Fun in the kitchen As well as safety matters, it’s important to instil a sense of fun, too. During the summer holidays, a fun activity for your child and a few friends might be to cook a meal for the grown-ups. You can help them to choose a menu together, get the ingredients organised and then have the children cook supper, lunch or tea themselves with a little adult supervision. Children will take pride in making a meal for their parents and friends and it will give them a good feeling of independence. Choose the recipes beforehand with your children and get all the equipment and ingredients ready. Often children like to create a make-believe restaurant. It’s fun for them to write out menus and have you order your dishes from the menu and then dress up as waiters and serve you supper. However, be warned - sadly their enthusiasm may wane when it comes to mundane jobs like the washing-up. Cooking birthday partyA great idea for a birthday party is to hold a cooking party. You can make invitations out of coloured card in the shape of rolling pins or chef's hats.
 You and your child can choose about six fun recipes for the guests to cook like Pizza Faces, Animal Cupcakes and Fruit Smoothies and you can measure the ingredients before the party starts so that everything is ready. It's best if the children can work in pairs - have the instructions for each of the recipes printed out on separate pieces of paper in easy steps for the children to follow. Before they attempt each recipe, read out the instructions and explain or demonstrate each step carefully to the children. Once you have chosen the recipes and you know how many children are coming, make a list of all the utensils you will need such as baking trays, mixing bowls, chopping boards, etc. Borrow some from friends, neighbours, relatives or parents of the children coming to the party.
 There will be quite a lot of clearing up between recipes so ask a few of the parents to help out. It's a good idea to have breaks in the cooking when the children can play party games in another room and you and your helpers can arrange the ingredients so that they are set up ready for the next recipe. You can pack up any extra food in individual boxes so that the children can take it home to their parents, who are bound to be very impressed. Child-friendly recipesTry these recipes by Annabel Karmel: Sweet and sour chicken
Perfect pasta
Mice in jackets
My favourite pancakes
Chocolate fridge cake
Easy peasy cupcakes
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