School is almost over and the fun days of summer are coming. Fun, that is, for a few days (if we're lucky) until the question "I'm bored. What can I do?" is asked on repeat. Last year, I answered that question by creating a DIY camp that my kids and I loved - Kids Cooking Camp!

In mid-July, I blocked off a few days to focus on teaching my kids and a few of their friends how to be more comfortable with food and cooking. The camp took very little money or preparation and was a sweet way to teach and engage them. Here is what our 3-day camp looked like:

My two older children (ages 7 and 9) invited a few close friends who would work well together. I asked their parents to send the kids over with a notebook and a couple of dollars. On our first morning, after we spent some time chatting about what our days were going to look like, we headed down to our local farmer's market. We played a game called the Farmer's Market Name Game. I wrote down all the letters of the alphabet and they had to find something at the market that contained each letter. This forced the kids to interact with the local farmers and ask questions. The game was a fun challenge (and I was thankful that someone was selling beeswaX)!

When we were finished, I asked each camper to pick out an ingredient they were interested in. They used their money to buy it and we headed back to the house to figure out how we were going to cook their purchase. My son chose poblano peppers, so we filled them with whatever cheese I had in the refrigerator and roasted them. My daughter chose blueberries, so we made blueberry muffins from scratch. When we were finished, we shared some muffins with a neighbor down the street who was going through a hard time. They were proud of what they created.

On this day, we got to go behind the scenes at one of our favorite local restaurants - Grilled Cheese Mania. The owner is a sweet friend who graciously allowed us to come in an hour before she opened her doors so she could give us a tour of the kitchen and chat about how a restaurant works. The kids got to see the inner workings of an immaculate commercial kitchen and even use the cash register. And of course we couldn't leave without sampling some of her amazing grilled cheese sandwiches!

This day happened to fall on July 11th, so we went to 7-11 for free slurpees and headed back to our house to try our hand at making great grilled cheese sandwiches. They weren't as good as the ones at Grilled Cheese Mania, but the kids enjoyed the process and the outcome!

This was the day we put all we learned to the test. Everyone showed up at our house bright and early, wearing aprons and ready to cook! I invited the moms and siblings to come for lunch and the campers got to choose the menu and prepare the food. They decided to make pizza from scratch, homemade applesauce and homemade rainbow cupcakes. It was a busy morning as we made menus, cut flowers from the garden for a centerpiece, and cooked cooked cooked. The final outcome was delicious and it was sweet to see how much pride they took in what they created.

There are so many different ways to spend the long summer days. Kids Cooking Camp was one way that helped my kids learn to cook and serve others along the way.