Cooking with kids is the best. It’s one of my favourite things to do with my children. My mother NEVER let me help her with the cooking. She had absolutely no patience whatsoever. Some of my most vivid childhood memories are of me talking to her back while she stirred, kneaded, sliced and chopped.
Cooking with my children is my way of giving them a better childhood than I had. I have to confess that I’m not the most patient mum and the first few times we cooked together I needed a lie down afterwards (I totally understand mum frantically ushering us out of the kitchen), but we’re in a groove now. We all have our special jobs. I control the electrical devices as well as anything sharp and the stove. The kids pour, roll, tip, mix and lick bowls…the perfect partnership.
It does leave quite a mess. Sometimes their aim is a little off and food ends up on the floor. 5 second rule, right?
Just as an FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by EasiYo Yoghurt Maker and Yoghurt Mix Sachets. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100% authentic and written in their own words.
Cooking with kids isn’t just about playtime or bonding, although both are important. The best benefit of cooking with your children is that they are more likely to eat the foods if they have been involved in the cooking process. My 5-year-old Giovanni is the fussiest child on the face of the earth but the sure fire way to ensure he will try a new food is for him to help me cook it.
These are the recipes we make almost every week. My secret plan is that by the time they are 12 they can cook them without my help, and serve them to me, and then clean up. Yes, one can dream….
Top Comments
As a childcare chef, I can't use chocolate etc. I also aim for savoury cooking experiences that include vegetables. I have done fried rice with the 4-5 year olds in the electric frying pan - they can grate carrot, zucchini, capsicum, onion I usually chop the celery, the kids can add corn & peas too. Vegetable pasties are good too with veggie grating, cutting pastry, crimping the edges with forks & brushing with egg. Making vegetable dips like tzatiki etc is a good quick arvo activity. Baked potato wrapping & helping grate cheese, carrot for coleslaw & allowing them to add their own toppings (this could also be done with tacos) . Fruit salad is an amazing experience too children can see you peel pineapples etc I usually cut the watermelon into thick slices so the kids can dice it, great for young ones to pull grapes off stalks, pull the green off strawberries and cut melon which can be done with plastic knives (we have ikea ones at work) or butter knives even.
Food experiences don't necessarily need to be cooking per se. There is so much value in cooking with them, especially young children for skills and development. Literacy is used reading recipes (or you reading recipes to them), measuring is actually a maths skill, buttering toast and spreading pizza sauce is a motor skill. It most definitely is time well spent on authentic independant skills. Great post :)
Great post from you too! Heaps of helpful info.