Kitchen is a place of fun things to do with kids but at the same time it can be dangerous as well. If you are planning kitchen remodeling or kitchen renovations, consider children as well in your kitchen design, they will be spending a lot of time with you in the kitchen.

Whether its a contemporary kitchen or a modern kitchen and you don’t want to go out and spend a fortune on the renovations. With the help of an interior designer or a home improvement shop you can install kids safety features in the kitchen. Major cause of accidents in the kitchen is, young kids pulling out something from the kitchen cabinet or kitchen drawer and eating it or spilling all over themselves. Two things that I will suggest every parent to consider in their kitchen plans as kitchen gadgets are:

Cabinet knobs or Cabinet handles:

Cabinet latches or child proof lock have been the norm of the past. I saw some magnetic knobs for cabinets at a childcare center few weeks back, without the magnetic knob nobody can open the cabinet because there is nothing to pull it open. Very safe and easy to install, consider installing them. Child proof lock will be very expensive to install in every drawer and cabinet while cabinet latches do not last very long before your child figures it out how to open them.

Closet organizers:

As well as its for your convenience, it is also a child safety feature in your house. Closet organizers will allow you to keep the dangerous products away from your young child’s reach and avoiding any child accident.

Remember the toy kitchens that we used to play with when we were kids, they are still there and with lot better usability. Benefits of using plastic tools in the kitchen with kids is a very good start. Colorful tools attract kids in the kitchen and they think of them as toys and love playing with them. They also remove the risks of kids playing with the sharp and dangerous tools.

Here’s is a list of few safe tools for kids.

Pizza wheel: Great for chopping soft fruits, vegetables and processed meats. Good substitute for knife.

Egg slicer: Another great substitute for knife. Very useful for slicing eggs, soft fruits and cooked vegetables.

Brushes: Brushing marinades on meat. Glazing on pastries and muffins.

Plastic scissors: You can also use blunt scissors or craft scissors, good for snipping vegetables and cutting processed meats.


Rolling pin: Its not a dangerous tool, also available in plastic. Use for rolling dough for cookies, flat breads and cookie crumb for cakes.

Ice cream scoop: Very good portioning tool in the kitchen other than serving ice cream.

Cleaning scrub pads: Get rid of that peeler. Cleaning scrub pads with rough green surface are very good for scraping skins from carrots, potatoes, etc.

Plastic spatula: Good for spreading things around, making mash etc.

Whisk: Another safe tool as is, but plastic ones are also available. Great for mixing marinades, beating eggs, combining liquid ingredients for recipes.

Want some kids recipes. Try Google search.

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This has become a very obsessive topic for me as I am a chemical engineer and also a chef. First time this link between food and chemistry became obvious to me when watching a show about UK’s top chef Heston Blumenthal and his egg and bacon ice cream with liquid nitrogen.

Inviting kids into the kitchen and teaching them in the kitchen is not that easy. Kitchen furniture, kitchen lighting and kitchen design play an important part in turning your kitchen into a cooking school. As busy parents we do not get much time to spend time with our children but if we can turn our kitchen into a classroom, we get to spend more time with them. We can help them with their homework and teaching them about cooking as well. Cooking in the kitchen for us is a habit or a nature, we dont have to think twice, it just happens step by step and great dishes are created.

When we invite kids into the kitchen, for them its nothing less than a science lab. Their learning resources and learning activities are limitless. Its all a surprise how things are done, how you measure, how that baking powder works, how does that muffin rise, how does that tasteless flour turns into a tasty cookie. It also becomes one of the most valuable classrooms in your house, colors shapes and numbers are all there waiting to challenge your child each step of the way. Soon your kids will pass up their best toys every time for a chance to help you in the kitchen science lab, if you can explain them and teach them about every experiment you are doing in the kitchen. As dinner is cooking, talk about the smells, sounds, textures and appearance of the food being transformed. Your children will then taste with a new appreciation, especially if they’ve had a hand in making dinner.

Keep reading:

Why you should cook with kids?

Benefits of family meal time

Here’s some cool sites to get into the classroom.

