HARRISONBURG — Seven-year-old Cameron Dean loves to make baked oatmeal for breakfast.

"That’s my favorite breakfast," says Cameron.

Children are able quite young to master simple tasks of cooking, such as measuring and mixing, says Rachel Swartzentruber, operations manager at the Harrisonburg Children’s Museum.

Her advice for parents?

"Don’t think big," Swartentruber says. "Keep it simple."

That’s what they do at HCM. This summer, a group of 2- and 3-year-olds made butter for food activities with kids from a Web site, www.familyfun.com. Another activity the museum staff held this summer was making snow cones, without a fancy snow cone machine.

Melanie Veith, HCM’s program manager, made it look so easy. All she needed was a bag of ice, a food processor and some flavored syrups.

But before she began crushing ice for all those little cups, she gave a short science lesson.

"What is ice?" Veith asked.

"Frozen water," came the reply of 30 voices.

"What is water?"

"Liquid."

Veith also gave the children a small demonstration of the scientific method. On one plate she put an ice cube and on another she spread crushed ice. The question was, "Which melts faster?"

The children then made their predictions, observations and conclusions.

Of course, when cooking with kids, adults operate the machinery. This goes for blenders, mixers, processors, stoves, ovens and toasters, says Veith.

In this case, Veith crushed the ice and poured it into the kids’ paper cups. Then they poured their flavor of choice over the ice. Then … mmm.

For parents who want to collaborate with their kids on simple projects, here are a few ideas.

Baked Oatmeal

½ cup oil

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

3 cups dry oatmeal

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together oil, sugar and eggs. Add oatmeal, baking powder, salt and milk. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Serve warm with warm milk.

Spanish Rice

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 cup long grain rice

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tomatoes, diced

½ small onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoons cumin

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 cup water, boiled

In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, fry rice in oil until slightly golden, about 3-5 minutes.

Add salt, cumin, onion and garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add tomato, tomato paste and boiling water. This should boil almost immediately; turn down heat to low, cover and cook for about 20 minutes, or until water has evaporated.

Serve.

No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups sugar

1 stick butter

½ cup milk

3 cups quick oatmeal

¾ cup peanut butter

In a medium saucepan mix together sugar, butter and milk. Heat to boiling. Let boil 1½ minutes. Remove pan from heat and add oatmeal and peanut butter. Stir thoroughly and drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper and cool.

Recipe from Cooks.com.

Contact Luanne Austin at 574-6292 or laustin@dnronline.com.