6 Steps to Making Cooking & Clean Up FUN for Kids!

My take on The Adventure Generator.  I'm putting it in my Mom's old grinder, shredder thingy and planning on getting some adorable cupcakes out the other end!  Wouldn't that be cool?

My friend, Sarah from sarahshotts.com uses this graphic as her definition of the word ADVENTURE.  The second entry is her favorite and mine as well!  Oh, and her blog is called A Love Letter to Adventure . . . lovely, don't you agree?  

Sarah challenged me to try out The Adventure Generator and to make it my own, you know fix it up to suit me!  I love these challenges and can't say NO to a good one!  (find out more and get your own here!)

My friend, Cara, whom you might remember from The Practically Perfect Planner Challange!  Oh, man was that fun . . . I am still recovering!  It is not easy to outcute some people at all and she is about as cute as they come!! 

She said it "practically perfect" when she did her blog post about Sarah's very cool Adventure Generator!  NB See how Cara uses her Practically Perfect Planner, she is still rockin' it!

Okay, so here's what me and Zami, my 11 year old grand, did this afternoon.  Our adventure was to "Photograph A Forgotten Recipe"  I took this at it's simplest and decided mini cupcakes would fit the bill, after all neither one of us could remember the last time we made cupcakes! A very sad state of affairs, indeed!

And remember too, this is 6 steps to making Cooking and Cleaning FUN for kids, which in itself is an adventure too!

Meet Zami.  Awesome, amazing, smart, cute, sweet, loving and my creative equal on many levels.  This little dude has an awesome eye for what looks good and what sounds good in writing. (and he spell checked me too!)  

He stayed with me a couple of weeks ago, when the hubs was back east.  I ran a lot of my creative work by him for his input and took his advice on numerous occasions!  Thanks again, Zami!

 Step #1  Make it an adventure!  

STEP #2:  Make it fun . . . duh!

STEP #3:  Don't worry about the mess as you go, too much anyway.  Have a "garbage bowl" or the sink handy to just toss stuff in, till it's over.  That way it's contained and cleanup will still be easier at the end of your adventure!

STEP #4:  Let them come up with ideas!  Zami is now convinced that since he came up with the "take a picture of me pouring the batter" AND since it turned out so AWESOME, he simply doesn't know what I would do without him as my assistant ALL the time!  I know I'll certainly use him more often, that's for sure!!

STEP #5:  Let them lick the spoon and the bowl and their fingers.  Make sure it's easy for them to wash their hands when needed, but lighten up on the germ phobias.  Let it be fun!  Note in a later photo, you will see Zami with his head actually in the bowl.  He has taken "licking the spoon and bowl" to a whole new level, one that I never even dreamed of as a kid! GOOD on YOU, ZAMI!!  Gross, but good. ;)

           

STEP #6:  MAKE IT A MEMORY!  Not a chore, not a yucky, stupid thing that a big person is forcing them to do.  

As my friend Sarah would say, as she did in this blog post here,  REFRAME IT!  She sums it up perfectly with this:  Remember how the world looked when you were a child? Everything was new and exciting! And somewhere along the way we stopped paying attention. We lost our sense of wonder.

 Now, look at the photo of Zami . . . It almost gives me tears looking at it now (I know, sappy) cause when I said, "Aren't you going to lick the bowl?", his face lit up and the dimples popped and he flippin', literally LICKED THE BOWL!  An awesome memory for us both.

Oh, here's one more very cool blog to check out!  My friend, Richelle of The Red Scorpio, also did the challenge and fixed a craft fail into a craft WOW!  A very cool technique that I'm looking forward to trying.  Also, Richelle has a book coming out soon called, Handmade Gifts That Don’t Suck, in which this technique will be featured!

So, click on the map, ladies and go on an adventure!  It's never too late and there is always one ready to take at a moment's notice! ENJOY! 

Thanks for joining me and Zami on our adventure!  Could you let Zami hear how much you enjoyed it too, in the comments below?  It would make his day, no actually it would probably making a lasting memory . . . as a part of this whole adventure!!  He thinks I'm famous!! :)  Come on guys, make me look good!! 

This is Zami and Zami's idea.  I LOVE this photo! 

CRAFT HAPPY!

NANCY