Teaching My Kids to Cook Without Losing My Mind

My kids love to cook! It is wonderful that they are so eager to help in the kitchen, but my impatient self has a hard time with three loud little people "helping." Despite my own lack of patience, cooking is a skill I think all kids need to learn, so this year we are trying something new. Instead of me losing my patience and my mind with all three of them in the kitchen, I decided they would take turns (obvious solution isn't it).

I am home three days a week and I have three kids, so each kid gets a day! Nice how well that worked out! I try to let them choose at least some of what we prepare that day too. They are always happier to help if it is something they want to cook.

We also made a master list of all the things they wanted to learn, so we could try not to repeat things until we had gone through our list. That was the goal, but we haven't been too successful with that yet.

I think I will add a typed list in each kids binder, so we can cross off what we have made.

We make a variety of dishes rather then just simple things too. That way they have the opportunity to learn and practice many techniques. Of course sometimes they do want easy things especially for breakfast. I have even noticed an increased self assurance in their abilities as they will even get their own breakfast on busy days! Of course their favorite things things to cook seem to be any sort of dessert!

The girls are good about taking their turns and staying out of the way when it isn't their turn. Eli always wants it to be his turn, but even he is pretty good about playing elsewhere when we tell him to stay out. He will be big enough to really help on his turn soon enough!

Of course I still have to let go of some of those OCD tendencies, but having only one of them at a time has definitely made having them in the kitchen more enjoyable for all of us. I have a feeling they learn more one on one too! Maybe I will even assign them a day to cook all on their own Once they are older, much, much older!

Several kid friendly recipes are listed on my Recipe Page too!