My 6-year-old has been eating a lot of trail mix lately. While I used to make it for him (sometimes I’d make it like THIS or with an array of variations), I realized that he is now more than old enough to make it himself.

So I had him make a batch with me a couple of times. I showed him the measurement lines on the side of our quart-size mason jar, and explained what they meant.

We talked about the importance of having a balance between nuts and fruit (we make ours with about 2/3 nuts or seeds and 1/3 fruit). We discussed the fact that while fruit is good for you, too much fruit – especially dried fruit – puts a lot of sugar into your body at once, which is not so good.

So now, my 6-year-old looks in the refrigerator and chooses among our assortment of nuts and seeds, which tend to vary by the week, but at the moment includes walnuts, pecans, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, coconut flakes, and pistachios (the last of those are not good for trail mix, as they’re still in their shells).

He also gets into our pantry and pulls out whatever dried fruits he wants to add, choosing from among goji berries, mulberries, golden berries, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, and raisins.

We also have larger chunks of dried fruit, such as mangoes, prunes, figs, and apricots, but he immediately dismissed those as “not having enough pieces for the space they take.” I like the fact that he’s thinking about how things will mix together, and how homogenous his mixture will be in the end.

I watched him make his trail mix the first time. He carefully poured his desired mix of nuts and seeds into the mason jar, filling it carefully and precisely to the 2/3 mark. This time, he chose curried cashews (the yellow dust you see in the picture is the curry powder) and sunflower seeds.

Next, he filled the jar the rest of the way with his dried fruits of choice: blueberries and goji berries.

He then asked me to get down the big 8-cup measuring cup for him (it’s above his head, even with the step stool – I may have to think about relocating it), dumped his 1-quart mason jar into the big measuring cup, and thoroughly mixed his ingredients.

Finally, he carefully poured his ingredients back into the mason jar, put on a lid, and placed it in the refrigerator for the next time he needs a quick snack.

If the past week or two has been any indication of amount of food he’s consuming as well as his current taste preferences, the jar will be empty within the next 24 hours. I look at it and smile, knowing he’s fully capable of refilling it himself.

We have always kept easy-to-grab snacks within the reach of both of our boys, but I’ve always been the one in charge of the preparation work, even if they were working beside me. This feels like a further step toward self-sufficiency. It feels good.

At what age did you put your kids in charge of preparing their own snacks?