Fabulous Family Foodie Fun These School Holidays

  • Family
    Kids

By: Marie Ashworth, ellaslist

Food, glorious food! We all know how much kids love being involved in the kitchen. Kneading the dough, stirring the cake mixture, getting covered in flour and, of course, tasting their delicious creations along the way!

Not only is it a fun activity to enjoy together, it teaches them important new skills, allows them to get creative and builds positive food habits from a young age. They’ll get to experience just how fresh, nutritious and fun home cooking can be and it’s likely to stick with them in later life.

Only 1 in 4 Kids Know Where Butter Comes From!

And it seems, a lot more Australian kids need to experience foodie fun. A 2016 study of Australian parents and children highlights just how little kids know about healthy food and where it comes from with only 1 in 4 children knowing that butter comes from cow’s milk, and with children often having no idea where fruit and vegetables are grown or when they are in season.

In our modern world of packaged, convenience and fast food, it’s easy to see why children lack the knowledge of how food gets from the field to the plate.

Learning Through Hands-On Holiday Activities

So, apart from letting them loose in your own kitchen, what other activities are out there for some serious foodie fun? Well, Sydney Living Museums are running a number of fantastic school holiday workshops this July where the focus is firmly on getting hands-on with history through taste, touch and smell. They are offered at several of Sydney Living Museum’s historical properties located across the city.

Making Damper & Butter

Kids in the Kitchen at Vaucluse House and Elizabeth Farm teaches them how to make colonial foods from scratch. From making damper and churning butter to picking fresh lemons from the garden for traditional lemonade.
Where: Vaucluse House & Elizabeth Farm
When: Mondays 4 & 11 July (5–8yrs) & Wednesdays 6 & 13 July (8–12yrs); 11am–1pm
Who: 5-12yrs
Cost: General – $20; Members – $18

Making & Eating With Bush Foods

Aboriginal guides from Muru Mittigar lead The Bush Tucker Family Workshop at Rouse Hill House & Farm. Starting with a hunt for bush plants around the property while learning all about these traditional bush foods before making and eating a ‘Johnny cake’.
Where: Rouse Hill House & Farm
When: Tuesday 5 & 12 and Thursday 7 & 14 July; 11.30am-1pm
Who: the whole family from 6yrs
Cost: General – $15; Members – $10

Mucking In With The Chores

Earn Your Tucker is all about having fun and getting involved with the household and kitchen chores. Kids will help feed the chickens, collect the eggs, sort the grain, carry the milk and make the butter. Then when all that’s done, sit down to some well-earned tucker!
Where: Rouse Hill House & Farm
When: Sundays 12 Jun, 10 Jul, 21 Aug; 11am–1pm
Who: 5yrs+
Cost: General – $17; Members – $12

Eat For Free

And as a special holiday treat, Sydney Living Museums have an awesome Kids Eat Free offer. To mark the last month of the superb Sydney Harbour Icons with LEGO Bricks exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, join The Governors Table for lunch or weekend brunch and kids eat for free (when each adult orders a main meal from the a la carte menu or the Prix Fixe menu). Reservations recommended

 

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