You’re stuck at home during the long winter and it starts to wear on you. Your children are bored and picking on one another, you feel like a caged rat, and you don’t know what to do. Momma, I’ve got you! When household responsibilities can’t wait but your young children command your attention, include them in whatever you’re doing. Don’t fight the system and make it harder on yourself! Pull out one of these five kids kitchen products and combat winter blues with a boredom-busting kitchen activity!
Including your child in the kitchen combats winter blues
You might be wondering how I can make such a bold claim. Don’t I know that including small children in the kitchen leads to extremely big messes? Yes, yes I do. As a mom to three (soon-to-be-four) under six, I absolutely know the strain the requirement of just one more clean-up can have on even the most Christ-centered hearts.
However…
I have also witnessed the blessing in seeing a child’s face light up when she sees her muffins come out of the oven. When she tastes the fruit of her labor and it is oh-so-good. There is a delight for mothers that can be found in the sparks of her children’s eyes.
But how does this combat winter blues?
Our lifestyle completely changed when we moved to the homestead. One drastic change was my inability to leave the house for weeks at a time during the winter. My husband could (arguably) safely get to work, but we did not feel comfortable with me leaving the house alone with all three kids. In the city, I would be going stir crazy after two days in my house, let alone two weeks.
How did I manage to survive that transition? By getting creative.
Albeit not all of this creativity came from my own brain. I relied heavily on several tools and resources to help me “entertain” my kids while I still had an entire household to run and maintain. My piled up laundry and meal prep lists didn’t care if I couldn’t send the kids outside for an hour to focus on them. I was quickly drowning in responsibility and the feelings of failure and poor stewardship were creeping into my heart. I looked to different toys and gadgets and crafts to fill the void, but still felt pulled in too many directions because my kids simply wanted to be with me.
The cure came from choosing to stop fighting my maternal instinct to give my children my full attention for the sake of completing household chores. Rather than encouraging them, usually with frustration oiling my tongue, to go play while I completed x, y, and z, I simply invited them to help me load the washing machine or unload the dishwasher. If they got bored, they would run off and entertain themselves willingly. It was no longer a fight to “get them to leave me alone so I could get things done.” What a toxic motherhood lie!
Once I decided to stop distracting my children and instead disciple them, everything changed. Instead of shooing them away so I could “get things done,” I decided to invite my children in the kitchen first and learn essential life skills I had to learn in my twenties.
This was a learning curve for both my children and me. I didn’t know how to include my kids in cooking, as I was still learning how to do it myself. Though I don’t have patience for a full-blown recipe every single day, I look forward to my children learning to serve the entire family through meal preparation and establishing family traditions centered around the kitchen.
I did need to invest in a few kitchen products specifically for kids to aid me in this discipleship. Here is a list of what has been most valuable to us in reaching that goal.
Cookbooks for children
My girls and I love to bond together by exploring new recipes and breaking up the monotony of the long winter days with a new fun treat or kitchen experiment. The two cookbooks that we rely on most to give us that creative boost are America’s Test Kitchen: The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs and The Nourishing Traditions Cookbook for Children by Suzanne Gross and Sally Fallon Morell.
The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs from America’s Test Kitchen is great because there is a variety of recipes ranging from low-effort, low-mess, low-stress to intermediately complicated and involved. Whatever my level of patience and energy is, I’m almost guaranteed to find a recipe that fits it.
I also love that there are a bunch of pictures of kids preparing the item and the bright colors on the page make it intriguing to look at. Sometimes when my older two are bored, they’ll just browse through the pictures and discuss what they see. This has been a great gift for our curious chef.
Another benefit to having this specific cookbook is that it was developed by America’s Test Kitchen, a working kitchen in Boston that has a mission to test recipes until they reach the “best” version. This goal translates into their kids’ cookbook by offering different variations for recipes like their pancakes or different methods to cooking bacon.
It lays a solid foundation
This cookbook doesn’t just provide the recipe and how-to. It breaks down the science to cooking and properly shows children how to grate and shred cheese, zest and juice citrus fruit, and analyzes what makes a beautiful dish through the arts of garnishing and plating. The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs lays a foundation for kids of all ages to learn proper kitchen skills.
This will spark the kids’ imagination in unique and delicious ways and allow them to continue their creativity in their own kitchens someday. This is a cookbook that will grow with us for years to come and, for that reason alone, we love it!
For more simple and nourishing recipes
We use The Nourishing Traditions Cookbook for Children as a homeschool resource and winter-blues buster. Once a month, I allow our kindergartener to sift through the recipes and choose one she would like to recreate as part of our essential life skills curriculum. Hence all of the post-it notes in both cookbooks. Our little chef and Mommy’s helper loves to be in the kitchen and is always excited to learn something new about cooking at home and from scratch.
I love that this cookbook provides nourishing meal ideas that align with our home-centered, simple and healthy lifestyle. Though I still feed my kids Velveeta or frozen French fries on occasion, my goal is to grow my own skills in cooking from scratch. I love that the Nourishing Traditions cookbook gives me new ideas on how to make foods from home like popcorn using coconut oil and clarified butter. My kids and I learn new skills together and make healthy substitutes for what we already enjoy.
While I do invite my children into the kitchen with me while I’m cooking or canning, sometimes it is difficult for me to think of ways to include them in the process. I was always never invited into the kitchen to cook until I was older and therefore didn’t learn a lot of kitchen skills nor do I have a foundation of how to encourage children’s participation.
