🍳 Cooking with kids
The Kids Cook Monday
By GRACE Communications Foundation (The Monday Campaigns). Visit The Kids Cook Monday
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
A free nonprofit campaign that asks families to cook and eat together every Monday night. The site offers kid-friendly recipes, a weekly newsletter with conversation starters, guides for running cooking events at schools, and a popular chart of kitchen tasks by age: what toddlers, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 and 10-12 year olds can usually do, from washing produce and mashing to grating, using a can opener and, with tests, the stove. Parents read it and decide what fits their child.
Our take: A useful free checklist for parents wondering which kitchen jobs to hand a child; not a cooking course or app for kids.
Checked in a browser
A browser check on 2026-10-25: what loads, the ads and trackers we saw, and what a child meets first. Not a hands-on test.
| Child safety: 4 out of 5 | No ads seen (the one frame detected is an AddToAny share menu); links out to social media. |
|---|---|
| Data: 2 out of 5 | Before consent the page loaded Google Ads measurement (ad.doubleclick.net, googleads), a TikTok pixel and Hotjar (which can record how visitors use a page), plus Google Analytics and Cloudflare; no ad was shown. |
| Ease: 3 out of 5 | Clean, readable pages of recipes and success stories, written for parents and teachers; a child would cook with an adult. |
| Cost honesty: 5 out of 5 | Free, with no paid prompts seen. |
What we found
- 13 third-party sites contacted; Google Ads measurement, TikTok pixel, Hotjar, Google Analytics, Cloudflare
- 14 cookies set before consent, 2 from third-party domains (doubleclick.net, tiktok.com)
- 0 ad slots; 1 share-button frame (AddToAny)
- 5 outbound link sites, all social media
From the test: A free, ad-free family cooking campaign for parents, though the site sets TikTok, Google Ads and Hotjar trackers before you agree to anything.
| Ages it suits | about 2-12 (with an adult) |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | The privacy policy says the site is for a general audience, not meant for children under 13, and asks under-13s not to submit any information. The terms of use have no separate age rule. (terms) |
| Price | Free. Free recipes, guides and newsletter (Oct 2026). |
| Works on | Web |
| Account | No account needed |
| Ads | None |
| In-app purchases | None |
| The AI in it | No AI. |
What's good
- Clear age-by-age list of safe kitchen jobs
- Free, no account, no ads
- Weekly routine idea that is easy to stick to
Watch for
- Mostly a parent resource; kids do not use it on their own
- The task list is a 2010 book excerpt and leaves the 4-5 year section nearly empty
- Site uses tracking cookies even though it collects little else
Data and privacy
Collects name and email only if you sign up for the newsletter or contact form, and says it never sells or shares email lists. It also uses cookies and web beacons, and says it may track activity across other sites over time. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
No peer-reviewed study of the program itself. The maker describes a 2010 Harlem pilot with Teachers College, Columbia University, in which 73% of kids wanted to help with future family meals, and cites outside research on family meals in general.
In the Big Index
Alternatives to The Kids Cook Monday
Desk researchFreeNo ads
Fight BAC!
Partnership for Food Safety Education (nonprofit) · ages K-12, plus parents of babies
A solid free pick for teachers and parents teaching kids to cook safely; kids wanting a game will find only a little here.
Desk researchThrough schools
Jamie Oliver's 10 Skills (Ministry of Food)
Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited · ages about 3-14 (UK primary and secondary; US schools and community groups)
A good free starting point for schools and clubs teaching basic cooking; families cooking at home will get more from free recipe sites, since this is built for classrooms.
Desk researchPaidNo ads
Kids Cook Real Food
Kitchen Stewardship LLC (Raising Healthy Families, Katie Kimball) · ages about 2-12 (Teens Cook Real Food for 13-21 is on a waitlist)
Suits parents who want a structured plan to teach several kids real kitchen skills at home; skip it if you want a kid to learn alone from an app.
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Kids Eat in Color
Kids Eat in Color, LLC · ages for parents of kids 0-18; BetterBites targets ages 1-5
Worth a look for parents worried about a young picky eater who want daily coaching; a child with weight loss or severe food refusal needs a doctor first.
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Outschool cooking classes
Outschool, Inc. · ages about 9-18 for the cooking listings we saw (Outschool overall covers 3-18)
Good for tweens and teens who want a live, social cooking class from home; younger kids need a parent beside them, and families uneasy about recorded video should skip it.
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Paprika Recipe Manager
Hindsight Labs LLC · ages adults (a parent's planning tool)
A solid, ad-free planner for the parent who runs the family kitchen; not a kids' product, so children should use it only alongside a parent.
Where these facts come from
- https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/kids-cook-monday/kitchen-tasks-for-different-age-groups
- https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/kids-cook-monday
- https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/kids-cook-monday/about
- https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/kids-cook-monday/research
- https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/terms-of-use
- https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/privacy-policy
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.