Cooking with Kids

Now that Dallin is out of school for the summer we are starting our summer fun activities.  One thing I am planning is a weekly cooking activity for the kids where they each make their own little recipe to eat.  I checked out "Cooking Rocks" by Racheal Ray from the library, which is a cook book for kids.  Anyway, I love her intro and want to share a couple exerpts from it:

"People often ask me where and when I learned to cook.  The truth is, I never did.  No one "taught" me how to cook.  No one person ever showed me how to hold a knife or how to tell when chicken was done.  No one explained to me which flavors were good together and which were not.  How then did I learn?  The answer has to do with my family.

The kitchen was the center of my childhood home.  As kids, my brother and sister and I were spoiled in an unusual way. We were treated as respected members of the group.  All the adults in our home listened when we spoke, giving us the same attention they gave other adults.  In turn, when they spoke, we listened.

This is not to say that we were treated as adults.  We were treated as children, with rules to follow, and were taught right from wrong. But, when given a direction to follow, we were spoken to in a way that assumed we were capable.  "Rachael, clean the potatoes and add them to the pot, please." is a very different statement from, "Rachael, can you clean the potatoes?" We were made to feel confident in our own abilities. We felt a responsibility to figure out  how to do things for ourselves. I work with this in mind to this day. I look at a task at hand and say to myself, "I can figure this out." Then I get busy and figure it out.

Cooking can give kids a wonderful sense of accomplishment.  They can see the results of their labors and creativity immediately - tangible, great-tasting food that others can share and enjoy. Kids develop a real sense of pride when given a pat on the back for something they did all by themselves. despite their small size and age.  "

"Never grab a kid's arm or speak harshly to a kid cook unless he or she is in real danger o f burn or injury. Let them make mistakes. You can always scoop out too much of something, add a little more of something else, or start from scratch if necessary.  All of these options are better solutions than making kids feel as self-conscious as so many adults are about cooking.  Food should be fun. Cooking is a celebration of all the good things we have to be thankful for in life, including little kids." - Racheal Ray


So wise, right?  Even though she doesn't have kids, this is great parenting advice in general.