It can be hard to bring the family into the kitchen when they only see it as work. The kids might think of the kitchen as a place where you wash dishes or take out the garbage. You can change their minds and make them more excited to help out in the kitchen when you give them something to do that can make them feel important, or if they can turn whatever they are doing into a game. Here are some easy ways you can make the kitchen more fun for the rest of the family so that you don’t have to cook alone ever again.
Allow someone to help you stir up ingredients
As long as you set up a designated stirring space to protect your counters, the walls, and your gray kitchen cabinets, then you can have one of your kids help you stir up ingredients in a large bowl or pot. This job can take up a lot of energy and you can let them know that this is a tough job so that when they do it successfully, they can feel like they were a big help. And they will be worn out so after they eat, they will be too tired to bounce around the house.
Let the kids lick the spoon (if safe to do so)
If you are making a sort of dessert and the batter or leftover is safe for the kids to eat, let them take a bite. It will not only make them excited about the thing that you have just made together, but it will remind them that there are benefits to helping cook in the kitchen. Even if they don’t help with much, show them that there is a reward when they are helping you make dinner or desserts for the rest of the family.
Have someone read out the ingredients and steps that you need
If you are practicing reading with your younger kids, put them in charge of reading the ingredients. It will show them a lot of new words that they never heard of before, and it will make the smaller words in their school books easier to understand. It has been proven that if you talk to your child as if they were older, they will be smarter as they grow up. Let your younger kids, with supervision, be in charge of reading off steps and ingredients.
Putting together ingredients or handing you the ingredients
As long as you trust your kids to not drop the eggs in the middle of the kitchen, then you can bring some fun in by letting them bring you the ingredients that you need. Make a point to be careful so that they are on their best behavior, and let them know how grateful you are that they are being so helpful. This might not seem like something fun for you. But to them, this is the best thing that they have been able to do in a long time.
Someone should watch the timer
This will not only keep your kid busy while the food or dessert is cooking, but it will teach them to watch the timer because if they are off by even a minute, the food and dessert can burn and taste badly. This is considered a fun activity because the child, once again, feels like they are an important piece in helping cook whatever it is that you are trying to make.
It can be fun to clean up once everything is done
Once you are finished preparing the meal or dessert with your kids, show them how quickly you can clean everything up if you don’t wait around for the items used to harden. If you quickly clean up the ingredients, you don’t have to be in the water for more than a minute or so. This will show your kids that dish duty isn’t always a ten-minute or more job that they are required to stand and do. Instead, it can be quick, easy, and peaceful when done immediately.
