It’s SUMMER and that means Cooper is home with me in between camps so I’m putting him to work work work work around the house!

Here’s a little back story:

I’ve been wanting to get Cooper working in the kitchen with me for a looooooong time but he gets bored after a bit and then cuts out. I even tried super hard to tackle my OCD brain that wants him to GET HIS HANDS OUT OF THE FLOUR AND STOP SPREADING IT ALL OVER THE TABLE tendencies. Then one day we watched an episode of Chopped Junior on TV and SHAZAM. He’s interested in cooking!  All it took was watching older kids compete in a kitchen for my son to gain respect for my kitchen prowess.

But, wait! There’s more.

The other day Cooper came up to me and asked for a snack. I replied with a, “I believe you’re old enough to make yourself a snack,” and he did just that.  Fifteen minutes later, I walked into the kitchen to find Cooper cutting up a turkey sandwich he had made (grilled bread! with mustard!). I had to mask my excitement (!!!!!!!) or else he would know how important that moment was to me and then he’d never do it again. Power trips start young, you know?

Let’s talk about some of my Tips to getting Kids in the Kitchen:

FIRST FIRST FIRST.

Start with clean hands (this is a MUST) and clean hands along the way

Food safety is important. Kids hands are notoriously NOT CLEAN, so whenever we get started in the kitchen, we wash our hands first. Nails are checked. We’re good to go.  We also wash our hands when we’re handling meat or anything sticky! One day this will become muscle memory, but for now I constantly remind Cooper that we start with clean hands.

Give them the TOOLS- LITERALLY.

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