Tips for Dads: Cooking with your kids in the kitchen

Cooking with your kids in the kitchen will help pass on key life skills through the generations. One of the most rewarding things I found when learning to cook was passing on the things I'd learnt to my daughter. As she was always showing an interest in cooking and baking in the kitchen from a young age, I knew it would not be too tough to get her involved.

Contents

• Introduction
• When cooking with kids - Safety first
• Lets get cooking!
• Things might get messy - that's OK!
• On reflection
• Your Comments

Introduction

My daughter has always loved cooking and baking, especially when baking cakes and scones with her Nanna. The opportunity to cook at home in a safe environment helps the development of any little one, so getting them involved will really benefit their development. Anyone can try it!

When cooking with kids - Safety first

Before I go on, I think we have to mention safety in the kitchen. While this post is all about enjoying the time and cooking alongside your children, it is worth remembering there are plenty of hazards we all need to be aware of. There are a couple of ways to address this and make it a fun learning experience.

Identify the hazards

Before starting to cook, try spending some time to go around the kitchen and see how many hazards your little ones can spot. Knowing why objects are a danger is a good start to help be wary of them.

Things to look out for are:

• Sharp and pointy items like scissors or glass.
• Things that could get hot like a kettle or a stove top.
• Items which could be pulled, such as a pan handle hanging over the hob.

Know what to do

Does your child know what to do in the event of an injury or accident? All this will depend on the age of the child and you as a parent know best, but being prepared before doing any form of cooking will help should things go wrong.

Lets get cooking!

So what are you going to start with? My suggestions are simple and quick recipes which do not take an age to make (losing the attention is not difficult!) so things like fairy cakes, cinnamon rolls and similar quick bakes like my one cup quiche are a good start.

Again this all depends on the age of the little person you are cooking with, but keep in mind about what ingredients you need to use. Weights and measures is a really good learning process too, so before switching on an oven take some time to prepare things:

• Weigh out ingredients - a good lesson about grams, kilograms, teaspoon and tablespoon, millilitres and so on.
• Wash, chop and peel - anything that needs initial preparation should be done in advance. Remember that every part of these processes take time so nothing should be rushed.
• Clear & wipe - work surfaces should be free from clutter and cleaned in readiness to get cooking.
• Talk about the food chain - discuss everything passing between your hands. Where does flour come from? How do we get milk? Where does the sugar come from? Lots of question prompts. Even the "which came first, chicken or egg" paradox is a good one to discuss!

Things might get messy - that's OK!

As with all cookery, when you have a "helper" things are not always a clean and tidy as we'd hope and there will be spills and mess. This is all part of the process and it doesn't seem to be much different whether they are a six year old or a teenager. As a parent it is key to keep your cool and expect a mess. I used to get a bit stressed out by the mess when baking with my little one but soon learnt that a mess can be cleaned. As long as it doesn't pose a danger such as a slip or fall if there is a wet floor, then its OK.

I think the last tip I'd share is to let them go 'off piste'. This means when cooking with kids to let them lead and not necessarily following the recipe to the letter. If they miss a bit out by mistake (or on purpose) how does it change things? Varying a recipe is a great way to learn what does and doesn't work so letting them experiment will be a good learning curve too.

Cooking has to be fun to keep their interests so making sure it is a fun experience will be rewarding in the long run. If I'm honest, I miss those days and would love to go back and do that all over again.

Make a note of the recipes. Every time you cook or bake, keep a note of the recipe or maybe write it in a personal recipe book. Over the years these will be a fun book to look back on or even pass down the generations.

On reflection

My daughter is at university now and is a great cook. I like to think she has taken all the recipes we've made in the past and took on board what she had learnt from both me and her Nanna. She sends me photos of food she has made which means a lot to me and makes it all worth while. (Plus it's much more healthy than a Pot Noodle too!)

You know your kids the best and so providing you keep them safe while in the kitchen, cooking with your children can be one of the most mutually rewarding past times you can do with them and one which should be cherished.