Do you nag your kids for studies, cleaning the house, doing the dishes, behaving properly, putting their toys away and the nagging list goes on? Nag or not to nag kids is a big question doing rounds for a very long time. Every few years some study come up in the support of the other. Just last week a study of 3450 students from Sydney university, published in Teachers College Record, a US journal, came up with the conclusion that nagging does work. Every child gets influenced by two factors in life, first one is parents and teachers and the second one is their friends and role models. Influence of parents and teachers has a significant impact on a kids academic life while friends and peers has a big say in their social and emotional well being.

Now the question arises how much nagging is necessary? Lets go back a generation and ask how much nagging did your parents do? Did that nagging help you in what you are today? Some of you may not agree with their nagging. Just like the studies conducted in the different countries do not agree with each other on the topic. As parents all we want for our kids is to give them the best, give them everything that we didn’t get ourselves when we were kids. Therefore we have to set up a limit to nagging and strike a balance so that the child gets the best out of it and does not stress out.

Lets start with the reality, nagging does work and I completely agree with the study of Sydney university researcher Andrew Martin. “Parents and teachers who might feel powerless during adolescence have a bigger influence on academic motivation than they think – sometimes up to three times the impact of peers”, Martin said. But I have to add, it works only if done in a right way. For example take all those advertisements that are targeted towards our kids, during kids programming on the television. These companies have spent a lot of money on the research to get that one advertisement right. That advert goes straight to their head and they want to have that product, its the result of their continuous nagging and hitting the right spot with the kids. That’s right, if we want our kids to listen to us and do as we say we have to come up with the strategy that they learn, nothing comes for free. For example, if they finish their homework they can go out and play with their friends. You may have to nag few times but than they know unless they have finished their homework they can not do what they want. Same can apply to kids cleaning their room, helping you in the house and everything else. Remember kids have a lot of energy and lots of activities to do, so through nagging you can work around in a way that they get what they want within limits and you get what’s best for them. Magic rule “Do not make FALSE promises, STICK to whatever you have PROMISED”. These are innocent kids and if you play with their innocence they will never forget it and you will be in their bad books and soon they will stop listening to you.

Sometimes make the exceptions when they are really nice to you and they are rushing around to get everything done because something really important to them is happening or about to happen. They will really appreciate that and forget all the nagging you do. Take some time out to sit down with them and try to explain them why do you have to nag, try to explain to them what are the importance of things that they do. This way your nagging will work without stressing the child out. My personal experience tells me that nagging is very important in the early childhood, after that kids learn if they do this than they will get to do that. If they can create an interest in the studies in the early childhood that means less nagging from you when they are growing up.

Here’s a really cool game for all the parents. Get a calender. There are 365 days a year. Say every day has a value of 25 cents. Tell your kids you will mark the calender if they have been good or bad. The number of days they have been good will be equivalent to the amount of 25 cents that they have earned for their Christmas presents or their Birthday presents. Do not forget to total up at the end of each month, so the kids know how much they have earned. It will be a great motivation for them because the can see what they are earning for being good. Have fun.

I will soon post an article about the influence of friends on your child.

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This has become a very obsessive topic for me as I am a chemical engineer and also a chef. First time this link between food and chemistry became obvious to me when watching a show about UK’s top chef Heston Blumenthal and his egg and bacon ice cream with liquid nitrogen.

Inviting kids into the kitchen and teaching them in the kitchen is not that easy. Kitchen furniture, kitchen lighting and kitchen design play an important part in turning your kitchen into a cooking school. As busy parents we do not get much time to spend time with our children but if we can turn our kitchen into a classroom, we get to spend more time with them. We can help them with their homework and teaching them about cooking as well. Cooking in the kitchen for us is a habit or a nature, we dont have to think twice, it just happens step by step and great dishes are created.

When we invite kids into the kitchen, for them its nothing less than a science lab. Their learning resources and learning activities are limitless. Its all a surprise how things are done, how you measure, how that baking powder works, how does that muffin rise, how does that tasteless flour turns into a tasty cookie. It also becomes one of the most valuable classrooms in your house, colors shapes and numbers are all there waiting to challenge your child each step of the way. Soon your kids will pass up their best toys every time for a chance to help you in the kitchen science lab, if you can explain them and teach them about every experiment you are doing in the kitchen. As dinner is cooking, talk about the smells, sounds, textures and appearance of the food being transformed. Your children will then taste with a new appreciation, especially if they’ve had a hand in making dinner.

Keep reading:

Why you should cook with kids?

Benefits of family meal time

Here’s some cool sites to get into the classroom.

Kitchen chemistry
Virtual kitchen, where kids can really learn and play
Kitchen chemistry book written by Ted Lister in collaboration with Heston Blumenthal

Watching your little ones, mixing, measuring, trying to make shapes is entertaining within itself.

Cooking with kids takes patience but you learn that kids really are quite capable of doing a lot, all by themselves. Children’s culinary skills gradually improve. It is part science, part creativity, and part just amazing and then you can eat it too. You can train your kids, instead of playing with the play dough, play with the cookie dough, its more fun, tasty and safe to eat.

Kitchen is a classroom, where kids practically learn and top of them all creativity and new imagination. Not to mention reading comprehension, sequencing, and one of my favorites, following directions.

Kids love to eat whatever they cook, somehow it always tastes nice. Teach your kids cooking and eating healthy food from childhood, it will control their desire for junk food and limit their reliance on vending machines at school.

Cooking is a tasty and tangible way for kids to express their creativity. Children experience success, independence, and increased self esteem when they put dinner on the table or when they have a hand in preparing the food on the table.

While kids help you in the kitchen, teach them, where the food comes from, what benefits it has for our bodies, explain the medicinal properties of the spices, fruit and vegetables.

Cooking together is also a quality time spent together, its proven cooking together means dining together means family time.

Kids become your friends, it than allows healthy conversations in the family and you will be in control of the situation before anything happens because you already have all the information by conversations.

Some places to check out for kids cooking activities.
Culinary school for kids, cooking up delicious kitchen adventures for the eaters of all ages.
Kids cooking activities