Cooking is one of those major life skills that has always been on our mental list of Stuff the Snowflakes Should Have the Opportunity to Learn; after all, being able to buy (and/or grow) and prepare good food is a pretty basic requirement for a healthy life, and we don't want to end with those poor kids who you hear about who don't know what a potato is because they've only ever seen fries! However, until recently, the children hadn't been doing as much in the kitchen as they would like. Sometimes I would be desperately trying to think of something to make at 5.30pm, and simply not have the patience to let them help when I knew that I could do it faster on my own. At other times I would be dreading the inevitable fights over who got to do what (hint: if you have more than two children, you should never use an electric beater), and the difficulty of keeping two snowflakes happily occupied while I cook with the third.
No more! We now have (drum-roll...) a Cooking Roster and, although simple, it's proven to be one of the best ideas we've had for ages. We each have our own days when we are responsible for dinner: Daddy Snow on Sundays and Mondays, me on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, snowflake #1 on Thursdays, #2 on Fridays and #3 on Saturdays. The parents act as supervisor / sous chef for the kids, but the person in charge on each day makes the decisions. They choose what we're going to have, make sure that required ingredients are bought, and prepare and serve the meal.
The snowflakes are learning about planning, budgeting, shopping, nutrition and seasonal produce as well as starting to develop cooking skills at their own pace. There are no fights because whoever isn't the chef today knows that she/he will get another turn in a day or three. They absolutely love it. Best of all, we adults don't have to come up with things to eat every single day.
Milly's dishes look so appetising. I am getting hungry just looking at them.
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