Three Reasons to Get Your Kids in the Kitchen

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When I was growing up, my mom was fantastic at making sure my sisters and I learned to cook. Every week, we’d each have to plan a meal or two. Every meal had to have a main dish, and two sides, and we were responsible for making a shopping list. We were also supposed to check the cupboards to try and plan meals using ingredients we had on weeks when the budget was tight.

At the time, I thought my mom was the coolest, especially when I was able to make french toast for dinner. I don’t remember her interfering or mico-managing my cooking- I just remember being in the kitchen, doing my thing. Now that I am an adult, I realize now just how awesome my mom was and how I want to repeat this same tradition with my kids.

They aren’t quite ready to be on their own in the kitchen, but they’ll learn quickly, especially now that we’ve tried the Raddish subscription box which gives the kids simple picture-guided recipes, with handy cooking tips, fun activities, and kid-friendly kitchen tools.

It stinks to be the only person in your house cooking

I hate to admit it, but as an adult, I hate cooking. It’s hot. I kind of suck at not burning things. Budgeting is hard, menu planning is time-consuming, and when you have to cook every day, the joy kind of goes away. I am very fortunate that my husband creates drool worthy dinners on the regular and spends more time in the kitchen than I do.

He does travel (a ton) for work, which means when he is gone someone needs to help me get dinner on the table, or so help me I will feed the kids french toast or granola bars or ice cream for dinner every night. I am not to be trusted- clearly.

Cooking isn’t something the kids are going to learn overnight, but it is something they will learn, step by step. I love that Raddish Kids includes lessons on specific skills each month so the kids can learn and grow. This month, the skills included grilling, dicing, and icing a cake. Each recipe card has step-by-step skill instructions, so when Doodle was told to dice the peppers, he was able to work with confidence- which is saying something for my autistic boy.

The kids will eat healthier when dinner is their idea

When I first opened the Raddish box, I was a little worried that my kids wouldn’t be thrilled about the macaroni salad. For one, it has the word “salad” in it, and for two, it had peppers in it. Bell pepper, and celery and carrot. Doodle is a bit ( read: very) picky about his food and does NOT like anything spicy, red, squishy, or crunchy in his food. I was sure I was going to have a whine fest on my hands.

However, he’s the kiddo that needs the most motor skills practice, and I knew I needed to assign him that recipe so he could get the experience dicing veggies. I handed each of the kids their recipe cards on the way into the grocery store, and just took a step back while they sought out their ingredients.

Doodle didn’t even pause as he went to grab his veggies. He was careful to pick the “perfect” pepper and carrot and got to work dicing them without complaint. When mealtime came, he got himself a large helping of the pasta and ate it all.

All the kids ate their dinner. Once they got their hands dirty and put in the work cooking, there was not a single complaint from them. All I heard was how good all the food was and how proud they were to have made it themselves.

Proud kids are happy kids

Dinner time on the nights the kids cook is different than any other night. We sat down to eat the meal the kids prepared from their Raddish box, and the kids just beamed. Doodle and Bug proudly served the meal and took turns asking questions with the included dinner time conversation starters.

After dinner, Little Miss shared her cake with everyone and insisted that we all get a bite that had both blueberries and raspberries because “that’s how it’s supposed to be!”

At bedtime, Little Miss curled up next to me and shared that she was an awesome “cooker” and is willing to “make cake for dessert every night if you want to.” The boys were proud to brag about their accomplishments, and everyone went to bed happy with full bellies.

It doesn’t have to be hard

I was amazed at how simple it was to assign a 5, 8 and the one-year old dinner duty. Raddish made it very simple from the first to last step. I think that Bug probably could have completed the entire meal on his own, but with Little Miss especially, I was in the kitchen supervising and reminding her to follow the picture instructions on her Raddish card.

I loved doing this activity with them- as we went along, with chatted about the extension activities on the recipe cards. Bug learned about BBQ around the United States, and had a lively conversation with his Dad about where the best BBQ is located (Santa Maria, CA of course!), and Little Miss learned all about the American flag, it’s history and meaning. We talked and played and diced and grilled and baked and had one of the best nights together that we’ve ever had.

Get your Raddish Box!

Raddish Kids is a subscription box service for kids- and I don’t think you’ll regret giving it a try. I know I’ll be subscribing the kids as a part of our “health” curriculum this coming homeschool year. Each box includes recipes, activities, a shopping list, cooking skills, a kitchen tool, dinnertime conversation starters, and a patch for your child’s apron. If you’d like to give it a try for free, enter to win using the widget below!

Purchase a Subscription to Raddish Kids Here.

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