Baking together is a wonderful parent-and-child activity. It gives you something that you can do together, and it teaches your child about where the food they eat actually comes from. Your child will love learning a new skill and getting to feel like a grown-up as they help you, and plus, you’ll get to eat something tasty at the end of it! If you wish to make the most out of your time in the kitchen, there are a few things that you need to think about.
Kitchen safety
If you want your child to stay safe while they’re in the kitchen, it’s a good idea to teach them a few kitchen rules. This means that your child knows exactly what they can and can’t do, and you know that they will be safe. Some good rules are:
- No cooking unless an adult is present. If your child loves cooking, it’s possible that they will want to try it on their own, so make sure they know that they have to have supervision.
- Washing your hands. Remind your child that if they touch their food without washing their hands, then everything they have touched goes into their food! That’s always a good reminder.
- No touching hot items. Try getting a colorful towel or potholder for carrying your hot pans and plates to make sure that your children are excited to use it.
- Knife safety. Take the time to teach your children how to handle knives from a young age, you can start with plastic ones and graduate on as they get older.
- No licking until they’ve asked. Everyone loves licking the cake batter off of a spoon, but if your child were to lick something harmful this wouldn’t be great, so be sure that they know they have to ask before licking anything.
It’s also a good idea to teach your kids that they need to stop and listen to you before doing anything at all in the kitchen, to avoid potential dangers. It’s easy to get over-excited, and you don’t want your children getting hurt as a result.
Making baking more exciting for children
If you’d like to get your kids excited about baking there are lots of things that you can do to make baking seem like an art project.
Using lots of differently shaped cookie cutters is a great way to add some fun to the process, as is using lots of sprinkles and cake decorations. If you really want to add some fun to your baking, get lots of different colors of food coloring and let your kids go nuts seeing what colors they can create by mixing them together.
Choosing a recipe
Finally, be sure that you choose recipes that are age-appropriate for your children and don’t have too many parts that they can’t get involved in.
If they are just sitting and watching you do everything then the chances are that they will get bored and they won’t be excited to cook with you again.
