Cooking with your kids is a fun activity the whole family can enjoy together. Children learn skills that they’ll use for the rest of their lives—and tend to be more adventurous eaters when they help prepare meals. Even if your kids are young, there are many ways they can help out.
#1 Planning and shopping
Involve your children in planning and shopping for meals. Kids are more likely to try new foods if they help make the selections.
#2 Let them choose
Since everything in the kitchen is new to them, ask children how they want to make something. You may be surprised how creative they can be!
#3 Set up
Have your kids help get all the ingredients ready, like cracking eggs and measuring ingredients, before you start cooking. This makes it easier for you to finish the dish.
#4 Measuring
Teach kids the importance of properly measuring ingredients so recipes will turn out well. Plus, it’s a great way to show them how math is used every day.
#5 Prepping ingredients
Whether it’s washing and tearing lettuce for a salad or peeling vegetables for a side dish, there are many prep jobs kids can do that don’t require sharp knives.
#6 Shaping and forming foods
Anything kids can do with their hands, such as forming meatballs or kneading pizza dough, will be fun for them.
#7 Assembling
More complicated tasks can be broken down into steps that kids can do, like spooning filling onto pieces of pasta. Small hands can easily assemble lasagna and casserole dishes.
#8 Grating and mashing
Activities like grating cheese and mashing potatoes are perfect jobs for kids since it taps into their boundless energy and holds their attention.
#9 Breading
If more than one child is helping out in the kitchen, have each child take charge of one step of the breading process for meats, fish or other foods.
#10 Topping and seasoning
Ask children to put toppings on pizzas or sandwiches and watch their creativity shine. Even kids who are too young to actually cook will enjoy adding herbs and spices to dishes.