5 Essentials to Cooking with Kids
Both of the PDH big kids are in the double digits and are pretty independent as far as basic care is concerned. Parenting is a journey and when I look back to my parenting during toddler years I thought it would be an eternity until I got to this phase. Now we’re here and we are loving every minute of it. It may be because we are starting to see a faint glimmer at the end of the parenting tunnel and it’s setting in how fast time moves.
Mr. PDH and I recognize the importance of equipping our kids with life skills, such as cooking, and financial readiness. We are by no means experts but have started teaching them to cook and have learned a few things in the process. Some kids can be given a simple recipe and are able to make things successfully right away. Our two, not so much. They’ve loved helping here and there since they could stand so it just made sense for us to step up our game and begin to let them take control of entire meals on their own.
Here are 5 Essentials to Cooking with Kids.
- Cook what they will eat. It may seem obvious but teaching your kids to cook some of their favorite meals is an awesome way to start this journey. If they cook with favorite ingredients they’ll begin to associate the experience with joy and fond memories. How many times have we heard people or famous chefs say things like, “I loved making this with my mom in the kitchen?” We all know it, family memories are made in the kitchen.
2. Start with simple recipes that they can grow to do independently. The easier the better. The very first thing we taught our daughter to make was scrambled eggs. She loved the challenge of breaking the eggs but the simplicity of the process made it a win-win for everyone. Start with recipes that have very few steps. And let me tell you, when we have company she loves making them scrambled eggs for breakfast, it’s her way to serve and love our visiting family and its a special thing to watch.
3. Focus on one important concept during each cooking session and keep it fun. Through trial and error we have learned that focusing on one main aspect of the cooking is best. So if you are teaching your son to make macaroni (I mean just as an example of course) spend a few minutes telling him why salting the water slightly is important. Teach him that anytime he needs to boil water for pasta adding a tiny bit of olive oil once the pasta is in the water will keep the noodles from sticking together. Tell him that you’ll never teach this lesson again so he really needs to remember this one part. He’ll focus his learning on what you emphasize. Hopefully next time you go to make a pasta dish with him he can handle the pasta boiling step. Do this with each recipe and eventually your kids will grow their cooking skills to manage and entire recipe on their own. Your goal here, put your efforts into teaching one step during each cooking session.
4. Embrace the mess. Remember, you have been at this for years. Your kids don’t have finesse at stirring, blending, and chopping(this shouldn’t be done solo for a long long time). So have a clean kitchen before you start and teach your child to clean as they go. It’ll still be kinda messy so just go with it. We are working on this, but teach that the cleaning up is part of the process too. Our system is when two of us cook dinner, the other two clean up.
5. Celebrate the result. No matter the outcome (even if burned and charred is the result of the cookie baking efforts), celebrate what your son or daughter has done. Keep the entire experience as stress free as possible and embrace the minutes you spend together as special one on one time.
Lately, our kids seem practically grown and I find myself clinging to these teachable moments in my heart. I heard it all the time when they were little, “It goes so fast!” I was in the daily grind of mommy hood then and had no idea what fast felt like. I do now. Double digits, the teen years, contacts, braces, more independent control over daily routines. I feel like we have entered the speed of light years. So, when I find a way to make time slow way down and am able to savor the people my children are becoming, I’m all in!
