i am not a good cook. not even a LITTLE bit actually. when church friends dropped off meals after our third baby was born, my kids repeatedly told me that the food tasted better than mine. i am aware that cooking is not my gift. and i am ok with that. but that doesn’t mean i can’t get my kids involved in the kitchen. by the time it is february, or on rainy summer days, i am as desperate as the next mama for creative indoor play ideas. lately, we’ve been turning to the kitchen.

i know what some of you are thinking. kids in the kitchen sounds like a headache, not a go-to indoor activity. i get it. but before you stop reading or turn on another show while you do all the meal prep yourself {yep, been there}, let me share five simple tips on how you can involve your kids in the kitchen. even if you yourself dread cooking.

tip #1 :: make a game of showing your kids around the kitchen

first of all, no, my kitchen does not ever actually look like this, especially when cooking with kids. i took this picture one evening while considering this wreath above my stove. everything i moved out of the way is heaped on the table behind me. don’t be fooled. but sometimes i like to pretend my kitchen looks like this. back to the point. think about how you feel when you are cooking in someone else’s kitchen. things take longer. you can’t find anything. you get frustrated. it’s not easy. it’s not fun. it’s the opposite of how you want your children to feel in the kitchen.

before you actually involve your kiddos in the cooking process {or anything really}, it is helpful to take a day to just show your kiddos around. when i was a teacher, and we were using a new material like counting cubes, i learned it was best to give the students five minutes to play with the cubes before i started using them for a lesson. the students were more likely to use the cubes correctly during the lesson if they had already gotten the playing out of their system. this concept of showing your kids around the kitchen is similar in design.

practice standing at the counter. choose stools and chairs that will help little ones reach. practice getting up and down. teach about the dangers of a hot stove and the difference between adult and child spaces in the kitchen. in our kitchen, E and K are allowed to stand on chairs around the island. the island is a child space. they are not allowed to stand at the stove or use the microwave. those are adult spaces. when we cook, if my kiddos are silly or unsafe on their chairs, or don’t listen well, they are asked to get down and leave the kitchen until they are ready to listen.

let your children open drawers and cabinets, get things out, line things up. make it into a scavenger hunt or play “i spy.” provide paper and let them draw pictures of three new things they find. after they’ve looked around, have them hide their eyes. take out five things and challenge them to put them back in the right spot. then, when it comes time for cooking, and they need to wait for their jobs, they can play these games while they wait.

tip #2 :: manage your expectations, which is a fancy way of saying lower them, very very low

when there are kids in the kitchen, something is going to go wrong. an egg is going to crack on the floor, someone is going to sneeze in the flour, and half of something is going to end up on the counter, or worse. i’ve found that as long as i expect something like this to happen, i don’t come unhinged when it does. we keep wipes and paper towels at the ready. ready meaning out of the package, already torn off, ready. the kids use the wipes for their hands as we go. we keep a bowl in the center of the island {and sometimes in the sink, full of warm sudsy water} for all used and dirty utensils. this keeps our workspace organized and helps prevent things from being knocked on the floor.

this may seem obvious, but i’ve also determined that i do not cook well with kids when i am in a hurry, when i am making a new recipe, or when i have company coming. but that doesn’t mean the kids can’t still be involved. if it’s one of those nights, i invite my kids to stand on chairs at the island and keep me company. i do the cooking but i also explain things and might give out very small jobs. this is a learning experience for next time. every day my daughter asks, “can i keep you company?” i’ve made it clear that they are always welcome to watch, just not always welcome to touch. if your kiddos are old enough, get them a clipboard and tell them to take notes or draw pictures of what they see you doing. that way they can feel involved in the process without slowing you down.

tip #3 :: assign very important job titles and make your kiddos feel like a big deal {see bonus job title chart}

everyone likes to feel important. the busier i can make my kids while cooking, the better. i have found that the most helpful way to keep kiddos involved in a recipe, without losing my sanity, is to give each child at least one “ very important job.” we have even discussed the concept of being “fired” if you aren’t doing your job correctly, just like in the real world. it is amazing the sense of purpose this important job allows. kids love to feel like a big deal.

when i started letting my kids in the kitchen, my daughter was 2 and my son was 5. every time we cooked, my daughter was our go-to girl for measuring cups, bowls, and stirring utensils. at our house, these are all within her reach if she stands on a chair. even if we don’t need all of these things, i ask her to get them out, one at a time. busy, remember? this helps her learn the names of things and in our case, practice her colors and counting. i’ll ask her to get out the yellow bowl and two forks. once she gets those i’ll ask for the red bowl and some measuring cups. then the green bowl and biggest measuring spoons, then the smallest measuring spoons, and so on.

