One way I maintain my sanity during dinner prep is to keep little hands busy right beside me in the kitchen. We always have some great conversations while we're working together making food or tidying up. Here's a few of our favorite simple tasks in the kitchen:
Washing, drying, and tearing lettuce (the salad spinner is so fun!)
Cutting soft foods with a small knife or a plastic knife – try bananas, bread, peeled apple slices, or sticks of cheese.
Scooping from a large bowl into small bowls – try applesauce, cooked rice, cereal. If scooping with a spoon is too difficult for your child, offer a measuring cup or scoop.
Gathering items for a centerpiece; setting the table; making place cards
Pouring water from a small pitcher
Stirring; using egg beaters
Assembling a fruit salad
Sorting clean silverware back into the drawer
Gathering ingredients from the refrigerator or cabinets/pantry
Rinsing dishes and/or putting items in the dishwasher
How do you involve your little helpers in the kitchen?
{Side Note: Thank you for sharing your favorite fall books — I added a few to my library hold list! Also, for those of you who asked about the bookshelf — I am lucky enough that my hubby made it for me. I saw a sling-style standing bookshelf in a school supply catalog and wanted something similar to hang on the wall. It is basically two side boards with three cross boards, each one attached a little more forward than the one above it. The fabric is just draped and stapled in place. 
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* Using a potato peeler.
* Spreading with a knife, starting with crackers or toast.
* Cutting with a knife and fork. Cutting pancakes is a good place to start.
* Using scissors to snip fresh herbs.
* Using a rolling pin to roll out cookie dough.
* Kneading bread dough.
* Using a manual egg beater (can also be used to whip up soap bubbles).
* Folding napkins.
* Removing strawberry leaves with a strawberry huller.
Great post!
Lately I’ve been having my son assemble our salads “to order” before dinner (see here: http://thewritestart.typepad.com/the_write_start/2008/09/salad-bar.html)
Another thing that has been a big “hit” is smashing things in a ziploc bag with a hammer. For example, hammering toast to make breadcrumbs, graham crackers for pie crust, nuts for ice cream topping, loosening up hardened brown sugar, etc
He also loves:
stretching pizza dough
assembling a quesadilla
spreading butter or cream cheese
squeezing oranges for juice
husking corn
snapping ends off green beans
Thanks for your ideas. Tomorrow night, we’re making place cards for sure!
Any chance we can get a full picture of the bookshelf? I think I am going to make something similar to go in our living room
It is so important to get children involved int he kitchen from a young age. I have a range of small utensils that the small children can use, for example:
- small grater – cheese
- small sifter – flour etc
- small hand beater – eggs, milk etc
- small tongs – placing food on plates/dishes
I basically do most of the things you listed. I have very picky eaters so one thing I’m trying to do is have them help select recipes and prepare them with me—so they are more personally invested in the meal.
I also had them make their own placemats and they now set the table for every meal. I put the directions on my other blog http://www.mommymattersblog.com/2008/09/craft-time-table-settings.html
Even with very small kids – our son just turned 3 – you can get them involved in the kitchen with things that don’t require too much manual dexterity. Liam loves to help me run the mixer to make pudding or whipped cream. He isn’t nearly strong or coordinated yet to run it solo, so I subtly guide the hand mixer and keep it upright while he moves it around the bowl.
I’m strongly opinionated about those little kitchen playsets that parents buy for their kids. That is, I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t just make the effort to involve them in the real kitchen instead.
And when there’s nothing for him to do to help with meal prep, I enlist his aid in loading dirty clothes into the nearby washing machine. He loves helping with laundry!
Vacuuming, dusting, window cleaning? Ditto! Granted, sometimes his involvement hinders as much as it helps, but he’s learning the valuable lessons that it takes work to keep a house clean and he gets such an empowered feeling from being involved in those mundane tasks.