How to Involve Kids in the Kitchen

Cooking is an essential life skill and so important to teach your kids. You can start at a young age with age appropriate instruction to help them develop this skill.

Often times kids can be picky eaters. What I learned from my own experience, is that if you allow your child to be creative with their food, they will be much more likely to try it. For example, allow your child to create their own personal pizza. Place the dough on a piece of parchment paper and provide the ingredients such as the sauce, cheese and a variety of ingredients including an array of colorful vegetables. You may be pleasantly surprised to see that your child will eat their creation, including veggies you never thought they’d try.

Here are some tips for an enjoyable experience:

• Pick a day and time: In order for cooking to be fun however, you’ll want the experience to be enjoyable – not just for your kids but for you too. So pick a day and time when you won’t be overwhelmed. A weekend morning versus a busy weekday night, would probably be best.
• Plan ahead: Start simple and make sure you have all the ingredients on hand before you start. You may want to use a recipe you have already tried before. However, if you are trying a new recipe, make sure to read it from beginning to end. Check that  you have all the ingredients and enough of them. Be sure you understand the method before proceeding.
• Be organized: Arrange all your ingredients along with the tools that you will need, such as cup measures, bowls, etc. Don’t forget spoon rests and extra bowls for items you need to discard that end up on the countertop.
• Keep your workspace clean: I like to start in a clean kitchen and put things away as I am done using them.
• Encourage creativity: Follow the recipe but allow your kids to be creative.
• Be safe: Make sure you are using age appropriate instruction and take over when it’s time to use knives or the stove, so that no one gets hurt.
• Don’t expect perfection: Especially when working with younger children, resist the urge to perfect or fix their work.
• Educate: There is so much to learn when making a recipe. Take advantage of building in some lessons in lessons on math, science, economics, etc. Take a look at my Breakfast Pancakes for Kids recipe for some examples.
• Celebrate successes and failures: Be encouraging along the way. And remember it’s important to celebrate not just successes but also failures, because it is through failure that we learn.

Happy Cooking!