Summer vacation is here and kids are running wild. Ok maybe not wild, but they are certainly enjoying not going to school. This is a great time to teach kids left at home how to have more responsibility, if they don’t already. Growing up, there came a point where my sister and I started cooking dinner for the family. Back then, I’ll be honest, it wasn’t my favorite thing to do. I would much rather have been reading than worrying about what to cook. Mom had a paperback cookbook for kids I loved to use though. Many of the pages are stained and the spine is in bad shape, but it holds so many memories. There are simple recipes kids can cook for themselves for breakfast and snacks and even some desserts, but it includes a section for cooking dinner I used way more than the other pages. My family enjoyed those dinners and I got a sense of pride for completing them and having everybody like what I made.

If you have kids old enough, let them cook dinner once or twice a week. If they are not old enough to be trusted with the stove top or oven, there are still ways they can help to feel more independent. Plan your week with their involvement. Let them pick what they want to fix and what day and write it on the calendar so no one forgets. I usually cook on Sundays and Wednesdays are either for leftovers or eating a sandwich or something quick. My boyfriend’s oldest son cooks some nights. He plans what he wants to cook and makes sure we approve of the menu. Then he checks ingredients and helps with the grocery list. It teaches him some responsibility and important life skills.

When you all sit down to plan, it means more quality time as a family. Get the kids involved and let them ask all the questions they want. It allows you to discuss nutrition and how they need to incorporate the food groups into the meal. Discuss likes and dislikes. This leads to the kids trying more things and being imaginative in the kitchen. If they want to rename their dishes something other than what a cookbook has, let them. It makes it more fun for them.

Cooking is a great way to incorporate math and science into everyday things. You can talk about the processes of water boiling and how the steam forms. You can show how liquids change shape and form different things when heated, like cake batter, or cooled, like ice cream. Sometimes the recipes need to be scaled up or down to feed your family. This teaches the kids how to do fractions and make adjustments. Cooking also shows how important it can be to read directions and put things into the correct order.

Cooking helps kids build confidence. As they begin cooking, let them start out small like adding the ingredients to the bowl and stirring everything. As they gain confidence and can do things with less direction from you, let them do more, eventually letting them chop vegetables and cook the meat. It also helps show them time management. It takes skill to have dinner all ready at the same time. Otherwise, something is cold and no one, even the kids, wants that. Depending on how the meal turns out, it can be a boost to their self-esteem because they did it right and it turned out delicious or another learning opportunity for what could do to make it better next time. Also, kids love being able to serve dinner to the family!

Letting them cook also helps their creativity and experimentation. Adrian loves pasta so much we have to limit the pasta to every other week and he can’t make the same thing twice in a month. This pushes him to look for different recipes and reach new horizons. It also provides lessons on tasting while you cook and making adjustments to match how you like your food to taste. This also helps cut down on the complaints the kids don’t want to eat what was cooked. If you are all planning and no one has objections and they cook it, they have to eat it. No more fighting a picky eater!

As always, parental supervision is recommended based on the age and maturity of your kids. Also talk with your kids about how important it is to set the phones down or turn off the TV and watch what they are doing so things don’t burn because they were forgotten. Get the kids involved, check the pantry and make your grocery list. Then join me in the kitchen with the kids for some fun kid cooked meals!