Your busy work schedule can sometimes overwhelm you to the point where you don’t have enough time to spend with your kids. But there’s a solution to that. When it’s time to prepare your meals, why not do it together with your kids? Cooking with your kids is a great way to spend time with them, bond, and teach them something new.
If you’ve never done it before then here are 5 tips to cooking with kids:
1. Tidy Up The Kitchen Space
Bearing in mind that you are planning to cook with your kids, the kitchen space where you’ll be operating from will be quite messed up by the end of the cooking project but the fact that you are cooking with kids makes it important that you start off on a clean space.
Wash any dirty dishes in the sink, arrange your utensils well, keep the kitchen countertop clean, and empty the garbage can. This way your kids won’t be overwhelmed by how disorderly everything looks and lose interest.
2. Choose The Recipe With Them
You’re probably good at cooking and do not need to use a recipe to prepare meals and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s however important to keep in mind that your kids don’t know how to cook and your aim is to teach them how to. A recipe will, therefore, come in handy as you cook with them.
Recipes differ depending on the meals outlined in them. Don’t go for a complex recipe that your kids won’t understand. Try and find out which meals your kids love most and would want to cook with you then source a recipe with the meal’s cooking procedure.
3. Familiarize Your Kids With The Kitchen
It’s probably not the first time that your kids are coming into the kitchen. You live together in the house and they’re pretty much regular visitors in the kitchen. But they may not be quite familiar with everything when it comes to cooking.
Show them the things around them. Let them know the kitchen appliances, the cutlery, cookware, and pretty much everything else within the kitchen. This way they will be properly oriented on what is around them.
4. Give Them Tasks To Do
Once you start working on your recipe, read and explain it to the kids if they can’t yet read. If they are a bit older, have them read the recipe instructions and elaborate to them what each instruction means.
Allow them to perform the task on the recipe. Let them wash, knead, mix, sort, blend, cut, stir, turn kitchen appliances on and off, grate, peel, among other tasks that are safe for them to do. Allow them to make mistakes. Don’t be harsh or aggressive, just be in control of what they’re doing and make it a fun activity.
5. Have The Right Cookware In Place
It is important that you stock your kitchen with the right cookware not just for cooking with the kids but for daily use as well. An essential component of the cookware is the cooking pan. Avoid using a pan with a loose handle as this could result in the meal you’re cooking on it accidentally spilling off and burning someone. Upgrade your cooking pans with new ones if need be.
Conclusion
Don’t hold back. Get in the kitchen with your kids and cook something sweet. Here are some more helpful cooking tips.
