The mastery of basic cooking skills is something I desire for my daughters. However, while I mentally assent to the idea of having them help me in the kitchen, the reality means spending more time accomplishing a task and cleaning up a larger mess when we’re done. We used to bake together every weekend, but that has fallen by the wayside lately. This summer I am determined to do better!
Last Saturday I had them each make their own lunch; that was relatively simple as it involved a sandwich for one and a bagel for the other. My goal for the coming months is to have each of them help me prepare one supper a week. As we progress, I aim to become less involved in the actual preparation of the dishes and act as more of a supervisor.
Here are seven cooking-related tasks that I’d like for my girls to learn (some of them more appropriate for my nine-year-old than my seven-year-old).
- Make a dough of some sort (biscuit, pizza, bread).
- Chop fruits and vegetables.
- Peel a potato.
- Boil water for pasta (with lots of supervision!)
- Wash dishes. *blushing* (After a meal, they clear their places and load the dishwasher, but don’t actually wash dishes.)
- Follow a cookie recipe and complete it alone (except for assistance getting them in and out of the oven.)
- Clean up when finished by putting away leftover ingredients, wiping off counter tops, etc.
Do your children help you in the kitchen often? Please let me know of other age-appropriate skills that I can add to my list!
photo courtesy public domain pictures
I have 5 kids and started giving each one of them one night a week to cook the evening meal (with my help). That way they are learning new skills in context. Some of these skills I never thought to teach them. They love being in charge of the menu for one night – and we get a lot more desserts!
great ideas! I need to do more of that with Elayna. 🙂
Love how you are teaching them these lifelong skills! I wonder if it is a good age for them to learn about place settings and maybe some other simple etiquette tips? Your girls are very blessed to have you as a mama teaching them these important things!
Katie,
I definitely want to work with them on place settings; as to etiquette, let's just say we're in the process! 🙂
I also look forward to having them actually select the dishes they want to prepare, then teaching them to create a list of ingredients we'll need to purchase at the store to make the meal.
Love your list! Definitely some great things to teach your daughters, I can't wait to have a daughter or two to teach these things too!
Helping with dinner is one of those additional chores that they can get extra points for. Definitely need to get them learning more. I think we will concentrate on some life skills this summer. 😀