Having fussy kids is not ideal, it makes dinner time hard, restrictive and it also doesn’t set them up for later life right. No, it is best to have them enjoy all types of food so they are more inclined to experiment with food as they grow. One of the best ways to get your child more interested in food is to get them in the kitchen and teach them how to cook so they can do this when they are adults and raising their children. It’s quite upsetting when you find out how many people can’t actually cook and without this skill, they won’t be able to cook healthy nutritious meals. In this article, we will go through some helpful tips on how to get your child more interested in cooking. 

Get Them Involved 

One of the best ways to get your child interested in cooking is of course getting them involved. This doesn’t mean getting them to cook with boiling pans and putting things in the oven, but getting them to do things that are in their age range and skills. Even small children can get involved by allowing them to set the table with cutlery. If you have items that need preparing then this is a good opportunity to get your children to learn basic skills like cutting and peeling. By allowing them to do these simple tasks, it gets your children more interested. 

Let Them Experiment

This one can be fun, even if it is just to see their face when they try their experimental recipe. Give your kids the opportunity to make their own inventions or experiment with different ingredients. Some may turn out well, some might be disgusting, but others may actually surprise you. The great thing about this is that your children will soon learn what goes well together and what doesn’t, which is a very valuable lesson to learn early on. 

Create A Mini Garden

Creating a mini allotment in your garden has so many benefits. It brings wildlife, helps your child to learn about how food is made and also gets them interested in trying new vegetables. Unfortunately, there are many children and adults who become detached from how food is made and where it comes from. This is another lesson your children need to learn as they will then be able to make their own minds on what they eat later on in life. Kids love watching things grow so having a nice plot will do the family a load of good. 

Take Them Shopping With You

If you have more than one child, this could be difficult so it might be best to take your children shopping each on different days. This way you can go through things with them individually so they understand it more. A supermarket is good but if you have a farmers market near you, then this could be extremely useful as your kids will be able to ask the farmers about their produce and get the best practices on how to cook it best. This is also a great way to get your children introduced to new ingredients. 

Simple Jobs 

Are your children just sitting at the table when you are plating up or setting the table? Well, how are they going to learn this way? No, get them up and help in any way possible. If you have more than one child then separate the tasks accordingly. One can pour the waters, the other can get the cutlery or even help by serving people.

Let Them Choose A Recipe

This can be anything they want, whether it is their favourite biscuit selection or something they have seen in a book or on tv. But to get them interested, giving them some choice in a menu is a great option. You could even let them decide on what the family wants to cook and eat on a certain day. That way if you have more than one child, you can get them all to choose a day each making meal planning much easier for parents.

Watch Cooking Shows

Rather than the constant kid’s shows and mind-numbing songs, get them watching cookery shows with you. They may not appreciate it at first but once they start seeing yummy meals that they want to eat, they will feel encouraged to want to make it and will in turn get them experimenting with new flavours and textures. They will learn how to cook ingredients, where things come from and how it is produced.  

There are many different ways in which you can get your children interested in food but it is all about trial and error. But these are some proven steps on how you can get your children more interested in cooking and to be less fussy when it comes to new flavours.