As the summer winds down you may be looking for activities to keep your little ones busy at home. Having fun in the kitchen is a great way to do that! Below we have a list of 6 of our favorite fun recipes to have a blast in the kitchen!
And if you’re looking for a way to incorporate an educational element into this, check out our blog post about fun summer activities. “Recipe Fun” and “Grocery List” are perfect educational additions to these recipes.
Now, let’s get in to the food!
HOMEMADE ICE CREAM
Homemade ice cream in a bag makes a fun and yummy summer treat! You just need some Ziploc bags, cream, sugar, salt, and ice! Check out the recipe here
DIRT CUPS
A fan favorite, dirt cups are so easy to make and incredibly customizable. Simply layer some chocolate pudding, crushed chocolate cookies, and gummy worms to make a fun treat. Children get to play with textures, and practice following step-by-step instructions. The recipe listed tells you to make the pudding, but you can always buy ready-made chocolate pudding! Check out the recipe here.
FUNFETTI PANCAKES & WAFFLES
Using your favorite pancake recipe or pancake mix, add food coloring and sprinkles to make bright-colored funfetti pancakes. The kids will love making different color combinations and the recipe itself isn’t difficult.
If you want to level up this recipe for older children, you can try making “pancake art”. Make batter of different colors and put them into squeeze bottles. With the griddle on low heat, the kids can “draw” a picture using pancake crayons. If you choose to do this activity, make sure to remind the kids that the pan is hot, so they do not burn themselves.
Here is a basic pancake recipe for the batter.
BANANA SUSHI
This recipe is perfect for when you don’t want to actually cook. Ask your kiddos what toppings they would put on bananas and just go wild. Peel the entire banana, roll in your toppings of choice, and then cut them into bite-sized pieces! As you’ll see in the recipe, it’s best to coat the banana in a creamy topping like nut-butter, or whipped cream cheese first so that the crunchy toppings have something to stick to. Check out the recipe here.
HOMEMADE POPSICLES
Make some homemade popsicles on those hot days that seem to last forever. You can choose any recipe or ingredients you like, but here is an example recipe you can use:
Berry Lemon
▢½ cup orange juice
▢1 ½ cup fresh berries
▢2 Tbsp lemon juice
▢1 Tbsp lemon zest
▢2 to 4 Tbsp honey or sugar
Mix: Mix your ingredients and pour into molds according to the popsicle you want to make:
Berry Lemon: Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour into molds.
Freeze: Insert popsicle sticks and freeze until hard, at least 4 hours.
Unmold: Run mold under warm water for a few seconds to loosen, then remove pops from the molds.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
This one is for folks who have mini bakers in the house and are looking to spend some extended time in the kitchen. Chocolate chip cookies are delicious and fun to make! You can use chocolate chunks, mini chocolate chips, sprinkles, and everything in between to get creative. If you want to make the cookies from scratch we’ve got a recipe for you. Otherwise, you can always grab premade cookie dough and have fun rolling out cookies together and plopping them on a baking sheet!
HOMEMADE TRAIL MIX
Last, but not least, is everyone’s favorite, homemade trail mix! Get some of your kid’s favorite trail-mix ingredients and mix them up! We really love this recipe for three reasons:
1. It’s completely customizable so you can adjust for any allergies
2. It’s great to make a bunch of this at the beginning of the week and then you have snacks whenever you need them!
3. You can use this to practice your child’s categorization skills.
Here are some ingredients you could use and questions to ask to categorize them:
- M&Ms: what other things are that same color?
- Nuts: what are other types of nuts? What other foods are made with that type of nut (e.g., peanuts)?
- Dried Fruit: what are some other fruits?
Get cooking!
We hope you try some of these fun, interactive recipes. If you do, tag us in a picture on social media! We can be found on Facebook and Instagram @readingllcenter. If your needs help with their reading, language, or speech skills, book a chat with us today!