Practical life: chopping using a crinkle cutter 

Yesterday Frida helped me cook by chopping our courgettes and tofu. Yes, she’s only 19 months, but you’re never too young to help with cooking! 

(Apologies for the quality of these photos – our dining room is really dark in the evenings). 

I gave her a simple demonstration, showing her how to slice the vegetable with the crinkle cutter, and then she was off! She seemed really keen to give it a go.

Frida has used the crinkle cutter before, but only to cut playdough or to use with kinetic sand, so I was delighted to be able to offer her a real-life practical task. 

This is the one we use – it’s a perfect shape for little hands to grip, and seems quite safe (although, please do supervise your toddler when they are using a crinkle cutter).

The added bonus of this activity was that Frida are a substantial amount of raw courgette (“mmmmmm dordette!”) which can only be good for her. 

She took to chopping the courgettes so well that I offered up a block of tofu as well after she had finished. Frida had never encountered tofu in this uncooked state before so of course the first thing she did was eat some! 

We used the tofu she chopped yesterday to make tofu egg-fried rice, and I roasted the courgettes with some olive oil and herbs. 

These were two quite different textures to chop, the courgette being much harder than the squidgy crumbly tofu.

Didn’t she do a great job! I will definitely be offering more chopping activities from now on. I think it’s so lovely for Frida to be involved in her own food preparation, and to contribute meaningfully to our family chores. 

What practical life activities do your little ones love doing?