Cooking with Littles...

Part of being a homeschool mom (and really just a mom in general) is teaching our children life-skills.  We need to take time during our day to show them (and involve them in) things like doing laundry, changing linens, making beds, cleaning up after ourselves, meal planning and shopping, and of course, cooking.

At this age, my girls are obviously not going to be doing anything alone in the kitchen. That would be disastrous.  They do need to become familiar with what I do to prepare meals and snacks, though, so I try to include them in making something once in awhile.

Today we made 5 ingredient granola bars.  The recipe was very loosely based on the recipe you can find here .

The key to cooking with Littles is all in the prep work.  Print or copy your recipe, and read it thoroughly. The reason you want to have a copy is so that it can be very near at hand and you don't have to worry if when it gets messy.  You need to read it thoroughly because you don't want to have to refer to it too much when the kids are cooking.

Once you have read through your recipe (which is a good protocol any time you are cooking, by the way), you need to assemble your ingredients.  Take the time to measure them out and either put them in ramekins (you know, like they do on cooking shows) or in your various measuring cups. Do not attempt to measure while the kids are in the kitchen with you. Bad idea.

Once you have your stuff gathered, call the kids in. I grabbed a couple of chairs for them to stand on, and stood right next to them.   Make sure each child knows they are going to have a turn at a special job. This helps prevent grabby hands and bickering. I try to start with the youngest child, because the littlest littles just have less patience. Have one pour:

and then the other:

Then let them work together:

After the kiddos stirred this up, we all helped press it into the pan, and I put it into the oven.  While it was baking, I filled-up the dish pan with sudsy water, and let the kids wash their spoons.  Clean up is a very important part of kitchen work, and it would be a disservice to our children if we didn't teach that to them from the start. My littles can't really wash a dish effectively yet, nor can they tolerate water that is hot enough to do the job, but it doesn't hurt to let them pretend to wash their wooden spoons in warm soapy water, just so they get the idea that this is always one of the steps in cooking.

I just finish cleaning up when the fun of the water play has all petered out, and I take the food out of the oven by myself. Voila! A successful cooking experience.

During this cooking experience the kids practiced taking turns, working as a team, measuring, pouring, balance, and listening to instructions.  It's really a good experience for everyone, when it goes well, but there are couple of things you should keep in mind:


1. Do not attempt cooking in the kitchen with littles on days that you are short on patience. You need barrels full of patience to manage more than 1 little in the kitchen. They get excited, and they can sometimes get ahead of you, or they choose not to listen to you and you have to stop everything to discipline. Make sure you are in a good head-space so everyone can enjoy it.

2. Do not expect to keep things neat. Littles are messy by nature, but especially so in the kitchen. They will spill the oatmeal, they will try stick their fingers in the peanut butter, they will splash the soapy water onto the floor. It's okay! They are learning and having fun, and there is no mess you can't clean up.  The patience thing comes into play again here. Plan to be messy. You can all wear smocks or aprons and you can always keep your kitchen towel nearby . I like to keep a little hand broom and pan on hand, so a little one can help sweep up any floor spills.


3. Make it special. Praise their effort and make sure you taste what they've made in front of them. It's one of our biggest jobs to build these littles up and encourage their hearts. I like to try to take pictures while we cook. It can be difficult, and as you can see, the picture quality sometimes often stinks, but they grow up fast and you will cherish these memories one day. You want them to, too. :)