My pretty average 10 year old can boil the kettle to make ramen, and bake a batch of cookies with supervision, from a recipe. He can make pancakes from a box mix, with supervision. He recently started making a simple pasta meal once a week.

He's careful and learning to be independent with hot pans . He needs more practice with knives before he uses the sharp cook's knife. We've been practicing chopping softer things (cheese, fruit) with a steak knife.

It’s hard to answer your question because of how you phrased everything. I like to cook and have one child who also enjoyed cooking and baking from an early age. My other child has no interest. At by 10 or 11, my one who likes cooking could easily use the gas stove independently. I felt comfortable with him independently using the oven by 12, based on his height.

My other child needs lots of encouragement and prompting to cook anything. He is 10 can the microwave to heat up a hotdog or leftovers. He is not comfortable with toast in the toaster oven because he will sometimes burn himself, despite us telling him how to take out the bread. He does not have any interest in cooking.

You can start with a George Foreman grill. Cheap, you can cook a lot of things on it. Hard to burn down the house with it.

My 10 year old bakes by herself. There's always an adult at home, but not supervising, per se.

When they can understand safety, read numbers and physically open and softly close the oven and lift pots. They have to be self motivated because I want about to encourage a lot of curiosity about the oven and range. My 5 year old likes to make basic one-dish things like frittata, dutch baby, dump cake

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7yo can make scrambled eggs and cheese quesadilla (tortilla + cheese) on our gas stove, mostly unsupervised (although I am nearby and usually turn the stove on). She hasn't taken anything out of the oven yet, mostly because I'm not sure she'd be strong enough to lift it out of the oven onto the counter. Small burn like your son got wouldn't bother me. I'd run it under cold water, and he'd learn not to touch a hot pan.

Outlier.

Dp - my 7 year old does the same. Scrambled, fried, boiled eggs, Mac and cheese, soup and pasta. She heats up meatballs in the oven when she makes us spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

My 8 year old is confident in using the oven for baking.

I sometimes start the stove for my 7 year old, but I’m always within earshot (we have a tiny house).

My rule is that a loud timer needs to be set before the stove or oven goes on. My late elementary schooler is a decent cook and baker, but very easily distracted. Before even turning on the gas stove or oven, the timer must be set for 5 minutes (or 1 or 2 if using the broiler). Set another timer for estimated cooking time. Reset the first timer for five minutes after it goes off, continuously as long as a fire or appliance is on. No leaving the kitchen. Please tell an adult before getting started.

FWIW the only kitchen fire I ever started myself was from neglecting pita in a toaster oven.

My 12 and 8 year old both use toaster oven independently. They are taught no plastic or paper in oven but utensils used in oven need to be plastic (reduce risk of shock).

They use the stove and have made eggs pasta quesadillas

My 8 year old is way more proficient as has been interested from earlt age.

Start having them do things when you cook. We have a 10 year old.

He can use the microwave without us. We have asked him to tell us before and let us know how long he’s putting it in (for now, since we just started having him do this). We set it up so there are leftovers or frozen foods that he can reheat vs having to look for new things to cook in the oven/stove.

He uses the electric stove on his own, but we have to be on the same floor and be aware of what he’s doing. Maybe it’s less risk because we have an electric stovetop.

My 7yo can use the microwave if I tell her how long something goes in for, otherwise she has no clue.
She can also use the toaster oven to toast her bagel. She is just pressing the buttons i have told her too though.

I'd be fine with newly-12 (as of last week) DD cooking something completely on her own if she wanted to. She's helped in the kitchen enough that she knows the basic safety rules and can follow directions on a box. She already has free reign of the microwave and can toast an Eggo waffle like a champ, but hasn't been that interested in cooking larger meals and it just hasn't come up yet. If we were in normal times coming and going for sports and activities this spring, I think she'd probably be doing more by now.

9-going-on-10 year old DD doesn't have permission to use the stove by herself yet. She's getting there but attention span isn't where we would feel comfortable with it yet. (Neither is Grandma's who lives with us also, but that's a different story.)

My 8 year old primarily uses the microwave and the air fryer unsupervised. He does make scrambled eggs by himself on the stovetop. I'm sure he could do more but that's where we're at right now. With other stuff and with the oven, I supervise.

My 10 year old does a lot more but we still don't let him do anything with boiling water. And, I supervise him taking things in and out of the oven.

...and I just rewatched the robot grilled cheese episode and realized there's a lot of swearing. That said, hey, my kid learned a lot about swearing AND cooking.

PP here. Also, my son loved watching a YouTube channel called "You Suck At Cooking." Funny AND informative!

OP, if you haven't already, remember to teach your kids how to safely re-light the pilot. Other than that, I think, based on you knowing your kids and what you're writing here, you're on a fine track and these kids are likely capable and going to be just fine.

I can't remember exactly (kid's now 18), but I think we taught our son basic stove and cooking safety to the point of greenlighting solo cooking somewhere in between 10 and 12.