I wasn't intending on publishing an article on juicing, but this morning my toddler kept on asking to use the juicer, he got all the juicer pieces out and put them on the kitchen bench and just waited until I agreed. He was so eager to do this work!

Have you used a juicer like this with your children? My toddler is 2.5 years old, a child closer to two years old might struggle with the strength but many children by three will be able to do this. This work is empowering, it's almost like magic - turning the fresh fruit into juice!

First you need to find a place to use the juicer. It needs a flat surface to stick to. A kitchen bench works perfectly. I've used it on child sized tables before but be aware that the table needs to be heavy/sturdy or the child will move the whole table with the handle. Due to the length of the handle, the juicer needs to go on the edge of the table or bench. 

It take some strength for the toddler to turn the handle to squish the juice. My toddler can do it, I would say easily but he does grimace and groan a little while he's doing it.  With a toddler and preschooler I would recommend sticking with soft fruits. If you use hard fruit like today we used some apple, cut it thinly and use it in with soft juicy fruits. This would be very difficult for a toddler to do with only hard vegetables. 

Today Otto (2.5 years) used grape, mandarin and a little apple. Orange would be a good choice too. The child needs to put the fruit in the top and push the fruit down so that it goes into the thread part of the juicer.

Then the child simply turns the handle to press the juice out. The juice drips through to the little dish and the pulp comes out the end.

The pieces of this juicer are transparent so the child can see the entire process! 

This is a manual process but the child is able to make enough for a nice drink.

Yum! 

We've used this juicer for around five years but I can't say how it would hold up in a classroom. Our juicer doesn't have any labels on it but it looks similar to this.

Resources we use: Montessori Toddler Apron (size 1-2years), Sprout Toddler Tower.

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