One of my New Year’s Resolutions for a Lazy Parent was to get my kids more involved in cooking. It’s not that I have a wish for them to go through life with four fingers each; it’s that I want them to be able to cook one meal a week by the time they’re ten. William and Vivian think they’re getting a dog when they’re that age, but the truth is they’re getting chef hats.
Even though I haven’t yet attempted this resolution, my kids are often underfoot when I’m cooking. In fact, when I bring out the salad spinner (a gift from a wedding shower thrown for me in my hometown’s church basement), it’s like a can of tuna is calling a cat. Vivian and William leap towards the spinner, fight over it, and compromise long enough to perform some Grade 1 science experiments.
William, in particular, has perfected his salad spinning technique: he spins the salad at warp speed, removes the lid, watches centrifugal force in action, and laughs as leaves of Romaine launch into kitchen air space.
So there I was, picking lettuce off the floor and tossing it into a bowl when I hear the salad spinner in action again, this time sans lettuce. “Get another one,” William instructed. Vivian ran to the toy box and back again in less time than it takes me to slice off my finger cutting tomatoes.
She hands something to William, who deposits it in the spinner and starts cranking. It’s at this point I said this:
William said, “Just toys, Mom.”
I looked inside the salad spinner and, sure enough, blocks and Lego pieces were getting the ride of their life.
I stopped hacking tomatoes and added my favourite ingredients, Thing One and Thing Two.
And spin they did in a miniature tilt-a-whirl.
In a few months, when I’m moaning about my kids’ birthday, remind me to forgo more plastic crap from Toys R’ Us and purchase some kitchen gadgets instead. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to this resolution by then.
Able to cook one meal a week by the age of ten? Good grief I wasn’t able to do that until… erm… much later.
Best of luck to you and chef-inating Thing One and Two! Perhaps the salad spinner method will efficiently indoctrinate them.
I don’t think I was able to cook a meal at ten, either, but I can dream!
That photo of Thing 1 & 2 in the salad spinner – priceless.
My children would probably love a life size version to make themselves dizzy. As it is, they dance that way.
Monday I said, “We don’t put the microwave on baby sister’s head.” – the toy one, luckily.
LOL. The image of a microwave on a baby’s head seems like a cartoon in want of a caption.
My friend figured all her kids needed to be able to make by themselves was chocolate chip cookies and they make some of the best. I believe she is now passing that on to her grandkids now.
And I recommend kids chopsticks that are linked at the top with animal shapes. It is amazing what my kids try to pick up with those.
Actually, I think chocolate chip cookies just may be the perfect food. And I nee to get some of those chopsticks, though knowing my kids, they’d imbed them in their head.
Me, driving two 6 year olds somewhere, as usual: So E, did anything special happen at your house over Christmas holidays?
E: Yes. My Grandma and Grandpa came. They live in Victoria. My other Grandma and Grandpa came to visit too.
Me: Where do your other Grandma and Grandpa live?
E: They live next to a mud bog and a place that makes french fries.
I love that description: between a bog and a fry hut. Brilliant. And likely terribly accurate too. Who needs maps?
One meal a week by age ten? I better step up my game.
Although, the boy child can make a mean bowl of instant oatmeal.
Spinning things=awesomeness!
In my house, instant oatmeal qualifies as a meal. Enough said…
Those photos! Love them. You are without a doubt one of the most gifted writers on momness in the world. Seriously.
I would blush, but I’m already red from running up a flight of stairs. Thanks, Clay.
I’m a volunteer storyteller (checkout http://www.spellbinders.org). I tell stories to 5th grade kids (so I believe that makes them 10 going on 11). Last year, when I asked if any of them cook and if so what, I got quite a few responses. Lots of “Nachos”, and “Sloppy Joes” (bet this is the out of the can variety), but I don’t remember what else.
I remember one of my brothers at about grade 9 was excellent at making baking powder biscuits (and not out of a box). He’d make them during that hungry time between the school and dinner. While my older brother’s favorite snack was a bowl of cereal – I think that counts as a meal – even as dinner, what with so many cereal companies promoting “Eat xxx twice a day for two weeks and lose zzz pounds”. 🙂
I’m suddenly hungry for nachos. And baking powder biscuits. Surprisingly, I can do without Sloppy Joes from a can.
The spinner’s universal appeal is fascinating. It’s by far the favorite toy at my house…
I think I may wrap it up for their birthday, but given that I have twins, I likely need two…
H loves to help in the kitchen…her birthday is in June. Maybe I’ll get her a set of bbq utensils ;p
BBQ utensils = brilliant. They’d also be a great stocking stuffer, if Christmas wasn’t in the middle of winter.