I’ve recently taught my 7 year old to make tea for us. Tea or as the south Asians call it, “Chai” is a staple in almost all south Asian homes. And learning to make tea is like a right to passage for my family.
My husband and I had been discussing the possibility of teaching our 7 year old daughter how to be more independent and involved in the kitchen. However, the thought of my young daughter around anything hot and dangerous was too frightening for me until I discovered this electric tea kettle. This would be her very first independent kitchen task. Here’s how we accomplished it…
We first purchased and set up an electric tea kettle. Any electric kettle will do, but, I really like this one because even after 1 year of abuse, its going strong.
To make it easy for her, I set up a tea counter with all the necessities.
Along with flavored tea bags, inside this drawer you will find Indian tea bags and loose tea (on the left) along with white and brown sugar (on the right)
In addition to supplying her with the tools, I’ve given her specific instructions to help make the process easy
- Using the serving mug/ cup, add the desired amount of water.
- Then, push the lever to turn the kettle on.
- Once the water boils and the kettle automatically switches to the off position, add in 1 tea bag per cup/mug.
- Wait 2 minutes, then push the lever to turn the kettle back on.
- When the kettle automatically switches to the off position the second time, carefully pour* the water into the mugs.
- Add the desired sugar and milk (whole milk, skim, evaporated, etc)
- And finally, serve.
* we do require that when handling the kettle, she use silicone gloves (which i bought in size XS for her). And when the quantity is more than what she can comfortably lift, and adult will pour out the tea for us. She is still responsible for carefully taking each cup/mug to the guests (or her parents – us).
