Kids: Play Food from Recyclables

Kids love to be in the kitchen. I think mine could spend their entire day in there just eating. It feels like they are always hungry. I hear a lot of, "Can I have a snack? My tummy is hungry" from Hailey and a lot of "na na na" please signing and pointing to the pantry from Keira. I'm happy they are good eaters, but goodness, let's find something else to do besides eat!

Besides eating, they love to help mom cook. When I am able to take a little bit more time cooking or baking, I do especially love to have Hailey help me in the kitchen. Here are a few recipes we've enjoyed making together:

    

I think play kitchens are a fantastic toy. It opens up so much creativity and provides them with some opportunity to feel big, just like mom. It has it's bonuses for mom too.  Realistically I can't have my girls in the kitchen with me all the time. Some days I think it would take me close to all afternoon just to make dinner. And my patience would be long gone by the time we're ready to eat. When, for my sanity, it just isn't reasonable to have them helping in the kitchen, I love that I can occupy them with their own play kitchen.

I love to watch Hailey's imagination work. She can take nothing and make something from it. My boring grown up mind is always astounded at what she comes up with. Though she doesn't really need much to fuel her creativity, it has been fun for her to have some props to encourage her play. Plus, it is so much more awesome when it really is just like mom.

Instead of throwing away (or recycling) the used containers from our pantry and fridge, I like to wash them out and give them to Hailey to use in her kitchen. She loves it! She gets so excited every time I give her a new product, washed and ready for play.

Hailey loves her kitchen. And so do her friends. When Hailey has friends over they always spend a good amount of time "cooking". We have enjoyed many meals of macaroni and cheese soup or some other made up dish, like kayna, whatever that is. Birthday cakes have been baked and complimented with rounds of singing Happy Birthday and pretend candles blown out over, and over, and over again.

Next time you finish off a small plastic container, take a minute to wash it out and give it a second life with your imaginative child. They'll be over the moon excited. Promise.

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