One of my sons was regularly using sharp knives by 6 or 7 and frying himself eggs by 8. I still like to be in the kitchen when he’s cooking, but he’s pretty capable. His older brother is less capable/less interested though does cook some.

I still don’t let them drain boiling water on their own at 9 and 10 though. Too much Potential for someone sloshing a heavy pot of boiling water fwhich can be catastrophic (I used to babysit for a kid whose entire torso was scarred from a pot of boiling water spilling on him as a little boy, and it left an impression).

Around 8, but we practiced with butter knives first.

My rising 3rd grader has been doing some form of chopping/cooking (supervised) since he was 6 or so. Now he fries up eggs for the family and does prep work for dinner. Totally child dependent, though. My rising 5th grader is more into baking, and she can make cakes/cookies and bake them unsupervised (and it's good math practice!)

Anonymous wrote:Depends on their interest, seriousness, and clumsiness.

I have one who is obsessed with cooking, so we started knives the Montessori way around 3 or 4, which is when they were doing it in school. Started with relatively soft foods like tofu, banana for fruit salad.... Moving up to cucumber and mushrooms, green onions, etc. Gradually harder foods.

There are special cooking gloves to use with knives if you're worried about cuts.

Was comfortable turning on the stove around 6 and could do hard boiled eggs in a small pot. No fire without an adult until 8, and still then adults had to be aware and nearby.

This. It's hand dexteretyband being able to focus on the task. Some kids will master earlier but its skills that still need to be taught and supervised whil they're practicing. I can or imagine having teens that don't know how to cook simple meals for themselves or family.

6-8 for knives. That's when I started. We are working on it with my 4.5 year old and a wave knife. She helps with other things too.
Boil water around 8 if in a pot.
By 10 I could make dinner using a knife and oven and stove (if I didn't have to use matches to light it). I'm not from the US and learned to cook from grandma and my job was always to peel and cut garlic really small since I had small hands and she gave me a tiny knife.

Knives? Young. I don’t have my teens cook yet so no boiling anything.

8 for knives. They are 14 and I still have anxiety over boiling water as I was scalded to 3rd degree as a teen. They can use the small pot to boiled water for an egg or ramen. No stockpots.

Depends on their interest, seriousness, and clumsiness.

I have one who is obsessed with cooking, so we started knives the Montessori way around 3 or 4, which is when they were doing it in school. Started with relatively soft foods like tofu, banana for fruit salad.... Moving up to cucumber and mushrooms, green onions, etc. Gradually harder foods.

There are special cooking gloves to use with knives if you're worried about cuts.

Was comfortable turning on the stove around 6 and could do hard boiled eggs in a small pot. No fire without an adult until 8, and still then adults had to be aware and nearby.

I have a rising 7th grader who can't make a ham sandwich, and a rising 4th grader who has mastered stir fry. So I know every kid is different.

But in general?

Sharp knives - 8, if they've been taught (and show interest in paying attention to the rules) since about 6. Any age is fine to start teaching, you just need to supervise at first. My 9yo is fine with any knife in the kitchen, but only because he's been working at it for several years.

Boil water - boiling is the easy part. Carrying the pot of boiling water to the sink to drain it is the hard part. This is a combination of height (being able to easily pick it up from the stove and drain it into the sink) and strength. My 9yo who loves cooking still struggles with this. Maybe 10-11? Really depends on the kid, and how big of a pot you're talking about.

I remember when my kid was 7, watching her friend gather strawberries and cut them up and make strawberries and whipped cream. She cut those strawberries like a pro, and fast, too. I remember thinking,

"huh. Knife skills! I need to teach my kid knife skills!"

remember the knives have to be sharp (that was counter-intuitive for me)

Between 6 and 10, depending on the child.

10 unsupervised. But my dd has been cooking with me for a long time.

My rising third grader is a master at macaroni and cheese. I do strain the pasta for her, but she could probably do it. I let her use the sharp chef knives, but only with me beside her. I let her use the not to sharp steak knives on her own, but I’m usually monitoring (just not as closely as I do with the steak knives).

Tween.

For cooking