Kitchen chemistry
Virtual kitchen, where kids can really learn and play
Kitchen chemistry book written by Ted Lister in collaboration with Heston Blumenthal

Watching your little ones, mixing, measuring, trying to make shapes is entertaining within itself.

Cooking with kids takes patience but you learn that kids really are quite capable of doing a lot, all by themselves. Children’s culinary skills gradually improve. It is part science, part creativity, and part just amazing and then you can eat it too. You can train your kids, instead of playing with the play dough, play with the cookie dough, its more fun, tasty and safe to eat.

Kitchen is a classroom, where kids practically learn and top of them all creativity and new imagination. Not to mention reading comprehension, sequencing, and one of my favorites, following directions.

Kids love to eat whatever they cook, somehow it always tastes nice. Teach your kids cooking and eating healthy food from childhood, it will control their desire for junk food and limit their reliance on vending machines at school.

Cooking is a tasty and tangible way for kids to express their creativity. Children experience success, independence, and increased self esteem when they put dinner on the table or when they have a hand in preparing the food on the table.

While kids help you in the kitchen, teach them, where the food comes from, what benefits it has for our bodies, explain the medicinal properties of the spices, fruit and vegetables.

Cooking together is also a quality time spent together, its proven cooking together means dining together means family time.

Kids become your friends, it than allows healthy conversations in the family and you will be in control of the situation before anything happens because you already have all the information by conversations.

Some places to check out for kids cooking activities.
Culinary school for kids, cooking up delicious kitchen adventures for the eaters of all ages.
Kids cooking activities

Plan child proofing of the house before the child’s first arrival at home and keep updating with the development of the child. Try crawling around the house on your knees and see where you can reach and what you can touch. All of these things that you see from child’s eye have to be child proofed. Child proofing is essential and possible at your home but when you visit somebody only child proofing that works is continuous supervision. Here’s the list of things that we see in every household and what can you do to make them child proof.

Chemicals and other substances

• Keep all dangerous substances, medicines, chemicals and other poisonous substances out of reach of the children
• Cupboards within the reach of children should be kept locked
• Buy the products with child restraint lids and caps
• Keep the important phone numbers at hand for any emergency
• Never transfer chemicals and other substances to unlabeled containers

Electricity

• Get all work carried out by a qualified electrician
• Get a safety cut-off switch installed at the main switchboard
• Cover all unused power points with safety plugs
• Make sure all chords are tucked away from child’s eye

Fire hazards

• Install smoke alarms and check that they are working correctly on a regular basis
• Keep a fire extinguisher and fire blanket in the handy position
• Install guards around heaters and open fires
• Keep matches and lighters out of the children’s reach

Hot water

• Fit guards to your taps to prevent a child turning them on
• Get thermostat valves fitted in the water supply to ensure that the water in your bathroom is delivered at a temperature not higher than 50^oC. Various devices are available, all must be fitted by a licensed plumber

Kitchen

• Keep bench tops and all other surfaces hygienically clean
• Keep sharp objects out of reach
• Keep plastic bags out of reach, they are a big suffocation hazard
• Keep appliance cords away from edges where a child could pull them
• Keep small fridge magnets out of the reach of children, they can be a choking hazard
• Keep the rubbish bin inaccessible to kids
• Keep cleaning products & other dangerous substances out of reach and locked away
• Get a stove guard to prevent a child getting near a hot oven door
• Keep the dishwasher locked
• Install cupboard and drawer locks where the child can reach
• Place protectors on oven switches to prevent child turning them on

Floor coverings

• Place anti slip mats under rugs
• Wipe up spills, wood & tile floors can be slippery when wet
• Don’t over-wax floors, it makes them very slippery
• Pin down any loose carpet or rug edges

Toys

• Before buying toys for your child, make sure to check the age suitability section
• Remove and discard all packaging before giving the toy to your child
• Beware of any loose or removable small parts that could represent a choking hazard
• Immediately repair or throw away damaged toys
• Beware of strings, ribbons & cords
• Keep toys hygenically clean