Rainbow Blog

Cooking with Kids!!!!

posted by: Kia

 We have another fabulous guest blog post to share!!  Enjoy

Getting kids to help in the kitchen is often like getting them to go to the dentist.  The idea that cooking is a boring chore-slash-punishment can be expunged, however, if you let the kids get their hands dirty.

Give Kids Incentive

• If you have more than one kid, try delegating them with different tasks each time so one isn’t always stuck with one task they don’t enjoy.  Moreover, if two or more kids are assigned one too-similar task, they may be encouraged to race, and as anyone who’s been in a kitchen knows haste and messy spills make for unpleasant kitchen atmospheres. 
• Reward kids for helpful behavior and for not complaining. 
• Try not to use food as a reward for good behavior, as this can in rare cases result in eating disorders later in life.  Instead, think of what the kids enjoy doing: reading at night, watching movies or shows, playing video games, extra time at the park, and the like.  Follow each good session in the kitchen with an enjoyable activity and after a while, helping in the kitchen will become second nature to the whole family.
• To encourage them to enjoy themselves in the kitchen, turn off the TV and try playing some of their favorite music.  If you just can’t stand Justin Bieber, switch musical tastes every day so kids learn the art of fairness, too.
• Let them clean up after themselves, even if they made the mess when they made a PB&J while you were out.  This will teach them responsibility and ownership, even of their mistakes.

Start with Hygiene

• Teach your kids the importance of washing hands before cooking.  You can buy or make natural soap in the shape of animals to make the experience something they don’t dread.
• Make sure all long hair is tied up out of faces and mixing bowls, also.

Mind Safety

Before you let even an old child handle a knife, be sure to demonstrate and supervise proper equipment handling, including but not limited to peeling, chopping, dicing, blending, etc.

Ingredient Preparation: Kids can help by…

• Bringing foods and materials from the pantry or refrigerator to the kitchen counter
• Washing vegetables and fruits (as they listen to you explain to them why it’s important to do so, and why organic vegetables are healthier for us in the long run!)
• Scrubbing potatoes.  Peeling can be for older kids.
• Cutting soft foods like strawberries or bananas with a butter knife

Measuring, Mixing, and So On: Kids can help by…

• Measuring ingredients by teaspoon, tablespoon, and cups.  This will teach kids early on the value of math in practical situations.  Older kids can learn conversions to make the process easier (i.e. 2 cups = 4 half cups)
• Stirring with a spoon if they’re younger, and with a hand mixer when they’re older.  Watching a bowl of messy and inconsistent mush go to a smooth paste is a satisfying, hands-on experience.
• Tasting.  Hey, someone’s got to do it, so why not reward them?

Cleaning: Kids can help by…

• Bringing dirty dishes to the sink or dishwasher
• Loading the dishwasher
• Spraying down dirty countertops with a safe household cleaner (or just make your own with 1 cup of water, ½ cup of liquid castile soap like Dr Bronner’s, and 20 drops of naturally antiseptic tea tree oil)
• Sweeping the kitchen floor after cleaning up any gooey messes from it
• Being held accountable for messes they make even when Mom or Dad isn’t around

Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and amateur musician. Lately she’s been researching scholarships for women, wishing she knew more about this back when she was a student herself incurring a sizable student loan debt.