Help with dinner

What to do when your little one wants to help with dinner

Baking with your preschooler is one thing, moving on to cooking with your children is completely different.

How many times have your little ones asked to help with dinner? And because they bake with you, they think they can cook too. I have a couple of ideas for you.

Let them help with tomorrow's dinner.
Sit them down at the table, with a safety knife and some vegetables, carrots, mushrooms, peppers etc. They can chop them all while you get on with today's meal.
It might mean having the same vegetables with dinner two nights running, but that's not a huge problem.
Have a side salad
It doesn't have to be huge, just a little lettuce, some tomatoes and cucumber slices. As above, they can sit at a table and chop some salad items for you. It may even encourage them to eat some as an appetiser, rather than looking for snacks 2 minutes before dinner.
Grating
A rotary grater with a spinning handle means no more skinned knuckles. Let your little ones loose on a block of cheese.
Peeling
There are child safety peelers available, but I taught my children to peel using a normal peeler. Show your child how to peel away from the body and there won't be any cut fingers.

And when all the prep is done, get them to lay the table.

If you try any of these, let me know how you get on.

Maria x

Categories: : Baking with children