In two weeks my daughter Katie moves back to Ottawa for her second year at university.
She’s been home for the summer, and it’s been lovely to have her here, but it’s time for her to go back. She misses being an adult, I think.
And she really is an adult!
She lives with three other young women and they all take turns cooking and all the chores are divided out. The house runs really well.
Yesterday we were talking about setting goals in your family with your husband, and today I want to suggest a specific goal if you have kids at home: teach your kids to cook.
Cooking is the one skill everyone must have before they leave home.
There are others, too, like how to manage your money or how to navigate public transit. But, seriously, everybody needs to know how to cook. It’s healthier, it’s cheaper, it lets you be hospitable, and it’s far more conducive to good family life when they do get married!
Here’s one of Katie’s posts from Instagram shortly after she moved out last year:
THAT was a proud Mommy moment!
Katie claims I started teaching her to cook breakfast when she was 6, and she had to make the pancakes because I was too lazy. That’s not how I remember it, but that’s her story and she’s sticking to it.
But the fact is that the girls were helping me around the kitchen when they were really young. Even though they sometimes (okay, often) slowed me down, I figured:
- It helped us have mommy/daughter time
- They learned some important lessons
- We could do math in an interesting way (measuring cups!)
- They were more likely to eat what they cooked
- Eventually they’d master this stuff and then I’d get a break!
That last one was especially important for me. And you know what? It happened! By the time they were 11 and 12 they were making dinner occasionally, and I had the night off. Here’s Rebecca at 15 making dinner!
Now, I had all girls, but I think this is just as important if you have boys. EVERYBODY needs to know how to cook, because even if you’re married, there are times when everyone will have to cook for themselves. You can’t rely on someone else, and to believe that the spouse will do all of the cooking puts an undue strain on the relationship before it even starts! Now, I do do most of the cooking because I enjoy it and that’s how Keith and I have divided up tasks. But if Keith had to make dinner–he certainly could. So teach your boys to cook!
And with school starting again, I think this is a great time of year to start planning for it. How are you going to teach your kids to cook? When? It won’t just magically happen without a plan!
That’s where Kids Cook Real Food comes in
If you want to teach your kids how to cook, but you have no idea how to start, Katie Kimball has created the Kids Cook Real Food online course where you watch videos of her actual kids cooking (they range in age from about 4 to early teens, so there’s a good mix), and then there are learning objectives and recipes for each lesson. Kids learn how to wash and cut produce, how to use spices, how to measure, how to bake, and so much more!
And Katie (Katie with the ecourse, not my daughter Katie) focuses on cooking “real” food, not just learning how to make spaghetti from a jar or a can. She shows kids how to make food from scratch–and how it really isn’t that hard.
Katie says:
We’ll provide everything you need to get your kids from kitchen assistants to independent cooks – and you get to have fun in the kitchen.
Plus, this is finally a class that all your kids can do together – no more trying to find time to meet the needs of each age individually. You can all spend time together AND have a final product that you can eat for dinner.
There’s no fluff, no games, and no glitter.
Promise.
And she means it, too! I’ve taken a look at all these resources, and they’re really comprehensive. And really fun! I know my kids would have loved this.
Check it out here!
Leanne Seel, one of my blog readers, was actually the one who told me about this amazing course (seriously, my blog readers tell me about the coolest stuff!). (Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate for it now, but only because I legitimately love it! I’m totally on board for ANYTHING that helps kids learn to be responsible and stops mom from feeling like a maid.) Leanne’s been working through the course with her kids, and here’s how she explains it:
The Kids Cook Real Food eCourse is a multimedia online course designed to help adults teach kids to cook. It includes videos, PDF files, printable graphics, and recipe ebooks. You do not need to be a chef or teacher to use this program. Course creator Katie Kimball is absolutely brilliant in how she’s put this together. She walks you through exactly what you need to do, making the lessons easy to implement and fun to do.
My kids love “Mrs. Kimball”. They cheer when I tell them it’s time for their cooking class. Seeing other kids demonstrating the skills in the videos is really motivating to them, and they use every opportunity they can to practice their skills both during the lesson and afterwards.
I have saved so much time in the kitchen by using this course! I invest less than an hour of my time for each lesson, and the payback is immediate. My kids have learned to make their own healthy snacks so I don’t have to. They wash the produce for salad while I chop, cutting the prep time in half. This week, our lesson is on sharp knife skills so very soon they will be able to take over more vegetable chopping.
