably going to have flour flying anyway, so you may as well do it from the beginning. Your child will love not only the action of sifting flour, your little one will also enjoy watching the flour as it "snows" into the mixing bowl.

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Cupcake Makers

You and your children can make mini-cupcakes quickly and easily at the drop of a hat. Unlike larger cupcakes, it only takes about 5 minutes for cupcake makers to bake the mini cupcakes. This means that not only will you be doing a fun activity with your kids, you will also be saving energy. Using cupcake makers can be more of a "hands-on" experience for your kids because ovens have more hot surface areas than cupcake makers. This means cupcake makers can be a safer way to make special treats together.

Cooking Utensils

Kids like to have their own special utensils that only they will use when in the kitchen. Set aside an area in one of your utensil drawers for essential cooking tools such as a wooden spoon, a smaller sized spatula and a plastic spreading knife just for your special kitchen companion. Other items to consider are measuring spoons, a small whisk and a small rolling pin.

Step Stools

While step stools might not be technically classified as gadgets, step stools are still essential for children in the kitchen. Your child is going to want to be next to you working on the countertops. A step stool will also make washing dirty faces and sticky hands easier for you.
Juicers

Your kids can also help make their own orange or grapefruit juice for breakfast. While your children may not be strong enough to actually squeeze a half of an orange or press the half over the mold in a hand juicer, your child may be able to use a hand juicer with a press leaver with your assistance.

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Ice Cream Scoopers

Get your child a personal ice cream scooper. The scooper should be smaller than a normal sized scooper and easy for your child to hold. Being able to create their own ice cream cones and other sweet treats will make the ice cream even sweeter for your kid. Even better, your child can make one for you, too!

Egg Slicers

Kids love to chop and cut. However, giving a child a knife and letting your kid "have at it" is exceptionally dangerous. An egg slicer is a perfect way for your child to cut with a minimum fuss and a large dollop of safety. Your child can simply place the egg in the slicer and press the top down. When finished, your young one can place the resulting egg medallions in a salad or on a plate to serve as an accompaniment.

Speaking of cutting and chopping without knives, you can also teach your child some safe chopping methods by letting them chop herbs or small vegetables in a self contained herb or vegetable chopper. You place the herbs or vegetables into the chopper and place the lid on the container. These choppers operate by turning a handle or pressing down on a plunger on the lid, which make them safe and fun for kids. Some models will also chop cheese or nuts.

Enjoy the time with your little ones in the kitchen. Your kids will be baking and cooking on their own before you know it. Then, you will be able to enjoy the fruits of all of the time that you spent helping your children learn the joys and lessons of the kitchen.