Welcome to our final “ENJOY the HERE and NOW” post of the summer. The season has just flown by, but we are grateful we took time each week to complete the #ETHANproject challenges with our children.
We made so many memories with our children this summer, and it has been pretty awesome to be able to share many of them with you through our blog posts. Here’s what we’ve done so far, just in case you missed it:
Week 1: Enjoy Friendship – A Day at the Park with Friends
Week 2: Enjoy the View – A Beautiful Drive in the Black Hills
Week 3: Enjoy the Flavor – Homemade Freezer S’Mores
Week 4: Enjoy the Water – 35 Excuses to Enjoy Water All Summer Long!
Week 5: Enjoy the Sky – 10 Reasons Drive-In Movies are Back in Style
Week 6: Enjoy the Dirt – 6 Fun Jobs for the Little Gardeners in your Life
Week 7: Enjoy the Sound – Enjoying the Sound of Motherhood
Week 8: Enjoy Something New – Helping our Kids Enjoy New Foods
Week 9: Enjoy the Drive – 10 Ways to Share your Hometown with your Kids
By: Sarah Koontz
Our challenge for this week is to “ENJOY the MESS.” There is a reason we saved this one for last! It is so difficult for moms to sit back and watch their kids make a mess without intervening.
Sammi and I discussed many different mess-making-strategies. As we chatted we began to discover that we were both wary of giving our young children free reign in the kitchen.
Sammi and I love to cook for our families. We enjoy getting our kids involved in the process but tend to hover and help them every step of the way.
What would happen if we gave them a simple recipe, all of the ingredients, and free reign of the kitchen?!?
Of course, we knew the kids would have fun, but we didn’t realize how much fun it would be for them. They definitely accomplished the “ENJOY the MESS” part of the challenge. There were spilled oats, milk on the floor, chocolate drippings on shirts, sticky fingers, and smiling faces.
They took turns, worked together, and nobody burned themselves on the stovetop!
The best part is that Sammi and I had fun watching it all unfold. We tried to resist the urge to help too much and forced ourselves to sit on the other side of the counter and just offer moral support.
I am not going to lie, there was a bit of cringing and I think Sammi had a more difficult time than me (ok, that’s a lie…just look at my face!).
And we even let the kiddos scrape the bowl for all the leftover goodness!
And then we found them “cleaning up” by dumping water off the deck onto each other. Bless their messy little hearts.
The chocolate no-bake cookies sort of turned into cookie crumbles, but the kids gobbled them up anyway. They had a blast and we learned a thing or two about stepping back and letting our children experiment and learn in the kitchen.
We challenge you to allow your children to make a mess in the kitchen this week! We have compiled a list of 9 simple, kid-friendly recipes for your little ones to try.
These recipes are simple, include few ingredients and are a great place to start when you are learning to “ENJOY the MESS” with your kids in the kitchen:
Healthy Bites {Even a Toddler can Make}
Peanut Butter Banana Quesadillas
We hope you enjoyed our #ETHANproject Summer Challenge Series. We sure would love to hear from you, should we do this again next summer? With a fresh new twist of course 😉
Don’t forget to swing on by our last #ETHANproject Blogger Link-Up for more ideas on how to “ENJOY the MESS” with your kids this week.
