It’s been a long day, the kids are screaming and all wanting attention at once, while the dog has been sick on the rug, again!! The last thing you need is a battle over dinner. What can you make that is quick and easy and are not chicken nuggets? And the big question is, how to make dinner fun for kids? Which in turn, makes it way more enjoyable for us parents when it comes to family dinner time.
Stressed and grumpy, what can you do to make the evening smoother and less fractious? Setting the older children chores before you get home, such as peeling potatoes and preparing vegetables will give you a head start on the family dinner. Younger children can set the table, feed the pets, and pick herbs or tomatoes from the garden. But still, with all of that, you actually have to get the family to eat the dinner that has been prepared for them. Us parents are superheroes, even though our kids might think we are supervillains if we serve up healthy food!
Let’s have a look at a handful of ways to make family dinners fun for everyone.
Get Involved With The Recipe And Cooking
The secret to getting kids to be less picky and choosing healthier options is to encourage their curiosity and taste buds from a young age. Get them involved with food shopping, preparation, cooking their favourite recipes, and educate them where their food comes from. You can get them to learn all about it by growing their own garden. In their early years, a foundation can be laid for an interest in food beyond it appearing on their plate and hearing a chorus of “I don’t like that.”
Kids love doing things together and this is a powerful motivator and gets them interested. If mum, dad or older siblings, involve the younger kids in the kitchen they will take pride in what they have helped make and want to taste it and ask if everyone likes the dinner they made. (www.taste.com.au Stephanie Alexander)
Creating a garden with mum or dad or grandpa teaches them how to grow some of the vegetables they will eat. Growing a garden involves kids in growing cycles, harvesting, preparing, and sharing fresh seasonal food. It teaches kids what to plant in each season and how to look after each crop.
Back in the kitchen kids love to help by grating cheese, cracking eggs, or mixing salad dressings. Older children enjoy using the pasta machine, rolling out dough or cooking pancakes or pikelets. Friday night? Pizza night, have all the kids assemble their own with their choice of toppings. Set up a stool next to you for little kids so you can help them with their pizza. You can make more grown-up versions of pizza for the adults. Check out our super easy tortilla pizza recipe here.
Family Dinner Fun With Table Games
Participation in family dinner time conversation or table games gives children opportunities to expand their vocabulary and acquire general knowledge. (Emily, et al, 20021).
Create a restaurant vibe by asking your kids to help pick the menu and prep the food. According to Fernando, N, 2016, cooking with children can sharpen their cognitive skills, help them get in touch with their senses and improve dexterity. This helps them comprehend and follow recipes and themes.
One example of a table game the family can play between bites is the food poetry game. The rules are thus: Have everyone take a bite of their meals and describe the taste, smell, and textures and the memories it brings up. Soon you will have a table surrounded by little Jamie Oliver’s.
Another game is to ask kids silly questions like “Would you rather be a shark or an eagle and why?” Or the “who’s coming to dinner?” game where everyone picks a guest living or deceased and explains why they would have them over for a family meal.
Family Dinner Theme Nights
Travel the world from the comfort of your kitchen table, every month have your kids pick a country to learn about and explore. Through the week get them to research that country’s traditions, holidays, music, and food. Then on a Friday or Saturday night have them dress in a costume for the chosen country. Have them help select and prepare the meal from that country and while eating discuss some of the fascinating things you learned. Having a theme will bring laughter to the table and possible education. This is also the perfect opportunity to try new ingredients, new flavours, and environments. My kids love bringing out the Sombrero for our Mexican family meals and their Flannelette shirts when it is Aussie outback steak night.
Picky Eaters At The Dinner Table
Every family has one, and every mealtime is punctuated by the same refrain, “I don’t like that.” Even if they ate the same food last week. Picky eaters can make meals resemble a war zone. Some children will stick to a three-component diet of say bread, meat, and potatoes. Or pasta, rice, and bread.
If you are serving food for the first time expect them to be a little unsure. This does not mean if they refuse to eat it that you won’t offer it to them again. Kids are still learning and developing taste preferences until age 5. Often, they see the older kids eating the food they refused, and they may try it and end up loving it.
There are other things you can do to entice picky eaters. For example, change the menu regularly. Rotate foods they will eat with new foods. Variety is key to a healthy diet. This also tells kids they don’t have to eat the same thing at every meal. Don’t give them separate meals as this reinforces that they are allowed a special dinner and this might blow out control of more than just their food choices. If they don’t want to eat what is served, offer them something boring like cold leftovers, plain toast, plain yoghurt, or cottage cheese. If these are the choices between what you have served, and the alternatives are boring they will soon eat what you have served.
Ideas For Picky Eaters At Dinner
Offer children a variety of food every day. Vegetables, fruit, grains, bread, milk, yoghurt and cheese, lean meat or chicken, fish, eggs, legumes, nuts, and seeds.
Sandwiches can be cut into star shapes with a cookie cutter or half-moons. Little hands like to pick up fruit and sandwiches and feed themselves. Fruit is a healthy snack. Keep takeaways as a special occasion food and keep treats such as fizzy drinks, candy, chips and ice cream in the occasional bracket. Moderation is key!
Allow little ones to help make their own lunch or breakfast and to grow their own vegetables. Take them shopping to help them choose the food. Remember to take healthy snacks to the grocery store when you go so you aren’t ripping the most convenient processed snack of the shelves to feed your little one.
If you are cooking something new let them help with the preparation, the chances of them trying new food when they have helped cook or prepared it is higher than if you do it for them.
Food That Children Can Help Cook
- Toasted sandwiches – while not healthy you can use a wholegrain bread, fill it with some lean chicken and spinach to increase the nutrition range
- Scrambled eggs or frittatas
- Grating cheese or vegetables
- Cooking pancakes
- Ham & Corn mini muffins or fritters
- Zucchini Slice
- Pasta with Bolognese / Spaghetti sauce and vegetables
- Salads
- Cereal & toast
- Or just anything that they can help with – handing you the utensils, mixing and stirring, or washing the veggies.
Dinner time doesn’t always have to be a battle. Make it fun and stress free with a few of the ideas mentioned here for your own sanity and for your little ones belly 🙂
References
Alexander, S, (2018), Kids in the Kitchen www.taste.com.au
Erin M. Kenney, Michelle D. Leichtman, John D. Mayer, ‘How would you describe Grandpa?’ Mothers’ personal intelligence predicts personality talk with their children, Social Development, 10.1111/sode.12504, 30, 3, (850-866), (2021).
Fernando, N, 2016, 5 Great Reasons to Cook with your Kids, American Paediatrics
Learning through Language, 10.1017/9781316718537, (2019).
Utter J, Denny S, Lucassen M & Dyson B. Who is teaching the kids to cook? Results from a nationally representative survey of secondary school students in New Zealand. International journal of adolescent medicine and health. 2016.
