Every child is different. I find that with mine, an activity that the two of us do together in the morning will pretty much set him up for the day. Usually this involves us going out. A walk in the woods, a trip to the park, a play in the playground, a visit to the museum.

There's a lot to be said in favour of walks in the rain too! It is a really drizzly day out there, and I'm thinking that it might be a good plan for today. There's nothing like poking about in wet leaves with a stick. When he's got his wet weather gear on (trousers and jacket) we have the playground to ourselves too.

But you don't always want to go out, and frankly it isn't so much fun for mum and dad to do this every day as it is for the little ones. Sadly, the weather forecast for our area is for rain, rain, and to paraphrase (badly) a quote, it is rain all the way down.

So if you're looking to avoid the lure of the DVD and/or video game, here's a fab alternative. Cooking. Get them in the kitchen having fun, making a mess, and maybe even doing something a little bit scary (stirring a pot on the hob for the first time for example). Here's three top tips for making kitchen time fun, exciting, and a little bit different on a rainy day.

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If you've managed to get the crayons out of your heart shaped mould, here's another lovely and easy rice crispy hearts recipe that you can use it for and I'm sure the kids will love. It's going to get messy... but what fun!

It's enough to strike fear into the heart!

But embrace this early and you'll end up with self-sufficient, independent big kids and, eventually, adults.

I had a chat with a lady on the doorstep the other day who said that she had basically replaced her husband's mother - she did everything because he was/is completely incompetent around the house.

Now I know things were different way back when, but in this day and age if a mother let's her children leave home totally unable to fend for themselves then she needs a good 'talking to' as far as I'm concerned!

I would feel irresponsible letting my children loose into the big wide world without the necessary domestic skills to be able to effectively live on their own - and I'm sorry, but piercing the top of a microwave meal and heating it for two minutes is NOT effective living; I would also feel incredibly guilty if they shacked up with someone who became a replacement mother or unpaid domestic.

SO - my youngest loves to bake and cook 'nice things' like these chocolate brownies (we did these almost a couple of years ago now and had fun hunting for the holly), and the Teenagers cook for themselves.  Yep, that's right, I do NOT routinely cook for the Teenagers - if they want to eat then they must do it.  Too harsh...? It's certainly not very mumsey is it *grin*

My daughter can whip up a mean rissotto and my eldest son does a wicked bolognese - from scratch I might add, there are no cook-in sauces in this house!  They also iron their own school shirts, know how to sort washing, operate the machine and howbest to hang washing on the line for maximum drying efficiency.

Yes, I have to nag them to do it most of the time - but at least I know they can do all of these things already and by the time they leave home they will have truly perfected all the skills necessary to be able to do these things: putting a shopping list together, time management, safety in the kitchen, bla bla bla.  It's not just about them making something to eat.

But back to the build up to all of this - there are lots of sites and cook books for kids that will help you take the first tentative steps into the world of cooking with your kids.

Jamie Oliver has a great site - and kids love him too; he cooked with his girls on his TV shows last year.

I don't know any child who doesnt' love anything Disney, so the recipe section on the Disney Family Fun site is well worth a look.

But if you want REAL inspiration then go and lose yourself in My Daddy Cooks - a blog of a dad and his two-year-old, Archie, who both COOK every day -now THAT'S more like it!

Whip something up with your kids in the kitchen and get in touch if you stumble across something SUPER scrummy you think the rest of us should know about!