Learning Life Skills

My children have been inspired by watching the Canadian and Irish versions on MasterChef to do some cooking this week. The first I knew of it was being banned from the kitchen and the occasional request for info, a clattering of pans and the sound of team work. They rustled me up a spicy vegetable pasta:

Seeing as they had never attempted anything like this before it was pretty impressive but with room for improvement. Buoyed with their success they decided to make me tea too. The starter was devised and created by my 7 year old, a salad sandwich:

Reasons to be cheerful week 12 #R2BC

Nearly late with these as I've got a minor concussion! Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Team Honk Relay

We successfully completed our leg last weekend. Tiring but so worth it:

So far we have raised £284 which is amazing and Team Honk as a whole nearly £25,000!

2) Learning Life Skills 

I think it's important that my children learn their way around a kitchen. So I've been building up my daughter's repertoire. This time it was lasagna, breaking her in gently by using jar sauces:

She does her best when I am ill to feed herself and her brother but I need to extend her repertoire!

Teaching Life Skills

As a parent I know I need to teach my children various life skills to equip them for their later lives. Of course I have to ensure that they are capable of them before letting them loose! The purchase of a flat pack guinea pig run on Saturday was a great opportunity for my daughter to hone her assembling and screw driving skills:

First of all following the instructions and putting things in the right place:

At this point she pointed out that I had omitted to screw the first panel on to the triangles and she set to screwing them together:

The reward for her labours? A mug of soup in the cold garden whilst watching the guinea pigs have their first experience of grass:

As for her little brother who is a little young for flat pack furniture he was getting in some valuable practice at washing up:

What essential life skills are you teaching your children for independent living when they grow up?

Teaching our children life skills

Having had to rely an awful lot on my 9 year old daughter this weekend due to illness I am quite pleased that I have taught her valuable skills in the home! It's only when you have to leave everything in their hands that you realise what they can and can't do.

From quite early on I've been gradually building up her skills in the kitchen and I've always welcomed the treat of a breakfast in bed. Her first ever one was a ham sandwich aged 3 but this weekend she proved how much she has moved on when she presented me with this:

She has now learnt how to use the toaster and is getting a dab hand at preparing fruit! There were a few times she set the smoke alarms off over the weekend using it but that's because some crumpet got wedged..

The fact that we have a Tassimo coffee machine means that for several years my daughter has been able to make a coffee in bed. Recently her little brother has also learnt how to use the machine. She has just learned how to use the kettle (I have to say this gave me a few scary moments!). On Saturday they couldn't agree on who was on coffee duty so they both made me one:

On Sunday there needed to be a lot more cooking from my daughter as I was forced to spend much of the day in bed. It was when I had to wrack my brains for ways she could feed us all with the skills she had without endangering herself! Anything to do with using the hob was out of the question - she is only allowed to cook on the gas when I am in the room. So I had train her to use the microwave as the safest way to cook. This limited the menu choice to tinned pasta shapes and soup! She became a dab hand at cooking these in our microwaveable dishes. 

Her other speciality is sandwiches and she rustled me up a ham and salad one. The only problem with this was that she was using a sharp knife (we started letting practice under supervision from about aged 5) which she managed to cut herself with. I have to say she was very calm about it all but I need to train my son where the plasters are.. This is what she made for me:

It had brought home to me that we couldn't have a proper meal today as her cooking skills weren't up to more than the above without adult supervision. Luckily we do have a microwave but there wasn't much in the house that could be cooked in there. 

Guess I need to teach her more cooking skills and how to use the hob safely. She is a dab hand at pancake batter and cupcakes but obviously at the minute needs an adult around for the actual cooking.

What can your children accomplish in the kitchen?