Even though some of my favorite family creations happen with my now-adult kids, the roots of these creations began when my kids were little. Giving opportunities for my children to help with meal preparation when they were younger has made my life MUCH EASIER and MUCH MORE FUN when we have family gatherings now.
Start Preparing Meals Together When Your Kids are Little
The easiest way to enjoy family togetherness during meal preparation is to start the habit when your kids are little. My kids started developing food-preparation skills as preschoolers: Favorite Recipes for Preschoolers Are Often the Easiest. Here’s a roundup post with lots of links for helping young children learn food-preparation skills: Montessori-Inspired Food Preparation for Preschoolers.
For family gatherings when my children were preschoolers, I generally did the cooking alone or with any other adults and older children present. My kids participated in the table setting, though. As they grew older, they took on many of the meal-preparation activities for special family meals. (See Homeschool Thanksgiving and my daughter, Christina’s, thoughts.) Along with helping with the food preparation, my son, Will, set the table for each family meal. He even added more special touches than I normally would, such as setting out and lighting candles.
Preparing Family Meals Together as Adults
Deb and Christina in the Kitchen
Will, Christina, and Tom (my son-in-love) just finished a wonderful 4th of July week in Colorado Springs. (Chea, my daughter-in-love, had to coach at a skating competition and couldn’t come on this trip.) During the week, we had opportunities to prepare food together.
It’s common for us to prepare family meals and treats together. Will and Tom typically take part in the food preparation along with Christina and me (and Chea when she’s along, too.) I’m lucky that they’re all good cooks.
There’s nothing like working together in the kitchen preparing meals and baked goods for holidays and special times together. My husband, Terry, doesn’t usually get involved in the cooking part, although he is the official smoothie maker, preparing fruit smoothies for everyone on occasion.
The kids and I all work together to prepare the meal, Will still typically sets the table, and we all clean up together afterwards. I’m thankful I started this tradition early. I never dread family get-togethers. They’re just good excuses to enjoy spending time with my family and working together in the kitchen. 🙂
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I LOVE this post! My littlest hung out in our learning tower for the first time yesterday while I was cleaning veggies and she loved it… I think I just got a new helper!
Thanks so much, Laura! How great that your daughter enjoys working in the kitchen already … have fun! 🙂
Thanks Deb. All good suggestions.
My little ones love to help in the kitchen too. I just checked out your “favorite recipes for pre-schoolers” post and there are some great tips in there that I think I’ll “borrow” as well.
Thanks for your kind comment, Andrea! I hope some of the ideas work well for you! 🙂
Kieran sometimes enjoys helping me in the kitchen, but thank you for the reminder to have him help me set the table. We always use to help my momwith that when we were younger, but since I don’t serve our meals “family style,” (choosing instead to dish everything up at the stove), I’ve not carried that tradition to our family. But he can still help with napkins, silverware, etc. – I’ll start making an efort to be more mindful of that!
Thanks for your comment, Dionna! I really loved that Will was used to setting the table for special family meals … it was always nice not to have to rush to do it myself. And he tends to be more thorough than me, too, so it’s especially nice! 🙂
Family meals are the #1 time my family gets together. There are seven of us (and a dog and two guinea pigs) so it’s quite a production. I love cooking alone — it’s my own therapy — but thanks for the reminder of the importance of including my children too. Great post.
Thanks, Erika! That would be quite a production! It’s nice that you can enjoy cooking alone, although it is really nice to have older kids helping out for larger family gatherings (which must be especially large in your family)! 🙂
This is so beautiful! Sam does most of the cooking around here, and I’m thinking I need to encourage him to ask Mikko if he wants to help more (and Alrik when he’s old enough). One of my favorite things to do as a kid for big dinners was make place cards, so we’ll have to start that tradition, too!
Thanks so much, Lauren! How awesome that Sam does most of the cooking! And making place cards sounds like a great tradition to start! 🙂
Preparing family meals is the best way to spend some quality time with the family. I really wish I could do it more often then I usually do.
Thanks for your comment! Good luck with finding more ways to spend time together preparing family meals! 🙂
Great post. It is important for kids to be involved in meal prep. They think it’s fun and they’re learning important skills and healthy eating concepts too!
Thanks for your kind comment! It is nice to get kids involved when they’re young … I loved starting mealtime preparation traditions while they thought it was so much fun. When they’re adults, they especially appreciate the family togetherness during meal preparation, too. 🙂
these type of activities bring us more closer to everyone in family and it spread love between family members .
Thanks for your comment … that’s so true! 🙂
My kids always ask to help in the kitchen, and I try to include them as much as I can. This summer, we actually doing a family cooking project where the kids make at least one meal each week.
I’m looking forward to reading the links you mentioned in your post.
Thanks for your comment, Barb! I love your idea of the family cooking project … I hope it goes well! 🙂
I agree: making food together is a great way to spend time with littles : ) My son is quickly approaching the 2-year mark, so his assistance in the kitchen is becoming ever more cohesive, and I love watching his interest in helping blossom. I let him help as much as possible (sometimes that just means sitting on the floor with a wooden spoon and a pot, but, you know, so it goes…), and he loves helping pick out items at the grocer. Thanks for sharing! : )
Thanks, Ana! I love that you have your son involved with you in the kitchen already … perfect time to start! 🙂
Thanks, BJ! I agree that it’s sad that many families don’t get to have these types of wonderful experiences. My family and I definitely treasure them! 🙂
It’s good to have a child who always understands parents, Congratulations to your family is very admirable.
I love this post! We recently started doing this same thing as a family, I do feel a little guilty that my husband eats dinner every night alone (he never makes it home before 7) but I have started having a cup of tea at the table with him while he is eating so it feels like we are eating together!