One-on-one Time With our lives so busy, cooking provides a wonderful way to spend quality one-on-one time. The memories that are created while cooking together will last a lifetime. I am sure many of you have fond memories of learning and helping your parents or grandparents cook. It may take extra patience and time to prepare the meal, but the benefits far outweigh the time it takes to clean up.
Age Appropriate Depending on age of your child, pick age appropriate tasks. For example, if your kids are too young to measure or assemble ingredients, let them have a quick stir or let them pour something into the bowl. They will be thrilled to just be able to help.
Older kids can help with things like measuring, stirring, assembling and helping follow the recipe. Teenagers can also help by preparing, shopping and cooking the meals with minimal guidance.
Benefits So what are some of the benefits? Some you will see immediately and others may take a life time to notice. Either way, there are many great benefits.
Not only does it teach kids a lifelong skill, but it also helps instill healthy eating habits. Kids that learn to cook and eat healthy will be more likely to continue with good eating habits into adulthood. Encouraging kids to cook and eat healthy foods like fruits and vegetables in the home can also help reduce the amount of junk food they are consuming.
It also can reduce the number of times a family runs through the drive though or picks up take out, thus helping the family save money and reduce caloric intake while developing healthier eating habits.
Family Time Another added benefit is that it provides children with structured family time. Children love stability and cooking and eating together is a chance to provide family togetherness. It also helps kids feel like they are contributing to the family. Plus when they help prepare the meal, they are more likely to feel a sense of accomplishment and actually want to eat the meal. Picky eaters will even venture out to try food they helped prepare, more so than they would if you simply put a plate of food in front of them. Now what parent does not wish that mealtimes would go a little smoother?
Great family recipes and secrets are learned and passed down the line. Many of our favorite recipes get passed down the line from past generations. If your family has a great cooking history, pass it along to your kids. In turn, they will share it with their future families.
Have fun sharing and creating memories with your kids.
Many parents may not want to bring their kids along on a holiday shopping especially when they run around and distract them most of the time. Instead of being able to concentrate on the gifts that you will be buying, you are busy watching them and calling their attention. Plus, there are kids who can't seem to leave a store without bringing something along with them. And, if you don't give in to their request, they whine, beg and plead. This results to you not being able to finish any shopping at all.
But it is often important to bring your children along with you when shopping for presents especially if they will be giving the gifts. Make your children feel special and needed by asking for them for their opinion and making them responsible for choosing the gift that they would want to give.
Starting early during the holiday season will not only give you more time for holiday shopping but will help spread the shopping time instead of just trying to do it all in one day. To make things easier, create ahead of time a list of the persons and their corresponding gifts. Put beside on the list the store where you will be buying the particular gift item.
The best time to shop would be when children have full stomachs and have rested. Take a break during lunch and get snacks to refuel.
If you have small children like toddlers, place them in a stroller. Bring along some toys that he or she could play with to keep him or her preoccupied.
Give your children the chance to browse the toy aisles and spend some time looking at items they are interested in. You could always buy them a toy as a reward for good behavior.
Do regular rest room stops because we don't want to be in the middle of checkout or shopping when our child wants to go potty.
Enjoy and have fun while spending time with your children. Ask them for their opinions and let them be a part of the selection and shopping experience.
A word of advice, if you will be bringing more than one child, ask your spouse or a friend perhaps to come along with you for you may need help in handling more than one child. Don't bring a sick child along with you and instead leave him or her at home with a baby sitter. Lastly, always keep a watchful eye on your children for they could easily get lost amidst the heavy crowd of shoppers.
Both Kelvin Ho & Jim Brown are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.