Get Cooking With Your Kids This Summer—For Fun and Good Health

For a parent, one of the best things about summer is the time you have with your kids to do the things you can’t during the busy school year. Like cooking together. Getting your kids involved in the kitchen is not only a great way to fight summer boredom, but it helps take some of the snack and meal prep burden off of you. Teach your children how to prepare a few simple, nutritious recipes and they can help themselves to fun and healthful eating all summer long.

My toddler and preschooler enjoy helping out in the kitchen. I've noticed that when they help cook meals, they are more excited to eat them. My toddler loves to help pour ingredients into mixing bowls, tear lettuce for salad, or cut out cookies. My preschooler is adept enough to cut soft ingredients with her plastic kiddie knife, and helps measure (getting in a quick math lesson at the same time!). She also gets to roll out the dough with her very own rolling pin.

The time we spend together bonding in the kitchen is time I know I'll treasure later. I know that not only am I giving them valuable life skills, but I am teaching them about food—where it comes from, and, of course, how to cook it!

During the summer when we have more time together, we have fun making cool treats and snacks to keep us nourished between trips to the swimming pool and soccer camp. I get a kick out of making delicious and healthful treats. Nothing we prepare is complicated—I'm a busy mom in charge of a busy family—but a few fun twists like getting out the blender or making skewers help make summer snacks appealing.

On sweltering summer days, cool off with an icy Tropical Slushie. With wholesome ingredients like 1% milk and fresh fruit, it's a healthful and refreshing snack. Your little one can help chop the fruit and push the button on the blender. Older kids can do it themselves, just remind them to cover the blender tightly before pressing ‘on’. My children enjoy garnishing their slushies with sliced or skewered fruit, so we can all pretend we're sitting on a beach sipping our "fancy drinks."

Growing kids need healthy snacks, so keep part-skim mozzarella cheese cubes or balls, cherry tomatoes, and basil on hand and your kids can have fun making Silly Skewers. With proper supervision, even small children can thread their own toothpicks. Pile them up on a platter for playgroup snacks or backyard barbecues or pack them in a plastic container and take them to the park. It's a salad—to go!

Kids and adults alike love cool, creamy chocolate pudding. You can even turn packaged pudding, prepared with 1% milk, into a luxurious treat with the addition of fresh citrus. For Chocolate-Orange Pudding, prepare one box of your favorite chocolate pudding according to package directions (using 1% milk), and just before chilling stir in the zest of half an orange. When you are ready to serve, top each portion with a dollop of orange-scented whipped cream and sliced fresh orange segments. Kids will have a great time making the pudding, garnishing each serving…and eating it, of course! Keep the camera on hand for the inevitable "licking of the spoons!"

Get the kids involved with cooking this summer and you'll be teaching them skills—and healthy habits—they can use for life. Plus, it's a fun activity you can do together to beat the heat!

Stefania Pomponi Butler a.k.a. "CityMama" is a blogger/writer/editor. She blogs about her parenting adventures on CityMama and about cooking on Family Food. Stefania is also a Founding Editor of Kimchi Mamas. She lives in the San Francisco area with her husband and two young daughters.