7 Tips On How To Get Kids Into The Kitchen

Your kitchen is the most important place in the home. The kitchen is considered the heart of a home. Your kids may not want to step into the kitchen due to various reasons. But there are many ways that you can get your kids into the kitchen, and involve them in cooking. It's a fact that children love to play, so if you can introduce them to playful cooking, they will be ready to join you in this game and have a lot of fun along the way.

Let's see some creative ways of awakening the love for cooking in your kids:

1. The ABC of cooking

If your kids are just starting to learn the alphabet, you can organize a baking game in which you use the dough to model the letters of the alphabet, then make them spell their names and bake their creations. Try to find a tasty recipe for cookies or biscuits, so they enjoy eating their names as well afterwards.

2. More colors in your plate are a sign of health and fun

You can use colorful foods to create amazing sandwiches or plate decorations. Salads, tomatoes, carrots and about all available fruits can be used to compose landscapes or portraits, right there, on a chopping board or directly on the plate. Make a series of funny faces out of fruit slices, then eat them piece by piece while having a lot of fun in the process. When it comes to possible ideas, sky is the limit. Don't forget to take photos of all plates before eating the foods.

3. Pocket money is sweeter when you have to work for it

Teach your children household chores by establishing a set of rewards for various activities. For instance, emptying the dishwasher can have a price, doing the dishes another price and vacuuming the kitchen floor can be so rewarding that they will fight over it. Monetary rewards work and they help teaching children responsibility and budgeting.

4. Turn your kids into TV stars in your very kitchen

With YouTube and other video sharing websites available, it's easy to make a video star out of everybody. All you need is a mobile phone and a child willing to cook something in front of the camera. Make the kids explain what they are doing, step by step, as if they were Jamie Oliver or some other VIP chef out there.

5. Let children unleash their originality and create their own menus

If you control the ingredients, you could allow the kids cook whatever they want with them. Let them make original creations and mix ingredients in unexpected ways. This is how they are going to learn what goes well with what and which combinations aren't tasty and should be avoided. You could organize themed cooking sessions, in which your kids will need to create menus for a birthday party, for the Sunday breakfast in the family or for special events such as Halloween or Christmas.

6. Involve your kids in designing the kitchen

If you're just about to renovate your kitchen, it's the perfect time to let your kids have their say. Ask them to give their opinion on materials and colors and try to incorporate their ideas into the end result. If they aren't quite realistic, find an explanation for not doing it right away, but do it in such a way that the child feels that he matters.

7. Teach the kids to take pride in keeping the kitchen sparkling clean

Cooking is fun and kids will quickly learn to love it. However, you should also teach them that restoring the beauty of the kitchen after the cooking has been done is as important as the cooking in itself.

Citations:

• Read on, for more ideas to get your kids in the kitchen. 

Amy Rice writes for http://www.planen.co.uk when not writing, I enjoy spending time with my daughter, lifting free weights at the gym, gardening and walking. 

Image:  TheodoreWLee on Flickr