5 Creative Ways To Engage Your Child In The Kitchen

Although every parent endeavors to spend maximum time with their kids but the tightening work schedule on weekdays and piling household chores on the weekends make it hard to interact and spend quality time with them. Such hectic routines of parents may cause behavioral and emotional distress among kids and a child may experience a lack of affection and bonding between himself and his parents.

As parents choose a child’s environment based on the objective of what’s best for them, they may come up with constructive ways to engage their child in their schedule. And in-home, a mother spends enough of her time in the kitchen while the child is wandering around, she may engage the child in the kitchen with these 5 creative ways. Let’s have a look.

Here are five tips for getting your child in the kitchen in ways that they’ll like…

1. Let Them Take The Charge

One of the most confidence boosting things you can do for your child is to let them take care of things. Even if they fail, even if they make a mess, let them try. This will enhance their problem solving skill and will also make them responsible.

Obviously you don’t have to let them do the heavy cleaning and cooking, but you can start from small projects like mixing a cake batter, rinsing the vegetables, measuring and mixing ingredients etc. And then you can move forward and do bigger projects with them, like arranging utensils, painting your cabinets, small hardware related tasks like replacing handles etc. This will instill confidence in them that their opinion matters and when they grow up, they’ll be better at communicating their thoughts.

2. Use The Fruits And Veggies To Your Advantage

Toddlers are intrigued by shining colors, textures, shapes, and aroma. One way that a parent may engage a child in the kitchen is by allowing them to play with fruits and vegetables, washing them, and grouping their favorite or otherwise fruits and vegetables and make them taste. This will allow them to make their preferences on the basis of taste and colors. You may ask them to choose their favorite fruit or make them eat even dull and boring vegetables. Repeating the names of vegetables and fruits and talking to them about their health benefits will make them learn about their goodness.

3. Bake With Your Child In The Kitchen

Baking is one great activity to involve your child in the kitchen. And you don’t need to fret over the sugary desserts and your child being infatuated by them. Anything involving moldable dough can be fun for kids. Whether you are baking cookies or Challa, mini muffins or pastries, they love to shape it in little rolls, decorate them with raisins or sprinkles, spooning ingredients out, and dumping spices in. Get a few toy-sized pans, a cookie cutter, and a roller, and let them take the charge.

4. Enkindle Their Curiosity

Toddlerhood is the highly recommended time to inculcate good habits in a child. When you’re busy in the kitchen and your child is sitting with you, answer their questions like “Which vegetable is that?”, “Why are you doing that?” etc. They might not understand the answers but this will enhance the inquisitive sides of their brains which will help their intellect expand. You can engage them by asking “How many vegetables are these? What is the color of this fruit” etc. This way you’ll be incorporating learning and work.

5. Keeping With The Hygiene, Health, & Cleanliness

Giving your child an environment open to sensory-rich activities gives them a sense of comfort and independence. Make them useful in setting the dining table, bringing utensils, loading the dishwasher, drying the dishes, or wiping out surfaces. Teach them how to fold clean towels and clean up after the meal. Teach them to stack their utensils in the cabinet. These small gestures and moves boost their confidence and they deem themselves more helpful in routine household tasks. Don’t forget to appreciate your kids for their contribution, this would allow them to be more focused and put more efforts into developing skills or learning new behaviors.

Make sure that your kitchen is baby-proof before engaging them in it, ensuring that all the sharp material, electric machines, boiling water, and hot utensils are always out of reach. Keeping them safe in the kitchen is the first priority, if they learn something in the process, celebrate your win.