Children are less anxious about how soon they will eat if they re involved in and have some control over the cooking process. A fundamental truth about family cooking and parenting is that when you give a child real responsibility with the assumption that you believe they can do it, they will likely rise to the occasion. Our dining table is always set with a washable tablecloth and cloth napkins in napkin holders. This adds a certain ceremony to the meal and promotes better table manners. We all treat this time together with respect and reverence.
Children are never too young to be brought into the kitchen.
Even babies are happiest being where the action is. They will be thrilled just to watch you and listen to your voice as you keep them entranced with a running dialogue about the meal. By the time they are in a walker or just about to walk, you can give them bits of food while you cook, so they can begin tasting ingredients in their raw stage. By toddlerhood, you can begin to have a little helper. By eight or so, children are reading and writing in school and have developed motor skills so that they can be instructed how to use kitchen tools too sophisticated for younger children and can be given independent recipe steps or simple recipes to follow.