The following is a guest post from Kami, a mother of three who loves to share menu ideas, frugal tips, and suggestions for making moms’ lives easier.
Kami is actually a real life acquaintance of mine who discovered my blog. Turns out she is also a blogger at Home of Five AND In a Cloud, her recipe blog. I am looking forward to getting to know Kami better through the blogoshere! Please give her a warm welcome!
Cooking with Your Kids
“Mom, can we help you cook dinner?” is a question I hear every single day in my home. And my answer used to always be no until I read this passage from a cookbook titled, “Bundt Cake Bliss” by Susanna Short:
Some of my biggest joys and most hair-raising frustrations come from cooking with my kids. We all know it is sometimes easier to just do it ourselves, but cooking is more than simply putting food on the table. It can be meaningful time spent together passing on knowledge of family tradition, food science, and math! I get a lump in my throat when I am making the same cinnamon rolls for my children that my mom made for me. How do I know how to make these? She let me, or made me, help! I hope someday my grandchildren will enjoy the same cinnamon rolls that they helped make. This can only happen if I take the time to teach my kids today.
I couldn’t agree with Susanna’s words more. My favorite times as a child were in the kitchen with my mom or grandma. My mom was the one that taught me how to read a recipe (“instructions first, then ingredients”) and Grandma let me do it all! I can remember beating egg whites for a meringue when I was 4. I even had my own step stool that stayed in the same spot at her kitchen island. And when the other grandkids were outside playing, I was the one inside with Grandma watching and learning. We still have conversations about food every time we talk.
So when my kids ask me if they can help cook dinner or bake with me, it’s very easy to say no, but then I remember the lessons and memories from my mom’s and grandma’s kitchens. That always changes my mind. I allow my kids to do non-dangerous things like measuring, pouring, stirring and even cracking eggs. If they make a little mess, we clean it up and move on. They will never LEARN if they don’t DO.
Last summer I started putting my recipes on a blog so I could pass them on to family and friends. The cinnamon roll recipe there is a favorite of ours to make together. And you know, with fall just around the corner, I think a batch of cinnamon rolls is in order!
Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom, Kami. Of course, cooking at home is always the most frugal choice when it comes to meals. Involving children in the process will teach them the importance of family meals, while having fun!
Great post, Kami! My brother and I grew up cooking with our parents, and I definitely plan to involve our kids as soon as possible in the kitchen. My mom still has a photo of my brother when he was about 3 years old, in a Cheerios chef hat and apron (i’m sure we sent in for it with upc’s) stirring the beginnings of a batch of bread. There are definitely wonderful memories to be made and lessons to be learned if we can be patient and take the extra time.
Steph
Great post, Kami! My brother and I grew up cooking with our parents, and I definitely plan to involve our kids as soon as possible in the kitchen. My mom still has a photo of my brother when he was about 3 years old, in a Cheerios chef hat and apron (i’m sure we sent in for it with upc’s) stirring the beginnings of a batch of bread. There are definitely wonderful memories to be made and lessons to be learned if we can be patient and take the extra time.
Steph
Great post, Kami! My brother and I grew up cooking with our parents, and I definitely plan to involve our kids as soon as possible in the kitchen. My mom still has a photo of my brother when he was about 3 years old, in a Cheerios chef hat and apron (i’m sure we sent in for it with upc’s) stirring the beginnings of a batch of bread. There are definitely wonderful memories to be made and lessons to be learned if we can be patient and take the extra time.
Steph
Great post, Kami! My brother and I grew up cooking with our parents, and I definitely plan to involve our kids as soon as possible in the kitchen. My mom still has a photo of my brother when he was about 3 years old, in a Cheerios chef hat and apron (i’m sure we sent in for it with upc’s) stirring the beginnings of a batch of bread. There are definitely wonderful memories to be made and lessons to be learned if we can be patient and take the extra time.
Steph
That is a great post. One of my regrets is not having learned how to cook from my mother. She is a single mom of us 3 children and life is so hard in the Philippines. She has to work overtime to support us so we end up being in the care of stay-in nannies who don’t cook good. Mom was more of a career woman and though she wasn’t much of a homemaker, I still respect her choice. So Now that I just got married, it’s a struggle for me to cook new recipes coz I always cook the same food lol. I have to scour the internet to get ideas!!! hahaha
Kami, don’t you know what the mention of homemade cinnamon rolls does to a pregnant woman?
Any time you want to bring some over, I will glady oblige. 🙂 Thank you so much for guest posting!
This really is a good idea. I need to let my son help more. My mom let me do so much in the kitchen. And my Step-mom did not let her daughters help and later regretted it, because they didn’t know how to cook when they got married!