3 Tips for Getting Your Children Into The Kitchen

When you get home in the evening after a long day, the last thing you want to do is to slave over a hot stove for a couple of hours to get dinner ready. Cooking is traditionally a chore that simply gets in the way but, if done correctly it can be an incredibly enjoyable family experience.

Cooking is an essential life skill and one of the most useful skills that you can instil on your children as well as being an excellent opportunity for bonding. As with every activity involving children, though, it takes for you to be structured in order for you and your children to get the most out of these cooking lessons.

Here are some of our top tips for getting your kids excited about cooking.

1. Get them Interested in Food!

Kids are creatures of habit and will quickly become selective and picky eaters if they are not exposed to a variety of food as early as possible. Regularly giving children food that they have never tried before is a great way of making sure that they continue to be excited by food and don’t simply see it as a necessity.

Fruits are one of the easiest ways to keep children excited about food as their exotic colours and sweet taste make them an easy win.

2. StartSlowly

As with all new things, children will need to be introduced to cooking little by little and will soon rebel if things become more of a chore to them. Simple recipes such as buns or shortbread take no skill and involve very few ingredients whilst still being a tasty and rewarding treat.

If you are cooking a larger dish such as a full meal then it is important to limit children’s involvement to specific, smaller tasks to avoid frustration.

3. Accept the Mess!

Cooking is a messy activity and children are naturally messy! Keep this in mind and repeat it as a mantra as you see the mess building up around you. The trick is to not give them anything that could stain, as they will find that one unprotected spot in the kitchen and apply beetroot to it.

If you really stress about the mess then it may be best to keep your cooking lessons to the weekend so that you have plenty of time to clean up afterwards.

So there you have it, stick with these tips and you can’t go far wrong and your kids will soon be whipping up tea for the whole family whilst you put your feet up!

One last thing to bear in mind is to make sure that your kitchen is as safe as humanly possible whilst your children are learning to cook. For our part, our Aga servicing and repairs will make sure that your trusty cooker never becomes a hazard. Contact us today if you think it’s been a little too long since your agas last service!