Large Family Mealtime~Creating a meal together.

In the large family, mealtime can quickly turn into complete chaos.

Below could be a scene in our home, if I didn’t get creative with who can do what, and adjust my expectations.

The toddler gets ahold of the toilet paper, unwinding a whole roll, handing it to the baby who quickly shreds the entire roll. The four year old and five year old get into an argument over the tractors and horses, and the older two are doing dishes.

Does that sound familiar? Won’t daddy be glad he came home to this? So much for creating a joyful, happy meal time ehh?

Well, with a bit of thought and planning this time doesn’t have to end with the entire house trashed or your children in front of the boxed babysitter (TV/computer).

When preparing meals, I am in the middle of it with my children, therefore, my hands are busy. Doing mealtime with little ones in the kitchen takes supervision.

So, what can a two year old do? She grinds the pepper. I ran out of pepper in my shaker a couple of weeks ago. One day I had my three year old with a measuring up and the pepper grinder, grinding the pepper for me. He quickly taught the two year old how. Woohoo, now he can be given another job. He now is able to wash potatoes with the four year old, or other fresh veggies. The older children are cutting, dicing or slicing, unless they are browning meat. Others may be washing dishes and loading the dishwasher. Even my four year old can wash dishes—I go back through them and check for missed areas. The two, three and four year olds are able to unload the dishwasher too.

My eleven year old and eight year old are able to bake or cook, banana bread, oatmeal, hamburger, pasta, peanut butter balls, etc. without much help.

There is a lot of slicing and dicing when it comes to a large family and fresh fruits and veggies. My five year old helps slice bananas, and other softer foods.

This past summer, my children and I put up 50 quarts of salsa, 30 quarts of applesauce, 20 lbs. of green beans, and 50 lbs. of peaches. We also at a ton of fresh veggies and yummy goodness from our garden. In today’s increasing grocery prices preserving and growing your own produce is a great way to save money.

Working in the kitchen is part of our homeschool day. We are doing our home economics and learning about healthy eating, meal preparation, food safety, and how to preserve and grow our own foods. They are gaining sense at the grocery store, and financial awareness. Making your kitchen duties a family affair also helps to make sure they eat what is served. You don’t have to have a large kitchen either. My children find places around the kitchen table to complete their tasks. All this extra help, keeps me out of the kitchen a little more and working on other projects in the home.

Do you have any large family kitchen tips?