Nothing brings the family together like our bellies! More often than not, you have to force the littlest ones out of the kitchen. Especially when they are so young they don’t really understand that cooking can be quite the task. But there’s a few ways around that and that’s awesome, because no one will ever teach your children to cook the way you can and cooking is a life skill that every child will need.
Family Cooking Activities
So let’s go down the list and start with those lovely littles! How can you ‘cook’ with the youngest of your family’s children?
While the littles may not be able to carry out any serious tasks, you can absolutely get them involved on every level by making sure you do a few things:
- Keep a couple ‘easy’ ingredients (such as a box of raisins or nuts) on the lower level of cabinets so your toddler can participate in gathering ingredients.
- Allow them to dump pre-measured ingredients to the bowl.
- If they are physically capable they can help with stirring ingredients in the bowl.
- Do any crushing with a small tool and the ingredients in a bag.
Sure, you’ll likely have to wrap up the ends of some of this mess, but it will get your littlest ones involved in the cooking process.
Creating Kid-Friendly Cuisine
The second element you’ll want to keep in mind when cooking with the kids is the type of foods you want to create. So what are kid’s favorite foods?
- Desserts!
- Finger Foods
- Dipping Foods
- Foods that Don’t Require Utensils
- Fun Foods
Kids want foods that they can eat-on-the-go when possible. And by on-the-go, I pretty much mean, grab it and run around the house with it. The better the food, the more running. I see this every time I feed my granddaughter without a high-chair nearby.
Here are some really awesome kid-friendly creations you can try,
- Frozen Banana Yogurt Bites
- Apple Biscuits
- Minion Munch Snack Mix
- Cheese Twists
- Banana Bread Your Toddler Can Make
- Rainbow Fruit Skewers
- Rainbow Pancake Pops
So what can cooking together do for your family?
- Cooking together will allow you to teach your children healthy eating habits. Teaching your children proper cooking for healthy eating will show them how ‘fast food’ isn’t always worth it.
- It can help boost self-esteem. Let’s face it, not every child will have superior sporting skills, or an excellence in one subject or another. Teaching them to cook can provide them with a boost in self-confidence as they learn to accomplish important task that will make them a contributor in their family.
- Cooking as a family also creates bonding time. As everyone works together on their individual tasks to come together to create the end result, children learn to work in unison for a common cause. That of feeding the family which is an oh-so-important one!
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