Food preparation is one of those uber-important life skills. Kids Cook Real Food can help you save time now giving your children the skills they need for the future.
It really is awesome.
But you know what often stops us? Dinner time is too rushed. We don’t have time to incorporate cooking skills into an evening. We don’t have time to have kids underfoot in the kitchen. We’d rather they just play by themselves and let us get the meal on the table so we can get on with the important stuff of living.
But what if teaching your kids to cook IS the important stuff of living?
Seriously, isn’t it more important than a karate class? Than swimming lessons? Than having play time?
It helps you spend quality time with your kids where they’ll have your attention. It helps them learn such an important life skill. And it helps them eventually take over those tasks so they learn to be responsible and contribute to the household.
Any time you’re teaching something it’s going to be some work. But if pays off big time once they can do it! And imagine how grown up a 10-year-old will feel knowing that they can make a meal all by themselves?
School’s about to start, and whether your kids are in public school, private school, or homeschool, it means that life will get hectic. Now’s the time when YOU are setting the schedule for the rest of the year, deciding what activities you’ll be doing, when you’ll be doing homework, what chores kids will be doing.
Can I suggest that you take one night a week and call it “cooking class night”? Your kids will love it. You’ll love the results. And your kids will know how to cook when they leave home! It’s a win-win.
Katie Kimball only opens up the course at certain times of the year. You can’t just register any time–though once you have access you can take the classes any time you want. She opened up registration yesterday, and it’s open until Wednesday, August 24.
Take advantage of this offer now!
Now tell me: how did you learn to cook? Do you teach your kids to cook? Let’s talk in the comments!
Sheila Wray Gregoire has been married for 29 years and happily married for 24! She loves traveling around North America with her hubby in their RV, giving her signature "Girl Talk" about sex and marriage. And she's written 7 books. About sex and marriage. See a theme here? Plus she knits. Even in line at the grocery store.
Definitely teach your BOYS to cook! And cclean! They may HAVE TO even when married if their wife is out of commission for a while! My husband had to cook and do most of the housecleaning when I was pregnant because I was EXHAUSTED. I worked full time in a stressful job and had shortness of breath the entire pregnancy. What if the wife’s on bed rest for 3 to 4 months? What if she’s in a car accident and breaks both legs? No one wants to think things like that could happen but they do. Oh, and my husband is an AWESOME chef at home.
Absolutely AGREE!!! Amen. Preach it, sister. I do pretty much all of the cooking because cooking is MY TIME. I love it. I turn on Netflix and start chopping garlic and I’m in heaven, and if Keith wants to help he’s intruding on my space. But that doesn’t mean Keith CAN’T cook. And there were plenty of times when the girls were smaller when I was away and he had to cook. And even now if, like you said, I’m sick, he cooks.
You’d think moms would get this by now, but I have so many friends whose daughters cook but not their sons. Big mistake! Think about what a great catch your son will be if he can cook, ladies! But in contrast, who wants to marry someone who is going to expect you to do absolutely everything? Few women today. We need to equip our boys, too.
I have to hand it to Boy Scouts — because the weekend camp-outs are where my son first started learning how to cook. The packs had to come up with a menu and choose a “grubmaster” to purchase the food, and the boys took turns cooking for their group. As the boys matured, they became more interested in better food, and thus more skilled cooking. It was a great experience for my kid.
Yay! My husband loved Boy Scouts, too.
Like your Keith, I rarely cook, but I am definitely capable. I don’t really remember learning how to cook, but I guess I learned by watching my mom and/or dad, and having an “I can read a recipe” attitude. Each of my four kids (3 being boys) have learned or are learning to cook. It is indeed an essential skill: you may end up single and living on your own for a time, or even if married and your spouse does the cooking, there will be times when you’ll be on your own.
Not long ago, we were watching “Worst Cooks in America”. I told my kids to imagine growing up in a home where no one taught you how to make something as simple as scrambled eggs – how sad! My point was – 1) don’t laugh at these people but instead feel compassion for them and 2) be grateful for what you have.
I agree, Kevin! I’ve been reading some research lately that says that the majority of people on welfare actually don’t know how to cook. So often we “make fun” of welfare recipients eating take out food, but that’s all so many know how to do. We need to be more proactive about teaching life skills!
