Is the kitchen your escape? If you love cooking and that’s often your alone time, you may be reluctant to invite your kids into the kitchen.  But if you’ve followed me for long, you may have been convinced that teaching kids to cook is an important way to grow connection, confidence, and creativity in your family. Not to mention that cooking is a valuable life skill your kids need to learn.  RELATED: It goes beyond learning how to cook! Social and emotional skills are taught in the kitchen as well! Ready for some encouragement from a mom who’s been there? Teaching Kids to Cook…When ..read more

I’m honored to host an expert today who didn’t just learn from books — the DeGarmo family has welcomed over 60 foster children into their home over the last 20 years. I think that means Dr. John DeGarmo definitely deserves to be hailed as a top expert on foster care! We’re all about raising healthy kids here at Kids Cook Real Food, and I want all children to thrive. Whether you’ve ever considered fostering or simply want to know more about how you can be part of a child’s village – a child who perhaps has never felt love in their lives – this short interview is an incredible listen. You’ll lea ..read more

Meltdowns start in the brain! In many situations your child’s brain may perceive a large gap between demand and capacity, may be flooded with emotion and not able to access the logical processing left brain, or may be feeling unsafe or threatened, and any of those situations (and more) can be at the root cause of a meltdown. When meltdowns occur, whether that’s a toddler tantrum, a teenage disgusted funk, or even an adult mom-splosion, knowing more about the brain can help us calm tantrums AND actually teach our children effectively. “Teach” is the root of “discipline,” after all, not punishme ..read more

Our eCourse was the solution to this mom’s desire to pass on her love of cooking, teach her kids life skills and find skill-based cooking classes for tweens. Read on to hear their story! Getting kids in the kitchen definitely supercharges confidence and creativity for your kids, but it’s not always easy to get started. Do your kids complain when you ask them to help? Make mistakes? Slow you down? I’d like to introduce you to Adria, a widowed mom in California who experienced all those roadblocks but was able to use our Kids Cook Real Food eCourse to get her two daughters motivated and con ..read more

It’s easy to admit that one of the greatest benefits of social media is keeping in touch with friends from long ago. My dear friend and fellow trombone player from high school, Liz, is one of those I am so grateful for. We’ve often connected through Facebook or Instagram over the years and kept up with one another’s families dozens of times more than we would have pre-Internet. In those times, a once-a-year Christmas letter might be all we would get. We’ve kept up our bond enough so that when we traveled for six weeks in 2019, the entire Kimball circus stayed with Liz’s family. Imagine six boi ..read more

It’s no surprise that parents everywhere struggle to get their kids to eat vegetables. In fact, here at Kids Cook Real Food, I hear often from our families that one of the biggest barriers to eating more healthily is that they have what they call “picky eaters.” Picky eaters never seem to have trouble eating enough french fries or pizza. It’s almost always those doggone vegetables that cause the problem. And a problem it is. Statistically, 90 percent of American kids aren’t eating their daily requirement of vegetables (which probably is not set high enough to begin with). To make matters worse ..read more

Sure, we teach kids to cook…but the beginning of connection with your food is to GROW it. People often assume I garden with my kids as well as cook, but my brown thumb is a real weakness! I called upon my friend Nicky Schauder, founder of Permaculture Gardens, to help us out with some simple ideas to get kids involved in growing their own food. Baby step #1 doesn’t even involve a garden…or buying seeds! Baby step #2 is how you eat the food you grow in baby step #1…and it won’t even have to alter your meal plan! Get the Free Download: PALEO SNACKS FOR KIDS I’m telling you, Nicky knows her stu ..read more

Not kidding, I referenced this interview FOUR times the same week we recorded — it’s THAT pertinent to our experience in this pandemic and our jobs as parents! I’m already planning to ask Michele back because she’s such a wealth of knowledge, but today we’re focusing on the MOST important quality our kids need today – resilience. Her new book THRIVERS is about 7 teachable skills that set happy, healthy, and high-performing kids apart — and I believe those are listed in an intentional order. If you find yourself wondering why some kids struggle and others shine, spoiler alert: It’s not about GP ..read more

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