How to Prepare a Functional Montessori Kitchen

The kitchen is one of the greatest places in the home for a child to have opportunities to develop practical life skills. However, to allow a child to be independent in tasks, we need them to have access to the correct tools, they need to be shown how to use those tools, and then be given the opportunities to try these things for themselves. In this blog post, I would like to share how you can prepare a functional toddler-sized kitchen to make these goals and ideals a reality in your home!

Benefits of a Montessori Kitchen

There are many benefits to creating your own Montessori kitchen for your child. A Montessori kitchen is a small area in your kitchen designed with the child’s needs in mind. It offers them more independence in completing tasks. Montessori homes, especially those with functional kitchens for children, provide many opportunities for purposeful work and developing fine motor skills. The child can get their dishes to set the table, get a drink of water when they are thirsty, and prepare a snack. By creating a little kitchen space for our children, we are honoring and respecting the child in such a beautiful way. When we allow our children opportunities to do things for themselves at an early age, we are giving them a real gift. Practical work offers opportunities to learn new things and develop greater problem-solving skills. 

Make it Accessible

A Montessori kitchen area set up to meet your child’s needs can look very different, especially based on the age of your child. You can find many examples of a functional kitchen for young children on the internet for inspiration, mine is just one example. The beautiful thing about the Montessori approach is that when implemented it will look different in every one of our homes. When implementing Montessori principles, we see an emphasis on preparing the environment, and this is very important to do.

In a child’s Montessori kitchen, we can make simple snacks available, have small pitchers and a water glass for pouring, and even make their dishes accessible to be able to set the table. You will add to your child’s kitchen as your child is shown how to use more tools and gets older. In the beginning, it will be very simple. 

If you don’t have the space to create a separate spot for your child in your kitchen, that is just fine! There are many other ways that you can adapt your main kitchen to better meet the needs of your child. You could offer tools and their own dishes in a low cabinet that they can access. It may be worth investing in a Montessori kitchen helper (check out this blog post for some of my top recommendations) that brings your child up to the kitchen counter. Any kitchen environment can become a functional space for a child by making a few changes to put items they can use within the their reach.

What to Include in a Montessori Kitchen

There are many different components of a Montessori kitchen that you can include. Here are some categories I would include in this space and a few additional things to consider adding to your space. 

The Dishes

We can give our children real dishes. You can store your child’s dishes in their kitchen area or a lower drawer or cabinet within the kitchen. The idea is for them to have access to these things to be able to help in the setting of the table. For many months we have used the Ezpz tiny bowls. They have been a great dish for my boys. The suction prevents the bowl from moving around which is great when working on using utensils. I have their small cups for water in the drawer in their kitchen cabinet. 

• Weaning Cups 
• Toddler Glass Cups 
• Plates and bowls
• EzPz Silicone Bowl 

Towels and Napkins

Spills tend to happen often when you use open cups and allow opportunities for your child to pour their water. I like to have small towels in a basket for easy access. Part of our job as Montessori parents is to prepare the environment with the things our children need. Having towels accessible for cleaning up spills makes those moments of spills, not such a big deal. You could hang a hand towel nearby as well. Cloth napkins would be a good addition to this space. 

Silverware

Having real utensils has been a great way for my twins to learn how to self-feed. We used a baby-led weaning approach when we started our feeding journey and it has been a natural transition to using metal flatware for meals. We want to offer our children natural materials, especially those that will be going into their mouths.

As a way to help keep order in this space, I went online and found the pictures of the silverware we have, cut them out, and laminated them to make labels for our silverware tray, which is really just a thrifted find from years ago but it works perfectly for holding silverware!

Cutting board

Place a cutting board in the kitchen environment that can be used when preparing real food like slicing a banana, chopping a cucumber, or spreading peanut butter on toast. Consider a cutting board with some grips on the back to help support a child just learning these practical life activities. 

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Place Setting Mats

This is a newer addition to our Montessori kitchen. My twins are 18 months old and are helping with things like setting dishes and silverware at their spots at the table. I chose this silicone placemat because it would be easy to clean and protect our table. It’s the perfect way to show all the place setting arrangements. Knowing how to set a proper table is important, and this is a great tool for instilling and teaching that skill to our children. 

Water

I have seen 3 different things work well for adding a water source. At some point, this will be an important component in your Montessori kitchen. But first, I want to remind you that the freedom for a child to have access to water in this functional space is gradual. First, we will be working on pouring water from a small pitcher to get themselves a drink. Once they develop that skill, then I feel comfortable moving on to using a water dispenser. I will fill it with very little water in the beginning. This is a functional kitchen space and we want our children to interact with it in that way, rather than a play kitchen. 

Water can also be used for washing hands or doing dishes. You could include a water source with a basin in your child’s kitchen area. The kitchen cabinet that we got does not have a sink section, so at this time we are skipping this part of the kitchen. I have instead made our bathroom sink accessible for them to have independent access to wash their hands. If you have an older toddler or preschooler, having a water source for them is a good option. 

Are you looking for more ideas on how to implement a water system? Check out these Montessori kitchens for inspiration!

Nicole from The Kavanaugh Report kitchen with water basin and pitcher

Home and On the Way Functional Kitchen with running water

Snack 

Allowing a child to choose and prepare their own snack will be very rewarding to them. Use containers that they can open independently. We used the OXO pop containers and they work great.

Additional Kitchen Tools 

Food preparation will be an important part for a child. Here are some of the kitchen tools I will offer in our Montessori kitchen. Introduce these slowly and place them out in their space once they have been shown how to use them. All the tools you put in your child’s environment need to be ones they are capable of using. These tools may be introduced over many years. It is okay to go slow and introduce as you see they are ready for something new. 

Wooden chopping knife

Butter knife or spreaders

Small Wooden Spoon

Egg slicer

Apple slicer

Grape Slicer 

Vegetable Scrub brush 

Wavy chopper 

Stainless steel pitcher (small) (larger)

Montessori Kitchen Set with beginning knives (What I purchased)

Apron

Larger Kitchen Items

• Dustpan and broom (handheld) (child-size length)
• Child-sided mop
• Learning Tower
• Step Stool
• Countertop mini fridge (unnecessary in my opinion, but I’ve seen it used)
• Small Table and chairs (Sprout Weaning Table -Use my code “TWINMAMA10” for 10% off)

Montessori Beyond the Small Kitchen

A small Montessori kitchen properly sized to meet your child’s needs is not the only way to create a prepared environment in our kitchens. I am active in our kitchen daily, and it is usually better and more practical for me to have the twins at my level. A Montessori learning tower would be my number one Montessori kitchen accessory for a Montessori home. I think it is a beautiful way for our children to come into our big world and be involved in really meaningful ways. Check out these real-life activities to try while using a Montessori learning tower with your toddler!