as she does these things, i would have my son E line things up from biggest to smallest, or put things in groups {all the bowls together, all the cups together, all the spoons together}. meanwhile, i take care of the more grown up tasks. E is also the main mixer and has been promoted to chief egg cracker. it’s a big deal. E is our the ingredients guy, the butter unwrapper, and he gets things out of the fridge. sometimes, he is even the dish washer. when i cook, i like to clean as i go, and E likes anything that has to do with water and soap bubbles. K even joins in for the dishwashing. yes, they sometimes get water on the floor, but its just soap and water and my floors usually need cleaning anyway. yours too?

typically, our jobs stay the same from recipe to recipe, and slowly they graduate to new jobs as they get bigger. like E being the egg cracker, when he used to just be the egg tapper. it’s a big deal.

click here to view and print a complete list of these and other very important jobs you might assign to your very important helpers.

tip #4 :: break everything down into doable, sometimes even unnecessary steps

when i am cooking with E and K, even when i could do something in one step, i break it up into smaller steps, or even make up steps, just to keep them involved. when in doubt, just ask them to stir something. yes, this takes longer, but remember this is a replacement activity, an alternative to the shows and the other inside activities that no longer keep their attention. here are three examples ::

{1} when we bake chocolate chip cookies, there is really no reason to cut the butter up, it just needs to be softened. but i add this step. this keeps E busy and lets him practice with a butter knife. and let me tell you, using a knife is a hugely important around here. it makes my kids feel so important. if you’re still nervous about it, use a plastic knife. i also split up measurements, for example if something calls for a cup of flour i split it into two, half cups so both my kids can pour. this gives an added bonus of explaining that two halves make a whole.

{2} when we bake, and it is time to combine the dry ingredients with the wet, i would typically just pour them in quickly. with kids, i give them each a measuring cup and ask them to take turns scooping the dry ingredient into the wet as i stir. this can be done with any recipe that calls for one group of ingredients to be combined with another.

{3} when we make something that involves cutting different meats, veggies, cheeses, or other ingredients, i assign each ingredient to a child. we spread out a bunch of bowls and every few minutes, as i prepare an ingredient, i allow that child to grab a handful and place it in its designated bowl. for example, cutting up spinach and cooked chicken for lasagna. as i cut, i pause every minute for little hands to grab what’s been done and place it in a bowl. this is not really necessary. i could keep it all on the cutting board, but it keeps everyone involved. the busier they are, the less likely you will find them trying to stick their fingers into the eggs you just cracked. {and remember, you are supermama because they are not in front of the tv.} once we are done sorting, i put the ingredients where they are actually supposed to go, or we combine them together using the method from {#2} above.

tip #5 :: get your kiddos talking

inevitably, there will be down time where you are performing adult tasks and your kiddos have to wait. this is the part where kids in the kitchen can get scary and why i used to leave them out. bored kids equals whining and playing with the spatula you just used on the raw meat. eek! engage your children in conversation during this down time. this might seem obvious but sometimes when i am cooking it is hard to remember how to multitask. i wasn’t always good at this part but i’ve gotten better with practice. here are a few conversation starters that are sure to pass the time and prevent disaster from striking ::

if you could be any ingredient on this table, what would you pick and why?
tell me what is the same and what is different about ____________. {possible blank fillers :: the can opener and the whisk, the flour and the sugar, your shirt and your brothers, the red bowl and the yellow bowl}
choose three items from this kitchen and make up a crazy story about them.
pick a utensil to use as a microphone and sing me a song.
hide this ______ {spoon, spice, etc} and then direct your sister/brother to find it with eyes closed.
if all else fails, let them lick a spoon. my kiddos will spend minutes upon minutes licking a spoon covered in even a small amount of batter. and yes, i let them eat the batter. my mom did it and i turned out fine, right?

easy, right? i promise you, once you try it a few times it will be. show your kids around, manage expectations, give out jobs, break things into smaller steps, and spend time talking. maybe you’ll never be known for your good cooking. maybe cooking is your passion and you’re looking for ways to share it with your children. maybe you are at work all day and the time preparing dinner is the only time you have with your little ones, and you need some tips to tame the crazy. as spring takes its time to arrive and the inside hours loom before you, i challenge you to hide the remote and get out the stools. let’s see what kind of fun you can make in the kitchen.

:: bonus ::

:: click the picture to try out some of our favorite recipes ::

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