Cooking with kids can be fun for both you and the children. Like any activity you do with kids, you need to have a set of instructions to follow or the fun event could turn into chaos. There are three easy steps to follow to make your cooking experience go smooth. First, you need to think about the time of day you will cook. Second, you need to think about what you will cook. And third, you need to acquire all of the food and cooking instruments necessary for preparing the meal.
If you have worked with kids, you know that they are more attentive at different times of the day and after different activities. All children are not the same, but there are some general guidelines you can follow when making your decision. When children first wake up they can be groggy which can make it hard for them to pay attention. When kids have just eaten, they tend to have a lot of energy which can make it hard to settle them down to focus on an activity like cooking. I believe the best time for children to engage in cooking is when they have had an amply amount of sleep and have done a few activities to wake their bodies up, like morning exercises or coloring.
We all like to get in the kitchen and begin chopping and prepping a large meal for our friends and family to enjoy. But with kids, especially if they haven’t cooked before, you will need to think smaller when choosing what you will cook. Look for something that will be fun for the kids to cook. Involve them in the process of choosing. You can make it a blank slate for them to suggest ideas or you can choose two or three things and allow them to pick which one they want to cook. Remember that meat has to be handled differently from other foods, so if the kids are very young you may want to stay away from meat. Also, keep in mind, some recipes may call for the use of utensils that can be dangerous for kids. You may want to avoid these kids of recipes.
Finally, before you start to cook, you need to get all the food and cooking utensils that you need to complete the activity. Write a list before heading to the store. Take the kids with you to get the food. This will be a learning experience for them. They will understand the preparation that goes into fixing a meal; including the fact that it cost money to eat. If you don’t have all of the cooking instruments, you should pick those up, as well, from the store. Just remember that safety comes first. Keep those knives out of reach of the little ones.
Cooking is something we should all do with our kids. It will be fun and they will learn valuable skills that they can use for the rest of their lives. They also will learn to appreciate all of the work that goes into preparing a good meal. And they will learn to use the kitchen and its many gadgets in a safe way.