Our kids like being helpful and useful around the house and they want real tools, not just toys.
While we love and encourage pretend play, my kids also want to use real tools to make real food. Our kids quickly got bored with play kitchens and wanted to use the real kitchen. These tools are functional, sturdy, fun, and fit smaller hands well.
I’m a big believer in letting kids help shop for and make their own food, along with helping during the more boring preparation and cleanup. It’s an easy authentic way to teach about healthy eating habits and household management.
We live in our kitchen and show our love for each other by cooking and eating together.
I don’t assign chores or use checklists or charts. See how I motivate here. We all work together cheerfully to keep the household running smoothly.
These are our favorite kids’ tools for children to help with household chores.
Kuhn Rikon Knives were a huge hit for our kids. They loved the fun design and could really cut veggies, helping in the kitchen.
They’re sharp enough to chop carrots, but don’t slice into little fingers.
Peelers are appealing to kids and these bright fun ones are perfect for little and big hands!
We also like this spiralizer for all sorts of uses!
Toaster tongs are a great safety tool to keep little (and big!) fingers from getting singed by hot toaster parts. Toasted breads are an easy item for kids to make!
Even when they were too small to use the oven, my kids loved having their own oven mitts.
They would often just help by holding a corner of that cookie sheet to bring it near the countertop.
Silpats are great for nonstick baking and can also be used on the countertop for nonslip use when rolling out dough or kneading bread.
Immersion blenders are handy (almost mess-free) tools for whipping up sauces, scrambling eggs, and blending soups.
One of the first things our kids learn to cook is scrambled eggs and we love these pans for their quality, sturdiness, and nonstickiness.
This is my absolute favorite silicone whisk for so many jobs!
Electric kettles keep boiling water in a safe container rather than an open pot on the stovetop. The kids love helping to make tea!
Cleaning supplies made for smaller hands are great and my kids loved having their very own kid-sized items to help clean up!
Reusable cloths help get any cleanup job done with pretty colors and without harsh chemicals.
I love this fun mop, broom, and dustpan.
My kids each had their own Schylling set. The bright colors are really fun and they’re the perfect size and very sturdy.
Pretty soon, my kids are using the same tools I do and we’re dancing around each other in a lovely choreography as we make meals together.
You can see many of these tools in action here!
See all Kids in the Kitchen posts.
You might also like my Kitchen Essentials List.
What are your favorite kids tools?
Linking up: Modest Mom, Inspiration for Moms, Simple Life of a Fire Wife, MaryAndering Creatively, Create with Joy, Lori Schumaker, Holley Gerth, Godsized Dreams, Squishable Baby, Blessed But Stressed, Life of Faith, Blogghetti, Timeless Mama, Barbie Swihart, Our Holiday Journey, Meghan Weyerbacher, Purposeful Faith, Teaching What is Good, LouLou Girls, April Harris, Home Stories A to Z, Jaime Wiebel, Trekking Thru, Mississippi Mom, Wise Woman, Jessi’s Design, Sincerely Paula, Quietly Reminded, Soaring with Him, Jaime Wiebel, Creative K kids, Gingersnap Crafts, Ducks in a Row, Our Three Peas, Raven Would, Bringing up Georgia, East Coast Chic, My Learning Table, Organized 31, Penny’s Passion, Breakthrough Homeschooling, Debbie Kitterman, Jennifer Dukes Lee, Brenda Bradford Dottinger, A Bountiful Love, Life Beyond the Kitchen, Classical Homemaking, Creative K Kids, Simply Sweet Home, Create with Joy, Nancy on the Home Front, The Charm of Home, Counting My Blessings, Katherine’s Corner, The Blended Blog, Country Cottage, Coffee With Us3, Easy Peasy Pleasy, Back to my Southern Roots, Chic on a Shoestring, Anna Nuttall, The Answer is Chocolate, Susan Mead, Lyli Dunbar, Life with Lorelai, Sugar Spice and Family Life, Being a Wordsmith, Ridge Haven, Happy and Blessed Home,
My boys love helping out in the kitchen! I love these ideas; I definitely need to get some toaster tongs. Pinned.
I’m all about having the right tools! How fun is this list of tools for young cooks? Keep up the good work!
I’ll have to save this list so I can buy things for my grandson (he’s 18 months)–he already loves ‘helping’ in the kitchen!
WOW! Never thought there are kitchen tools for kids. Certainly will make food preparation fun and longer ;) . Until my son decides that they will be stored in his toy box. The spiralizer is so cute.
Helpful resources! I’m especially fond of the apple peeler. :) And I LOVE that your family works together to get the job done! Good job, mama!
All kinds of terrific ideas here for my cute little grand-helper.
How great that companies are designing things with kids and their safety in mind. It’s so important to take the time to teach our kids skills. We run them off from the kitchen and then wonder why they don’t want to help later. Blessings!
My kids really like to use the apply peeler.
These are such great choices! Definitely going to need to get some of these! My kids would appreciate the knives! Butter knives dont work so well for veggies ;)
I wish I had known about some of these when my kids were younger. I like the peelers and the oven mitts. Do the peelers keep a sharp edge for a long time? And do the mitts wash well in the washing machine?
Thanks for sharing!
Yes, we liked the quality of the peeler and mitts.
I love these tools! Thanks for sharing on Foodie Friday!
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing!
What a fun post, Jennifer! The spiralizer looks like something I would want to use myself … thanks for the suggestion! Glad to be your neighbor at Faith-n-Friends this week …
Great idea for a post! We are about to get an electric kettle. Do you own the one featured?
I own a very similar one that I got at Walmart.
I love the kitchen tool for kids. They are so festive and fun. Thank you for sharing.
These are great suggestions for all of our little chef’s! Thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with us at Full Plate Thursday. Have a great week and come back soon!
Miz Helen
All of our kids have loved cooking and baking in the kitchen from about the age of three. And we consider it a major life skill and an important part of our homeschool day. Thanks for the fun post – found you at the Homestead Blog Hop!
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for sharing these kitchen tools for kiddos with us on the Homestead Blog Hop! My boys love to help me out in the kitchen and I really want them to grow up knowing how to cook some awesome, healthy meals! I think their future wives will thank me one day, haha :)
-Cherelle