Today's idea: Create your very own Mud Kitchen!
This project is fun to set-up with your youngster and results in an endlessly engaging space outdoors that your child can use, and enjoy, day after day!
Cooking Tools
Creating your Mud Kitchen is a great opportunity to pull-out your family's camping gear - specifically your camp cooking items. But, if you don't have camping pans and such, never fear! Just find some items in your kitchen that you feel ok about relocating for a little time outdoors!
Choosing a Spot
Find a nice, flat space in your yard or, if you do not have a yard, you can set-up your kitchen on a porch, in a garage, or even inside your house. For an indoor kitchen, simply adjust the cooking "ingredients" you make available for your Chef so that they're indoor friendly.
Setting-Up your Kitchen
Old stumps always make great "stove-top burners"! If you don't have any old stumps hanging about, you can use chalk or paint to draw the outlines of burners on old boards you may have left over from a past home project, or even right on the ground.
Regardless of how or where you and your child set-up your Mud Kitchen, children will always use their imaginations to create the different "spaces" they need, or want, in their kitchen. We have seen children turn just about anything they come upon, in nature, into an oven, counter-top, sink, table etc.
Cooking Tools & Utensils
Once you have your spot picked out, it is time to bring out your kitchen tools and gadgets! Some of the favorite tools in our Woods Kitchen on Base Camp are: metal mixing bowls, assorted whisks and funnels, tongs and spatulas to pick things up, large spoons for mixing, measuring spoons and measuring cups, metal camping teacups, an old metal teapot, muffin tins, etc.
An additional fun idea - if you happen to have a kitchen timer that your child can use to keep track of their many baking projects, they will love it! We do not have one in our Woods Kitchen, but can only imagine how exciting it would be for a child to be able to set a timer, hear it go off and be able to retrieve their freshly-baked dish from the "oven".
Cooking Ingredients
Next, you will need to find some natural materials to use as cooking ingredients. In our programs, children and instructors gather and fill baskets with cedar shavings, sweet gum balls, acorns, leaves, flower petals, seed pods etc. Just about anything works - you can use grass if you recently mowed your lawn, mulch, leaves, dirt, clay, and more.
If you want to take you child's culinary endeavors to the next level, just add water! Children of all ages LOVE pouring water and mixing things together. It can also be a ton of fun to fill old spice jars with finely ground-up leaves - just the process of grinding them up is a ton of fun for youngsters!
Mud Kitchens provide children with a space they can return to day after day. Adding new ingredients or tools to the "kitchen" is a great way to keep the space 'fresh' and to renew interest over time.
We would love to hear what your youngsters create in your family's Mud Kitchen! And/or would love to see photos of them in their kitchens in-action! You can email or text photos or comments our way and we'll share them with your child's instructors, other youngsters and their families! Happy cooking!
This project is fun to set-up with your youngster and results in an endlessly engaging space outdoors that your child can use, and enjoy, day after day!
Cooking Tools
Creating your Mud Kitchen is a great opportunity to pull-out your family's camping gear - specifically your camp cooking items. But, if you don't have camping pans and such, never fear! Just find some items in your kitchen that you feel ok about relocating for a little time outdoors!
Choosing a Spot
Find a nice, flat space in your yard or, if you do not have a yard, you can set-up your kitchen on a porch, in a garage, or even inside your house. For an indoor kitchen, simply adjust the cooking "ingredients" you make available for your Chef so that they're indoor friendly.
Setting-Up your Kitchen
Old stumps always make great "stove-top burners"! If you don't have any old stumps hanging about, you can use chalk or paint to draw the outlines of burners on old boards you may have left over from a past home project, or even right on the ground.
Regardless of how or where you and your child set-up your Mud Kitchen, children will always use their imaginations to create the different "spaces" they need, or want, in their kitchen. We have seen children turn just about anything they come upon, in nature, into an oven, counter-top, sink, table etc.
Cooking Tools & Utensils
Once you have your spot picked out, it is time to bring out your kitchen tools and gadgets! Some of the favorite tools in our Woods Kitchen on Base Camp are: metal mixing bowls, assorted whisks and funnels, tongs and spatulas to pick things up, large spoons for mixing, measuring spoons and measuring cups, metal camping teacups, an old metal teapot, muffin tins, etc.
An additional fun idea - if you happen to have a kitchen timer that your child can use to keep track of their many baking projects, they will love it! We do not have one in our Woods Kitchen, but can only imagine how exciting it would be for a child to be able to set a timer, hear it go off and be able to retrieve their freshly-baked dish from the "oven".
Cooking Ingredients
Next, you will need to find some natural materials to use as cooking ingredients. In our programs, children and instructors gather and fill baskets with cedar shavings, sweet gum balls, acorns, leaves, flower petals, seed pods etc. Just about anything works - you can use grass if you recently mowed your lawn, mulch, leaves, dirt, clay, and more.
If you want to take you child's culinary endeavors to the next level, just add water! Children of all ages LOVE pouring water and mixing things together. It can also be a ton of fun to fill old spice jars with finely ground-up leaves - just the process of grinding them up is a ton of fun for youngsters!
Mud Kitchens provide children with a space they can return to day after day. Adding new ingredients or tools to the "kitchen" is a great way to keep the space 'fresh' and to renew interest over time.
We would love to hear what your youngsters create in your family's Mud Kitchen! And/or would love to see photos of them in their kitchens in-action! You can email or text photos or comments our way and we'll share them with your child's instructors, other youngsters and their families! Happy cooking!
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