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Kids in the Kitchen

34 I'm talking about cooking with kids today. I was inspired by the 4 Moms of 35 Kids. Hop on over and see how they do it!

As you know, having kids in the kitchen can be fun or it can be stressful. It's all how you look at it. It is SO worth the extra trouble to let them join you in cooking and cleaning. The payoffs will be big!

My kids are 14, 10, 5, 2, and 8 weeks. When my first one was very small, she wanted to help me in the kitchen, and I let her. It was messier, slower, and less productive, but it was time spent together and it was training for her.

Fast forward to today.

My two oldest, who are girls, love to cook, and are very independent in the kitchen. Claudia, 14, is very able and willing to cook complete meals for the family. She loves to experiment with new recipes. Now she makes a very delicious fettucine alfredo from scratch!

Chloe, 10, loves to chop potatoes for mashed potatoes or soup, scramble eggs, and many other helpful preparations.

During my last pregnancy, I did very little cooking, because my girls were able to be such a help. As I lay there on the couch feeling, well . . . pregnant, I thanked God (and my girls) for such wonderful help!

Now their little brothers are learning to enjoy kitchen work, too. Nicholas (5) is learning to rinse dishes and set the table. Nathan (almost 3) loves to help with everything, so he will, many times, voluntarily start clearing the table with one of his big sisters. He loves to rinse dishes, too.

Here is Nathan, on his 2nd birthday, with the cake Claudia made for him. He loves trains, so she made a very elaborate train cake. He was very pleased!

Claudia made this cake for a family Christmas gathering. She used some of the new techniques she learned in a class last fall.

Nicholas is rinsing dishes. We don't have a dishwasher, so the kids have to really wash them!

Chloe is making queso for a mexican meal. Yum!

This is the birthday cake Claudia recent made for me. It's chocolate with homemade chocolate buttercream icing. Deee-lish!

And, some of you may have seen this, but this is a cake Claudia made on the last day of Enrichment Classes last fall. At the program that evening, she sold it for $20! You can be she was excited, and very motivated to keep decorating.

Now all we need is a bigger kitchen to make it more fun!

Labels: homemaking, my kids

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