When I lived for a year with a family of seven in France, we ate something sweet every night after dinner. Sometimes, the dessert was as simple as sliced fruit, but other times, we ate pot de crème or pastries from the local patisserie. After having my own daughter, I stressed about sweets. Perhaps I …
There is no shortage of research today documenting the health benefits of teaching kids about cooking—from understanding the origins of ingredients to learning S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics). These things combined give our kids a leg up in making better food choices throughout life, but what often goes unrecognized is the role …
Can Cooking With Kids Develop Their Emotional Intelligence? The Science Says Yes. Read More »
Publishing a cookbook—as I recently did—puts a parent in the humbling position of considering whether her children would eat any of the food she spent her last several years writing about. A few qualifiers apply in my case: My recent book is not exactly a cookbook in the contemporary sense. It’s sort of a culinary …
A Cookbook Author Has a Kid, and the Fates Laugh Read More »
Flour on the floor … A 30-minute meal that’s taken well over an hour … An assistant who’s singing Katy Perry at the top of her lungs … Fingers in the sugar jar—again. Cooking with children can sometimes be a slower, messier, and higher decibel affair, with results that won’t always turn out picture (or …
Keeping it Cool: How to Practice Patience While Cooking with Kids Read More »
We’re staying in this year, and creating our own festive approach to a love-laden holiday that originally began with sacrificing a goat to the fertility gods. But we acknowledge that this strategy comes with challenges, too. Perhaps you want to involve your kids in a special night—but how to reconcile that with an at-least-a-little-special night …
Tiebing Zhang is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Circle, the Portland-based company created to help families manage kids’ use of screens and technology. (The Circle Home Plus product and app allow parents to monitor screentime and content consumption on a full range of devices.) He’s also a father of two, with a distinct …
Clutch Tools to Curb Screentime? Dumplings, Popcorn, and Conversation Read More »
It’s that time of year when we start adding even more checklists to our usual pile of to-dos. As you start jotting down Thanksgiving grocery lists, holiday party calendars and gifting matrices, don’t forget to leave some room for community service. There are many ways you and your family can give back; check out our …
How To Make the Most Out of Volunteering with Your Child Read More »
When I was a kid, my gawd, did I love summer. All … that … time. I logged many hammock hours reading, and I definitely emphasize that part when I tell my kids about those lazy days of 1980s yore. Secretly, I also played a lot of video games and binged Addams Family re-runs. Like all right-thinking children, …
These 10 Fun Kitchen Projects Will Keep Kids Learning All Summer Read More »
Chores, we are told, are good. Key, in fact, to raising decent, capable human beings. Studies and commentary point to regular chore routines as essential to kids’ positive development, happiness, even success as adults. Bracing stuff—especially if you’ve ever tried to convince a balky 10-year-old to rid a window of smudges. Obviously, we all want …
Kids Need Chores. Get ‘Em Started in the Kitchen. Read More »
There was one night when food was thrown, and not by a child. We have survived the showdowns over seasoning, endured the face-offs when something green touches something not green. We have served the chicken fingers we now regret. Like so many parents, my wife and I sometimes sweat the recalcitrance of our nightly dining …
