Cooking together: do you do it? and how?

My kids love to help in the kitchen. But they are a bit older than your child. Give it time.

I will say it takes about twice as long to get anything done with the kids helping. But they enjoy it so much and so do I so it is worth the extra time and effort.

The Flickr group looks like fun, I wanna join too...

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We have just started cooking with our two year old. He received an apron as a gift for Christmas and loves to wear it when we cook. He stands on a chair and has his own spoon & mixing bowl. We usually put water in his bowl to mix while we are gathering ingredients. He then helps us mix whatever dish we are making. It makes cooking a little more enjoyable for me, since I don't like to do it normally. I also enjoy watching my son have so much fun doing it with us.

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I have been baking with my daughter since she was just over a year. We sit on the floor and she pours the ingredients in the bowl from the measuring cups, and she has her own spoon. Mostly she does taste testing. Then, I pour the baking into the pan and she licks the bowl.. She gets very little, but it keeps her occupied for about a half hour in one spot. Then if she is really a mess, I throw her in the tub adn wash her off.

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I am such a terrible and disorganized cook that its hard to let my 2-year-old "help". If I am making something that I am really good at then I let her do little things like crack eggs or pour stuff. Its actually easier to let her help than to try to keep her away, but most of the time I barely know what I am doing myself!

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Yeah, my kids helped me open the box of Stouffer's frozen lasagna just last night. LOL No, really, I will let them help if they want. My 5 YO son usually doesn't want to help, but my 4 YO daughter usually DOES. She is great at cracking eggs (and of course, then washing her hands...;) She loves to set the table too. I agree with Cee, it takes longer, but if the kids are having fun and learning, what the heck..

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With my oldest I was super gung ho and got him in the kitchen early. However, the problem is, Mommy only has enough patience to have one helper - not two - or even three. So - we have the helping chair and the watching chairs... I've gotten lax in having them help and I need to be better about it. But, if I have one cooking project I need to find a way to have each child have a role - which given my tiny kitchen may mean different projects.

But -we often make pancakes and scrambled eggs on Saturday mornings (probably not now that soccer has started...) I promised #2 son who is less coordinated than his brother that he can start cracking eggs when he is 5. We also make brownies, cupcakes and I bought the yeast but have yet to discover the time or inclination to do bread... Homemade pizza is also a winner - either make or buy the individual crusts and they each top their own

It's a good investment - but it's not easy - for me it's really hard not to yell when flour goes everywhere. I have a husband who doesn't cook and I feel it's my responsibility to teach my boys (and my daughter) to cook. But a glass of wine before starting is often in order;)

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I've said it before here, but a mom's best friend is the crockpot. If you eat meat, grab a hunk of it, any kind, and toss it in with about 4 to 6 cups of largely chopped root vegetables (cut medium potatoes in four, cut onions into wedges, throw in a couple handfuls of baby carrots straight out of the bag and chop a stalk or two of celery into big chunks. Drizzle a little olive oil over the whole thing, shake in your fave spice mix (southwest, montreal steak, peppercorn, french herb...) and let it sit and do it's magic for 4to 8 hours. It's just too easy.

And, to get Binx involved, let him toss in the chopped veg after you've prepped it. And/or shake some of the spice in. He'll feel proud, when y'all get to tell daddy that Binx made supper!

I let Kieran help me doing the stirring and mixing. really, he's just got his hand on the ladel handle or the mixer handle and I'm doing the work, but he's proud of himself nonetheless and gets bragging rights.

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Our little ones both like to help with cooking. But they like other chores too: putting away laundry "My pants!" together can be fun.
Also, with putting the laundry in the machine (watching it fall out of the laundry chute is BIG FUN!!)
The newest chore they have decided they want to do(which they will actually fight over!) is swiffering. Take one section out of the handle so it's the right size for them, and away they go.
I am a terrible housekeeper, so there is always plenty of dust and dog hair and crumbs for them to be able to see RESULTS when swiffering. My 4 year old announced the other day that the hallway looked kind of dirty, and could she swiffer? You bet!

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Develed eggs are brilliant. Hard boil the eggs in advance and let them cool till they are cool enough to work with. Show the kids how to lightly bang the eggs on the table on all sides then how to peel the egg shells off. You'll have to rinse off the eggs to make sure all the shell has been removed. Then you cut the eggs in half, or if your comfortable let them do it with a butter knife. Let them squeeze out the yolks into a bowl then they can mash the yolk with a fork. They can also spoon in the mayonaise (or miracle whip which I prefer for develed eggs) and yellow mustard and mix. Then with a tea spoon fill the egg whites. Easy peasy!

Another fun one is french toast, they can mix the egg mixture and dip the bread for you. I remember being seven and my mother letting me grate potatoes for hash browns and carrots for salad before the days of baby carrots. I think they now have graters in the states that are difficult to cut yourself on, at least I have a lemon zester like that that I bought a couple years ago. I have a really yummy recipe for ginger carrot salad dressing if anyone wants it. It needs to be consumed immediatly or the flavor goes off.

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oooh! i'll join. :) i've got some pictures of C and i making some desserts. he loves to help whenever he can, usually mixing things or adding the ingrediants that i've measured out.

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