If you have a wet day looming ahead of you, why not get the kids involved in a spot of cooking? I don’t just mean the actual cooking itself but the planning, the shopping, the cooking, and of course the clearing up!
Get the cookery books out or get them searching on the internet for recipes on sites like the Schwartz one. Make them responsible for making the shopping list but carrying out a sneaky check yourself will avoid tears and tantrums when the vital ingredient is found to be missing at a crucial point. If you want to help their maths skills, allocate a budget and use the supermarket website to help them cost their recipes. Going food shopping with your children doesn’t have to mean frayed tempers, especially when you are not trying to do a week’s shop for the whole family. Let them choose what they need; they may be surprised at what things cost!
Whether they are capable of cooking the whole meal themselves will depend on their age and experience. Do your best not to interfere unless you see an accident about to happen. Yes, there will be mess but since they are going to be the ones doing the clearing up that may focus their minds on keeping things reasonably tidy.
Pizzas, spaghetti bolognese, homemade burgers, and pancakes with a savoury filling all used to be favourites when my kids started cooking. Apple crumble is an easy pudding if they are determined to actually cook a pud. Meringues too are a winner and can be topped with whipped cream and whatever soft fruit is in season. If they are not too bothered about the cookery element of the pudding then a fruit salad or a no-cook cheesecake are both easy to make.
Finally don’t underestimate the time that all of this will take. This is not an activity to be embarked upon if you have to get one child to the dentist at 1.00 and the other to ballet at 4.00!