Kids in the Kitchen – Cooking Together and Bonding Together
Children are looking up to their parents since they represent great role models for them. Therefore it’s extremely important to let your child get to know you better and learn from you. After all, a childhood filled with parental love and support is a prerequisite for future healthy relationships and a successful life in general. However, a working parent can’t spend the whole day playing with their children and they must find alternative solutions. Luckily, we have a great suggestion – cooking together. Kids in the kitchen is a unique concept that increases family bonding. Let the fun bonding time begin!
Benefits of family cooking
Cooking with your children is an amazing way to spend some quality time with them. On top of that, it has been shown to have a lot of benefits for their emotional and cognitive development as well. For instance, you can teach them new vocabulary and show them many exotic ingredients and different kitchenware that they have never heard of before. Furthermore, the kitchen is the perfect place to foster teamwork and show your child how every member of your team is equally valuable and that they need to do their part of the job in order for the meal to be a real success. We guarantee you that your children will feel super proud of themselves because they are trusted with an important task such as selecting groceries, measuring ingredients, peeling the veggies or setting the table. Finally, cooking together with your children will give you an opportunity to teach them about cleanliness. They will become aware of how important it is to keep the kitchen clean and the groceries well-organized in order to prevent potential food spoilage or poisoning. So, exercise the concept of kids in the kitchen more often at your homes.
Set some ground rules – safety comes first
Cooking in the kitchen with your children can be extremely fun and educational, but there are some safety guidelines they must follow in order not to harm themselves. For instance, set the ground rules that they can’t play with electrical appliances like beaters, dicers, hot pans and stovetops. Additionally, keep reminding them that washing their hands is paramount before entering the cooking area in order not to get sick afterward. On the other hand, you can allow them to mix and whisk the ingredients in a bowl or use plastic cookie cutters so that they can shape the dough in any way they want to. Lastly, make sure to invest in high-quality cookware like that made by the amazing Anolon which your children will absolutely love to practice cooking with.
Cooking – fun and educational
Who said that you can’t dress up as pirates with your children and prepare a delicious Caribbean-inspired dish? Sounds fun, doesn’t it? If you truly want to turn your kitchen into a kid’s fun room, you can organize themed cooking evenings for your children’s birthdays or an entertaining night at home. For example, you can even create an international cuisine calendar where a certain week or day of the month will be dedicated to various cultures and their food, so your children can learn about them and have a delicious meal as well. Lastly, the more variety you introduce into the kitchen with different spices, recipes and preparation ideas, the more you’ll promote their creativity and development. So, the concept of kids in the kitchen will bring about overall development.
Invite their friends
Once your children are familiar with the kitchen and all the appliances, accessories and utensils, you can let them invite their friends over for a cooking night. By doing so, your children will create fond memories and develop their social skills. However, don’t expect them to start preparing soufflés and crème brûlées just yet. Instead, stick to something simpler like their favorite cookie, pancake or other easy sweets recipes, but let them decorate and even add their own unique ingredients to the mixture. Keep in mind that kids love to show off in front of their friends so it’s important to supervise them during their little cooking project so they can have fun and be creative. This way, you’ll have a chance to get to know their friends better which will help you create a deeper bond with your children as well.
As you can see, it doesn’t take much effort to turn cooking into a wonderful bonding experience between you and your children. All it takes is ensuring that they are using the items in the kitchen safely and that they have enough different cooking activities that will help them be creative. Bon Appétit.