In the Kitchen with Little Ones

Isabelle is one busy little two year old.  She loves to be in the middle of the action, and it's no different when I'm cooking dinner.  I've recently concluded that the best way to make dinner preparation go more smoothly is to involve her in the process.  It keeps her from getting into messes and makes for great mother-daughter bonding. 

But what can a two year old do?

"Cook." 
If Isabelle sees me at work in the kitchen, she squeals "cooking!" and immediately begins pulling up a chair to the kitchen counter.  I let her dump ingredients for me, tear tortillas for enchilada casserole, or pull fruits and veggies off the cutting board and into their bowls for a fruit salad or green salad.  She nearly always steals a few bites!

I do make it a point not to "fix" the things that she does.  Isabelle once decided that all the tomatoes needed to be on one side of the salad, and she would quite adamently move my cucumbers to the opposite end.  I let her.  Who cares if the salad looks proper or not? 

But I struggle with perfectionism, which I firmly believe is a sin that is rooted in pride and a need to control, so I'm working hard not to pass my struggle onto my daughter.  Perfectionism is a pretty sin, but it's still not pleasing to God.  And I don't want her to know the pain of feeling overly criticized by a parent.  So I always accept her approximations and tell her what a great job she is doing, regardless of how crazy the food looks when she's finished with it. 

Izzy, at 1 1/2, helping bake muffins

I also give her "very important" jobs!

Like counting beans.  Seriously.

I have a container of dry beans in the pantry that I use when I'm desperate for a busy activity while I'm in the kitchen.  I pull out about ten beans along with two small containers.  Then I tell Izzy that I've got a very important job for her to do.  I need her to count these beans for me.  Please?  Will she please do this to help mommy? 

She loves to help mommy, so she's excited at the chance to do it.  She sits there and counts the beans over and over again, moving them from one container to another, and I occasionally correct her if she forgets a number.  She loves to count and feels very important.  Eventually, she loses interest and moves on to something else, but this buys me a pretty good chunk of time and helps her practice counting.

And she loves to set the table.
While I'm finishing the last elements of dinner preparation, I recruit Isabelle to set the table.  One by one, she brings dishes, napkins, forks, and glasses into the dining room. 

Do this only if you are brave, because it is sure to result in a broken plate or spilled drink.  So far, we've only had one broken plate, which Isabelle was pretty upset about.  However, she has spilled drinks countless times, mostly because she has to lift the big heavy glasses over her head to put them on the table.  Fortunately, we drink water, so it's not disastrous.  I just give her a dishtowel and ask her to wipe it up, which she is pleased to do.

Even with the messes, I think it's worth it.  One day, these small activities will morph into cutting vegetables and preparing dishes alongside her mommy, and then she'll be able to do them herself.  They also build her self esteem, not that she needs any help in that area!  She's quite the confident, capable little girl.  I've also noticed that she is more willing to try new things when she has helped cook the meal.  She had repeatedly refused to eat tortillas at my coaxing, but when she had the task of tearing tortillas for enchilada casserole, she kept stealing bites of it.  Now she loves tortillas.

Isabelle will also pick basil with me from the garden (and eat a few leaves too!) and she loves to operate the salad spinner.  During any meal preparation time, I can usually find some random activity for her to "help" with. 

Recruiting toddlers is a win-win situation, with the real winner being your relationship with your sweet little one. 

What do you do to involve your little ones with meals?  I'd love to get more ideas!