8 year old cooks dinner.

Both our girls have been helping with cooking dinners for some time now, but after reading this article last week, we decided to give our eldest a go cooking an entire meal by herself.

She did really well, and apart from some lifting of heavy pans, basically cooked us all dinner herself!

She made spaghetti carbonara which is one of her favourite meals, plus one she's helped out with lots before.

I directed her, helping her remember the ingredients and steps, and also with what utensils to use.( I'm working on some reorganisation of our kitchen just now, to put things in places where our girls can reach them more easily, thereby making it easier for them to help out!)

After watching "Junior Masterchef' on TV last year, and seeing the young kids on there together with the amazing things they could cook, it did make me realise that both our girls at age 6 and 8 are certainly old enough to learn.  I think I probably have held them back in a sense because there are times they have asked to help me cook, but I've refused as I've not wanted to cope with the inevitable spills and mess, or to take the extra time needed to teach them to do things rather than just getting things done quickly myself.

I think this is probably true of not just me,but many parents in many different areas.  Kids are capable of more than we give them credit for a lot of the time, and also keener than we would often imagine when we actually take some time with them.

Now our younger daughter is also keen to cook a meal all by herself too.  She gets a lot more distracted by things and as a result takes longer to do anything so I shall have to choose a day and a meal that we can really take our time over to do this!

I am enjoying this idea of our girls taking a more active role in the cooking in our house and I have resolved to make more time and put in the extra effort to help them learn.

Last Friday when our daughter cooked us Carbonara, she wanted to dish up and serve the food to us by herself, and then very proudly did the same for dessert with the Banana cake she had made the previous day.  This was all a great boost for her confidence and also a wonderful relaxing mealtime for us as parents!

Do your kids cook with you?  Have they ever made an entire meal by themselves? How old do you think they need to be for this?