Thankfully my children are gracious in forgiving me and patient whilst I’m learning. We have enough experience now that they will oftentimes ask me if they can help me. I try to say yes as often as I can, even if it pushes my creativity and comfort level.
Bonding and establishing family traditions through food
Another great thing about both of these cookbooks is they are an awesome boredom-buster on any given day. The longer we live the homesteader life, the more prepared I am with ingredients on-hand to make at least one recipe from either of these cookbooks. Cooking together is a great way to bond with your kids. Trying a new recipe breaks up the monotony of the long-drawn-out winter days and lets us burn energy by working with our hands.
Whenever I have the extra energy to clean up the mess and patience to instruct, we whip out these cookbooks and bond over preparing a nice snack or delicious meal. Though we will all admit the special treats featuring chocolate are our favorites!
Inviting my children into the kitchen with me
I have to admit, I was nervous when first introducing kitchen safety and knife skills to my children. I wasn’t quite ready to graduate from play kitchen sets to real kitchen tools. Kitchen toys and play food sets don’t nearly pose the risk (or come with the extra mess) that real kitchens do.
Thankfully I found this kids plastic knife set! With two sets of safety gloves, both my six year old and three year old can join me in cutting fruits and vegetables safely. The knives are durable enough to cut whatever we are preparing and also develop their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Cooking at home now doesn’t have to be a culinary journey for adults. We can foster an environment for our mini sous chefs to explore their creativity and learn healthy eating habits hands-on.
We are building confidence by doing
My kids aren’t just learning valuable life skills like how to properly use a kitchen knife and prepare a healthy, balanced meal. They are also more inclined to try new foods or eat what is set before them because they have taken part in making it! There is a sense of pride and confidence that comes from creating and crafting and preparing with our own two hands. I’m thankful my children are experiencing it now when I can be an observer and cheer them on!
As seen above, these gloves protect little fingers from the knife while they learn how to properly cut. Even a plastic knife can cause some damage to those fragile digits! With these gloves on, I don’t feel the need to worry and hover as much. These kitchen utensils are the perfect gift for little hands. I can create a safe environment for my young kids to experience a sense of autonomy and independence. And we get a yummy snack at the end of said experience. It’s a delicious win!
Kids kitchen products that simply make us smile
Whenever I truly don’t have the time to include the kids in the kitchen or I simply want to surprise them, I pull out our sandwich cutters and food picks. These things are amazing. Just the other day, my oldest (who swears she doesn’t like PB&J sandwiches) ate THREE PB&Js.
When I asked her why she ate them that day versus the other times I’ve made her the exact same meal, she said it was because they were the wrong shape before. Apparently unicorn-shaped PB&Js just taste better. Who knew!
If you are interested in spicing up mundane sandwich meals, check out these cute shape cutters and picks! My kids are constantly asking me if they can prepare lunch and use their sandwich cutters. My three year old insists on placing a food pick in every item that is on the plate. I love seeing their enthusiasm for serving the family and creating well-balanced and yummy meals. Plus, my only job is supervising and snacking. It’s really a no-brainer.
The prized water bottle
And when I REALLY have nothing left in me, I simply pull out a fancy water bottle.
Oh no, I am not above buying expensive stainless steel water bottles simply to make my kids feel special. Especially on the days when I am just tapped. Having three six and under while pregnant means those housebound winter days can feel very long and drawn out. Enter pretty water bottles that make the kids feel “big.”
My oldest two are six and almost four so they really enjoy feeling bigger than their age. Their favorite “big girl cups” tend to be the straw lids from Simple Modern found here. They love the patterns and designs that these cups offer.
The reason I love these cups is they are easy to wash and hold a lot more than a traditional kid’s cup so I’m not constantly filling up water bottles. Although two times per kid per day is still a lot when they’re very specific about the ice to water ratio. I also really enjoy showing my kids how special they are to me in every way. If this is the way they feel loved, I’ll buy them two each. Now that’s real love!
Winter doesn’t have to be boring!
If you are excited about including your children in the kitchen in the early years but aren’t sure where to start, check out my blog post “Ten benefits of including young kids in the kitchen.” I detail the learning curve I experienced when starting our home-centered and homesteading journey and the benefits I’ve discovered from including my young kids in the kitchen.
Whether you are looking for fresh ways to include your kids in the kitchen or are desperate to bring some excitement into your home during these long winter days, I hope you find at least one of these products useful. Our entire family has bonded so much through working together, but we needed some help in the kitchen arena and these products do the trick! Let me know in the comments if you try any of these and tag me on Instagram @cityfolkhomestead. I’m looking forward to hearing from you, friend!
Even more home-centered content
Free Kids Winter Activities List with 54 unique activities
All of these products and cookbooks sound wonderful. These would have been so helpful 25-55 years ago. 🤗 I am so excited to see the Nourishing Traditions cookbook for children, as I have incorporated many of Weston Price’s Wise Traditions into my kitchen the last few years. What a great way to keep those little hands busy while boosting their confidence in their own abilities.❤️
We love our cookbooks especially! We used the America’s Test Kitchen one to make cookies two nights ago. It is empowering for the kids to see other kids making the recipes. And it also helps this momma think out of the box/get out of her comfort zone to include the kids when I see they are capable of it!