Parents are responsible for teaching their kids all kinds of things in life. Teaching them the importance of healthy eating and learning how to cook is just one of those things that fall on the shoulders of parents. If your kids have shown little to no interest in learning how to cook up to this point and you’re wondering what you can do to change things, then you’re going to appreciate this list of tips. Each of these will help encourage them to take an interest in cooking and learn to do things on their own.
Set Up a Weekly Cooking Schedule
A good way to start with getting the kids more involved in the kitchen is to create a weekly cooking schedule. Pick one day a week where your kids will be in charge of cooking a dinner. One day a week is a nice easy way to start.
Let Them Pick the Recipe
Next, you can let them pick the recipe. They may want to browse online for recipes that appeal to them, flip through a recipe book, or just pick a dish that they know they love and then find a recipe on how to make it. If it’s an item that they like the taste of, they are much more likely to show interest and want to learn how to prepare it.
Once the recipe has been chosen, they can help you add the ingredients to the shopping list, and even help you do the grocery shopping. Not only is this helping them to learn how to cook but it’s teaching them organizational skills.
Make Food Preparation Fun and Interesting
This particular tip is even more important when you’re teaching younger kids such as toddlers to learn to cook. Food preparation isn’t usually very fun or glamorous, so it’s up to you to change that. You may want to pick up a few kitchen gadgets and tools to help with food preparation, such as a vegetable chopper. This makes the job easy, fun, and quick. To help you pick the best chopper out there, be sure to visit indreviews.com where you can read reviews on the top choppers out there.
Encourage Taste-Testing While Cooking
Do you happen to have a picky eater on your hands? Are you constantly trying to find ways to get them to eat and try new things? If so you may find yourself pleasantly surprised at what they are willing to try when they are the one preparing it. Taste testing, smelling, and touching the various foods is a great way for kids to learn more about them, and even step outside their comfort zone.
Give Them Credit for What They Create
Now that all the preparing and cooking is finished, it’s time to give them plenty of credit for the great job they’ve done.
Cooking with kids is not only fun; it’s also important so that you can teach them a very valuable basic skill in life.