Kiddo has declined helping me with the cooking recently. I think it has to do with the fact that his little brother also wants to join us, thus starting a cascade effect of pushing, fighting, and general whining mayhem. When that starts up, I am perfectly happy to work by myself, thank you very much.
Instead, I find ways to talk about cooking while we are eating dinner. I tell Kiddo the ingredients of the food, how I made it, etc. But my favorite thing to do is discuss the magic of cooking!
“Isn’t it amazing,” I say, “that flour and water turn into bread when heated in the oven? Isn’t it cool the way a runny egg white and yolk turned into this custard-y frittata? How did this hard kernel turn into popcorn????? Amazing. It must be magic!”
Or just maybe….. it’s a sneaky chemistry lesson.
How do you encourage a love of cooking in your home?
Oh, and we also read books.
Extra credit reading assignment:
Cook-a-Doodle-Do
Fannie in the Kitchen: The Whole Story from Soup to Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Invented Recipes with Precise Measurements
Anna - Three Sneaky Bugs says
I must remember the magic comment! Seth doesn't always like to cook with me, but he is ALWAYS happy to do his own cooking next to me. Give him a bowl and let him choose ingredients and he's happy as a clam. Even more so when I consent to really baking his concoction.
Raising a Happy Child says
I swear I have the least magic-inclined kid in the universe – unless she is testing her latest magic wand. She would be apt to point out to me that cooking is not magic, it's chemistry, because she read about it in one of her encyclopaedias.