There were 3 girls, 2 boys in my family and all of us know how to cook and cooked early. I think I was just in 6th grade when we could get up Saturday morning and make cinnamon rolls from scratch while my parents slept. I mean from scratch, flour, yeast, etc. We were also making lemon bars by ourselves, etc.
My father also knew how to cook before he even married my mom. When he was single his single male friends were jealous that he had good home cooked meals and they were eating out or scrounging something up.
Now my husband could not even turn a preformed hamburger patty over in the skillet. Not sure he could even boil pasta. He survived his singlehood on canned goods, frozens and a godmother.
Oh, that’s rough about your husband! But it sounds like your parents set you all up so well! Hopefully you can continue that for the next generation!
Growing up both my parents cooked (my dad had his special meals that only he would cook but dinner prep in general would often be a family activity) I remember taking over most baking and making salads became my speciality when I was a teenager. My brothers also know how to cook. In fact we had all chores divided up between us but I’d mostly help with laundry whereas my brothers dealt with wood for the fire place and shoveling snow in the winter. But cleaning and cooking we all did.
I love cooking and I love food and I love trying out new recipes especially flavourful ones from all over the world. I often just make up recipes, too. I think it’s just natural that my kids are interested in cooking because they see me enjoy it… So my two oldest I taught starting around age 2 to use a knife and chop fruit and veggies because they showed interest. whenever there is dough involved I have a little army move in with their chairs into the kitchen – not to mention rolling chocolate balls 🙂 My six year old can make a decent salad all by herself and we just taught her to make us coffee… (Major win!) the little one I honestly was afraid to teach her knife skills yet because of her personality (she just started using scissors and if you’re near her you might loose some hair) but then the other day one of the kids was done helping with cutting the cucumbers and the little one just climbed up on the empty chair took the knife grabbed some veggies and started chopping like she’s done it all her life. So here we are… With all the benefits and fun of kids in the kitchen, it almost feels like a vacation when I cook along relaxed all by myself 😉
If your six-year-old can make you coffee–that is AMAZING! It’s like a whole new era of your life has just begun…. 🙂
Yes, and her iced coffee tastes better than mine! It was a lucky unplanned side effect of switching to a nespresso capsule coffee maker… perfectly safe and simple for children to use!
I wish my mother-in-law would have taught my husband to cook. And other things like operating a dishwasher, how to do laundry, how to iron his own clothes. Mothers, please don’t allow your sons to be pathetic when it comes to basic domestic skills that everyone should have when they become adults!
Absolutely!
My mom had to cook most of our food from scratch, because she’s allergic to corn and it’s in basically everything prepackaged! I never had formal cooking lessons with her, but I did pick up on how to follow a recipe. And my brother and I got pretty good at making boxed mac and cheese when we wanted food fast, lol. I haven’t started teaching my boy to cook yet, he’s only 13 months old, but he has definitely shown an interest in play kitchens every time we’re somewhere that had one! So I’m hoping to get one with some play food for him for Christmas this year, and then start some real food prep with him when he’s old enough to understand directions and such.
This post is EXTREMELY timely for me!! I have two little girls (ages 4 and almost 3) and another little girl on the way 🙂 Just this past week, I decided it was time for them to learn how to cook (even though they’re so young!). So far they’ve helped with homemade whole wheat banana pancakes, meatballs with rice and green beans, and baked chicken and veggies. We have so much fun in the kitchen together and I totally agree that it’s a skill that every single person should have! Plus, it’s a great way to get little ones to eat veggies 🙂
Thanks for all the info! Totally agree!
– Sarah http://www.thefrugalmilionaireblog.com
I started cooking at age 10. We each had to make dinner one night per week (with 5 kids that worked out quite nicely) once we hit double digits. There was a lot of spaghetti and chicken nuggets but I loved it and learned a lot quickly! I remember making enchiladas (with sauce from scratch) while in middle school and my first layer cake at age 12.
My kids start helping in the kitchen once they’re big enough to stir, so under a year old. My oldest is 8 and gets to start cooking class tonight through our parks and rec dept and she is super excited! I’m a bit worried, though, that she’s not going to learn anything she hasn’t already learned at home. 🙂
I can’t tell you how overjoyed I am that a picture of me from 15 resurfaced on the internet 😉 Thanks, mom.