Get Your Kids Involved in Meal Planning
A lot of times parents never know what to make for their children, sometimes they have picky eaters and they don’t want to deal with it. Well, there are ways around that. The first of course, is getting your kids involved in planning out meals.
The best way to start this is on a weekend. This way you can get everyone together for the planning session. Let each child choose a night of the week, their goal is to plan out dinner for that night. Explain to them that they need to choose an entree, a vegetable dish and a starch dish. You can also allow them to pick a dessert if there is time.
After each night is planned out, time to go shopping, of course make sure you check your pantry so you don’t over buy. Grab your coupons and go.
The fun comes when the first meal is to be prepared. Assign each of your children to help you with the nightly preparations. Not only will this help to save time, but it will also give you a little more time to talk about what has been going on through out your day with your children.
Assign the jobs to the age of the child. Little ones can set the table teach them how the first time. Making sure they know where the utensils go, etc. You can also have your youngest get out the stuff needed to prepare dinner, pots, pans, canned goods and other staples. If you have a child that is around 10, they can help clean vegetables and chop them up. If you have even older children assign them to cook the entire meal, helping them on occasion when they need the assistance.
What ever you do, have fun with your family planning out your meals.
