Adventures in Parenting

Want to do a fun and meaningful activity with your children?

Cooking or baking together is a lot of fun. Plus you get to eat your creations afterwards!

You can start cooking with your child when he/she is as young as 3 years old. And working in the kitchen is not for girls only! Boys enjoy it too, especially the eating part afterwards!

The best thing about cooking is it can be simple or it can be complicated. Your child can start with doing the mixing and pouring only. Then they can start to learn to measure and crack the eggs. They can progress to stirring over the stove and folding the cabbage rolls. You can use a simple recipe, or a very involved one.

Here are a few hints to make cooking together a positive experience:

1. The most important point: the result doesn’t have to be perfect, so don’t get upset when your kid doesn’t do it right. This is a fun experience, so no matter what happens, DON’T GET MAD or it will discourage future activities together. Laugh together and have fun with it.

2. You don’t have to be a great cook yourself. Start off with something simple like a package mix – hamburger helper, brownie mix.

3. Let your children do as much as they can, but don’t expect perfection. Remember again the goal is not the finished product, it’s the process.

4. Enjoy your creation after cooking by sitting down together to eat it. This is a celebration time and you can talk about what you will do next time!

5. Yes, the kitchen will be a mess. Expect that from the start so don’t get upset or stressed over it. The best time to clean up is while you are waiting for the food to cook. Assign your child some simple tasks such as wiping the counter and wiping up the floor.

6. Allow your child to be creative. When we make meatloaf, my daughters like to shape the meat into different shapes. Our meatloaf is never a loaf. It could be a dog, or a bunny.

These experiences together will be memories for a lifetime. Bon apetit!