Remember this kid?
Oh my goodness, this guy!!
At his very core, our Justus is the same motivated, hard working, creative, g0-getter that he has been since he was little. Now he is 17 and getting ready to be a senior in high school. Ahhh, the senior year! Here we go again…
Recently, Justus and I were working on lunch together in the kitchen and out of no-where he said, “When I have kids, I am totally going to teach them to cook like you taught us. Why do people think this is hard?”
I’m not exactly sure what inspired his proclamation as it came without prompting somewhere between the steaming of the green beans and the grating of the cheese. But he went on with, “So many of my friends think cooking is hard, and I’m like, ‘Not really. It only takes 5 minutes to make scrambled eggs.'”
It hit me then that cooking with my kids from the time they were little became such a natural thing that they didn’t even know they were learning. To Justus, cooking is just cooking…a normal part of any day. There’s nothing hard about it for him because it’s just a fact of life.
Sure it takes effort, and sure at any given time my boys would rather sit on the couch playing a video game. But when I say, “Justus I need you to brown the meat for dinner; Elias please make Guacamole; Malachi head on in and get the veggies ready…” they just do it.
What started with me “letting my boys help” in the kitchen has turned into my ability to turn them lose. During this on-the-run season in our lives, I’m really not sure how I would keep them all fed if they didn’t pitch in and help.
Be still my heart.
Hearing these words from my 17-year old meant a lot to me. He gets it. He understands that the reason most kids think cooking is difficult and that eating out is the only option is because they haven’t been taught how simple it is. And apparently he’s on a mission to tell his friends, “Dude. Learn how to scramble an egg. It’s not even hard.”
My turn for a confession: I found it easier to naturally teach my older three boys to cook, but my youngest kind of got the shaft. Why? I think because by the time Malachi was old enough to truly be of help, I already had three bigger boys doing the jobs I needed done. Then when the older boys got busier and didn’t have time to help as much, I didn’t have as much time to focus on teaching Malachi the basics. Oops.
All that to say, I encourage you to try and make it natural to teach your kids to cook. Pull them into the kitchen with you as much as you can so they learn without even knowing that they’re learning. But if that doesn’t work or it isn’t coming naturally, consider doing what I did with Malachi…
He and I sat down together and went through the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse together. That was the magic bullet for both of us as it finally inspired him to want to get in the kitchen and gave him all kinds of confidence! And it helped me because the course did most of the teaching so my overloaded brain didn’t have to think so hard or work so hard. Why reinvent the wheel, right?
Check out the wonderful Kids Cook Real Food eCourse your entire family can enjoy together. Malachi and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
A Kids Cooking Freebie for All
Want a freebie? Get a FREE Kid-Friendly Real Food Snacks Recipe download. This is a lot of fun, and a great way to motivate your kids to get into the kitchen with you this summer. And it’s free, so why not?
If you get the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse, Malachi said he would be happy for me to email you a free copy of his cookbook. :) As you can see, it’s full of his favorites. (I promise he gave a big thumbs down to any recipe he didn’t totally love as I suggested various ideas – ha!)
Here are a few of the recipes my kids like to make on a regular basis:
- Easy Guacamole
- Cream Cheese Salsa Dip
- Crustless Pizza Pie
- Homemade Tootsie Rolls
- And of course, lots of scrambled eggs :)
What are ways you’ve found to make it easier to teach your kids to cook?
Be sure to get the Healthy Kid Friendly Snacks Freebie here!
This post contains affiliate links.