Love-Life Cafe- Kid's Dinner

She was armed with a cookbook, a piece of paper, some coupons and a grocery cart. That was all it took to fire up my now 10 year old daughter about making dinner for the family. This is something that can be changed according to the ages of the kids, of course. It does seem to work better for the older ones, but I remember cooking dinner for my family when I was younger than her.......it was fish and hotdogs. Perhaps I should have been a little bit older haha!

Using the cookbook, my daughter came up with her menu. Then she made her grocery list. At the grocery store, I went one way and she and my 5 year old son went another. She has been taught to compare prices and this gave her good experience in a few things. 1. navigating the store  2. getting the best deal in the groceries that she needed  3. using coupons  4. asking for help (something that is hard for her). After about an hour we were armed with our carts and ready to tackle the rest of the day.

When we got home, she separated out all her own groceries and I should have realized then that she really needed to begin cooking dinner. When a fairly inexperienced person is cooking, it takes a LONGER time than someone who cooks everyday. Just a note :)

I was surprised when she even got on the computer and made a menu for us that was laying on the table by the time dinner (finally) was on the table! (7:30pm, but who really cares??? Just made us more hungry, right?) Notice the name of her cafe: "Love-Life Cafe" That made me happy!

Depending on your kids ages, this is something they will really enjoy....and will take then a long time to do (we are all looking for activities that take a long time in the summer, right?). If you incorporate this into your own family, you can give the children something to "own" and something that will make them proud. You can be in the kitchen as much as you need to.....if your child is not as independent as mine, that is fine! They can be your kitchen helper! I am all for activities that teach my kids something, as well as entertains them....and if they can take something off of my plate in the process, better for us all!

By the way, the meal was DELISH. We all gobbled it down......and it was late so we were all hungry, ha!