Dynamic Family Living

Cooking with kids is so much fun.  Plus…

• Get your kids to eat the things you want them to. Cooking with kids is really effective in getting them to try new things and to like things they might otherwise not.
• Cooking is educational. It is full of math, science, social studies, everything. It is all in there.  Education at its best focuses on your child’s interests and builds on them.   If your child asks how many ounces in a pound or why bread rises and you don’t know, you can learn together.
• Cooking is rewarding – the preparation of food, the smells, tastes, sights are pleasant to the senses to say nothing of the fun of sampling your creation.
• Cooking is a necessary skill.  Let’s face it.  The ability to put foods together in an appetizing and healthy way would be a good thing to give to your child.  Healthy eating does not consist of everything you can pull out of the freezer and zap in the microwave.

• Cooking creates memories and warmth in relationships that last an entire lifetime.  The opportunities are limitless to teach healthy eating habits, a balanced approach to food and eating, family togetherness and so much more.

So what’s stopping you?  Get Cooking with your Kid !! Here’s some tips to get you started…

Relax. Don’t rush.  Don’t expect perfection.  What you are creating here is so much more than food.  You are creating a lifetime of good eating habits and a balanced attitude toward food.  You are creating a lifetime relationship with your child.

Relax. Am I repeating myself? Yes.  But with good reason.  If you really MUST hurry, this is not the time to cook for the first time with your child.  You will find that cooking with a child may, at first, slow you down.  But it is worth it.  Later when their skills improve, you will find their help invaluable, as well as their company.  Plus.  Why are you in such a hurry anyway.? Food is most tasty and I believe easy to digest when it is prepared in a loving way which is difficult if you are running around thinking about tomorrow’s deadlines.  Get present. You are here now.  Relax and enjoy this moment of making food for yourself and your family.

Have fun. Choose foods that are healthy and tasty and pleasant to prepare.  Think about what your child can do at each step of the cooking process and give them small tasks to complete.

Be safe. Make hot things off limits.  Period.  NO exceptions.  If you watch very carefully, you will know when your child is ready to begin stirring a pot on the stove or taking the cookies off the baking sheet.  You will see when she can begin to help hold the hand mixer.  And until you are really sure, stay by your child’s side every single moment he is using dangerous tools.  Always  err on the side of caution.

Plan around your child’s abilities and interests. If your child loves to crack eggs, make french toast or scrambled eggs.  If your child just had some homemade bread at a friends house, make some bread.  If your child wants to be a vegetarian, get a cookbook and try some recipes together.

Plan around things you would like your child to learn.

• Perhaps you would like your child to learn some cooking technique, like using an electric mixer, for example.  Make a cake.  Use the food processor?  Slice pepperoni and make a pizza.
• Educational Cooking
  • Make pretzels or cookies into alphabet shapes with young children
  • Create a budget for a meal, shop and cook with your teen to help them learn basic life skills
  • Find recipes, plan and cook a meal from an area that your child is studying in school or you ‘ve seen in a movie or on TV
  • Invite a friend to help you cook a meal from their culture or part of the world

Most of all have fun!

And if you cook something that gets ruined, burned or simply tastes horrid… that’s okay.  It happens and it’s part of the learning.  Look at what went wrong.  Then pitch the mistake into the trash and order a pizza or have a grilled cheese and soup.  Try again later.

It’s not whether you make a mistake, it’s how you deal with it that creates and defines your character.  One of the best things we can teach our kids is to see that all things work together for good, if you’re looking for it.

Have you tried cooking with your child?  What did you make?  How did it go?

Tags: activities for family, baking with kids, cooking with kids, cooking with your kids, easy cooking with kids, eating problems, family activities, food, fussy eater, healthy eating, kids eating habits, picky eater

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 10:21 am and is filed under Family Fun and Activities, Food - Delicious and Healthy, Household, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.