Teach little chefs to cook up a storm

Mix, mash, chop, bash. Cooking is a skill they'll have for life. Here's how to pass it on...

• Start them young. A three-year-old can mash, knead, mix and roll. Begin by showing them how to crush soft fruit with the back of a spoon and drizzle into their yoghurt. They will love the colours of bright berries and juice. Use their table or high chair as a work surface... as they may need to cook sitting down to begin with!
• Don't just make fairy cakes together. Do ordinary, everyday meals, too. Encourage young children to measure out pasta. Get older children chopping colourful stir-fry ingredients and arranging it on a board.
• Be hot on safety and hygiene. Get kids into the routine of washing their hands and putting on an apron before they start. Between the ages of eight and 10 children can learn to use an oven, and knives with lots of supervision. Learning to boil a kettle safely should be one of their first lessons.
• Don't worry too much about mess. Let kids get stuck in, and not too hung up on smears and spills. Teach them to clean up with you afterwards. Use new Flash Clean and Care – the multisurface cleaning liquid with a unique gentle formula. Flash Clean and Care is pH neutral, so it's gentle enough to use on all surfaces, including kitchen worktops, wood, granite and stainless-steel, leaving everything sparkling.
• Get children thinking about the science of cookery. One wet weekend try making butter with a jar of cream. Pour a little double cream into a clean screw-top jar: fill it a third full and use cream that has been in the fridge for a couple of days because it works faster. Shake the jar till it turns into whipped cream, then keep on shaking. All of a sudden you will see (and hear) a lump of butter form, surrounded by watery buttermilk. Now drain the buttermilk off; you need to get rid of it as it will make the butter go sour. Fill the jar with water and wash the butter in it. Then drain. Repeat the process until the water goes clear. Eat your homemade butter straightaway on hot buttered toast.
• Talk about labels with your kids. Where in the world do tinned tomatoes come from before they reach the shelves in your local supermarket? How do baked beans grow?
• Start a veggie plot, on your window sill or in the garden. Begin by growing mustard and cress on some damp folded kitchen roll. In the garden in October you can sow a double row of peas and cover them with a polythene tunnel. The easiest veg to plant? Try seed potatoes in the spring... pop them in the ground, and come May you will have a patch full of delicious spuds.