I have a guest post today by writer Jane Edwards. She writes about how to make your own cooking videos at home as a family activity. Check it out below:

If you’re looking for ways to encourage your kids to eat healthy, making a cooking video is a great idea. It is a fun and educational activity to get your children interested in preparing and cooking their own meals so that they will not rely on easy take-outs that are not as healthy as home-prepared dishes. Involving them in the preparation and creation of a meal also encourages the use of their hands and stimulates imagination whether baking and decorating a cake or preparing sandwiches.

Prepare Your Materials

One of the most important materials that you would need in the creation of a video is a camera that records movies. In addition, make sure that you have a tripod where you can mount the camera securely while the video is being recorded. Extra batteries, memory cards and wireless microphones are useful.

Before recording, print out a sheet of the recipe that you will be working on. Make a short script of the sequence of the recording. You can also coach your kids what to say such as greeting the audience and introducing themselves although being spontaneous is much more fun and authentic.

Set The Kitchen Stage

All your ingredients must be prepared and put in attractive containers. Kitchen equipment and tools must also be lined-up neatly ready to be used such as blenders, mixers, spatulas, forks, knives, whisks and so on.

Your kids can assist in shopping, preparing or mixing of the ingredients. Handling of hot pots and knives should be left to you for safety.

Shooting the Final Scene

Moving images take up a lot of memory so shoot scenes at most for 2-3 seconds such as when you’re peeling or cutting ingredients. Focus on scenes where the kids are preparing the dish themselves.

The final scene is the cooked dish so you’ll want to showcase a beautiful footage of the finished product. Showing your kids digging into a piece of cake, tasting soup or biting off a chocolate chip cookie is inviting. Editing the video will also need a lot of work before the final version is pieced together.

Shooting your first cooking video with your kids is not as daunting as it sounds. By preparing your materials, equipment and script, you can produce and record some of the most memorable moments of your family life. More importantly, cooking classes can inspire your kids to improve their food preferences and eat healthy.