Bringing Your Kids Into The Kitchen

However, there can be ways to make it more fun and lighthearted once again. Who says cooking needs to be done alone? Bring your kids in the kitchen with you and show them the wonders of cooking a meal themselves.

Cooking with your kids can be a great way to teach them life skills, coordination, and possibly even spark interest inside of them they didn’t even know they had. There can be a lot of ways to entice them to help and in the end, there is a scrumptious meal for you and your family to eat that your child can feel proud of.

Be a Mentor

While the kitchen can seemingly be a dangerous area for a child to hang around in with all the knives and machinery, you want to make sure you are not projecting that stress onto them. They are there with you to learn and take advice from you. Teach them the proper way to handle utensils, or the on and off buttons of a blender. By teaching them first how to use the objects, they can grasp the idea that they must be careful and pay close attention. Show them it can be dangerous but teach them how to do it safely. Since they are there to learn, teach them what things are called. What peeling means to a potato, or sautéing onions means. Just like teaching them the animals, teaching them simple kitchen terms can help grow their vocabulary and string together new sentences, even if they may be wrong sometimes, it is better than they learn.

Make Kid Friendly Meals

There are many recipes that can be kid friendly. Making little personal pizzas can be a fun one to do as they get to put whatever they want on it. They can sprinkle their own cheese, roll out their own dough, and even put on their own pepperoni. Personal pizzas can then grow to peeling or cutting veggies. Introducing new skills slowly and not all at once can make sure they are not getting overwhelmed, and to make sure they understand what they are doing first before moving on. If you do choose to teach them out to cut up veggies or fruits, getting some plastic knives with rubber handles that they could hold better may be a benefit. Then you could show them the oven, blenders, microwave, or any other machine you may have to use. Teach them what the buttons mean and what they do. Then you could ask them to go preheat the oven if you are busy chopping up onions.

Let Them Explore

Like everything, they are going to learn and adapt to these new terms and exercises. By showing them how to cook, you may be also showing them a whole new hobby they grow to love. As they get older and they continue to cook, you can always introduce them to new techniques and new recipes. Cooking can lead to a lot of good in their world and in the world of others. If they like to cook for other people, showing them the acts of volunteerism and how they can help others with their joy of cooking. From there, you might have a little chef on your hands!

Cooking can lead to so many great things for children. While they are still young it can help with their motor skills, then vocabulary, and as they get older it could lead to a hobby and then a career. Showing your children, the wonders of food can be amazing for them and for your hungry stomach.