Kitchen Connections

My daughters are learning home-making

and cooking

is one of the most important skills.

Recently, when I went away for 9 days, my young ladies proved just how well they are managing in the kitchen!

And my stepson is an excellent cook!  He often steps in and cooks up a fabulous meal.

Over the years I have tried several approaches:

1. “Watch – Do – Teach”  Basically it works like this = My girls watch the technique or skill I am showing them, then they do the same activity while I observe them and then they must teach the cooking lesson to one of their siblings.
2. Menu plan and make the meal – We all brainstorm and suggest ideas for lunches and dinners for the week.  They then choose any main meal or lunch to prepare on their own.
3. One-on-one with mom – Each daughter spends one day assisting or cooking with me for the day each week.

But I really love to have the whole family and visitors join in to cook or bake together in the kitchen!

In fact I often plan meals with this in mind when we have friends visit and stay over at our farm.

These are my favorite cooking connections:

We all make pizzas.  Everyone cuts, slices, grates cheese, pips olives, spreads the pizza bases … and then we all cover the pizzas with a delightful variety of toppings.  Delicious and fun!

Another good meal for everyone to join in is a stir-fry.  There can all help prepare the food: cut and slice veggies, slice and dice meat and mix sauces. The actual stir-fry is also a big communal event as everyone clusters around the fry plates and stirs and fires!

Many a soup dish or stew is a great family effort.

Children love to bake. Biscuits are fun to do with kids of all ages.  They love rolling, cutting, coating balls, flattening with forks, sprinkling with toppings … and of course, nibbling titbits along with all the trimmings.

What about these ideas to bring cooking into your children’s lives?

• Buy a really good cookbook to stir some new excitement in a young new mini-chef’s cooking.

• Buy quality cooking utensils and equipment for their birthdays.

• Watch excellent cooking programs.

• Start a cook/ bake class with your homeschool group.

• Join a cooking demonstration.

• Ask a family member or neighbour to teach new skills.  A friend is teaching my girls how to make cheese. My mother-in-law’s neighbour used to be a chef and she loves to teach others.

• Do a recipe-exchange and commit to making one new recipe each week.

What ideas do you have?  How do you inspire and teach your children to cook and bake?  Feel free to share in the comments.

Blessings,

This post was submitted to the SACH Carnival. Join us and see what other South African Homeschoolers are cooking up in this carnival’s theme “Kitchen Fun!”