My kids love homemade lemonade. Whenever our fruit bowl is overflowing with lemons someone always suggests making a batch of lemonade. We use a tried and true recipe that is easy and doesn’t involve any cooking on the stove top. My kids like to be involved every step of the way – squeezing the lemons, stirring the mixture and especially adding the ice.
Easy Homemade Lemonade Recipe
You will need (makes approximately 4 cups):
- 3/4 cup of caster sugar
- 1 cup of boiling water
- 1 cup of lemon juice (approximately 5 lemons)
- 2 cups of ice
- 1 to 2 cups of cold water
To make:
- Pour the sugar and boiling water into a jug. I don’t let the kids add the boiling water, I do that myself.
- Stir to completely dissolve the sugar in the water.
- Place the jug of sugar syrup in the fridge to cool. We add ice to the jug to speed this process up sometimes.
- While you are waiting for the sugar syrup to cool – squeeze the lemons. We use an old glass citrus squeezer. To make one cup of lemon juice we generally squeeze five or six lemons. I keep a couple of spare lemons on standby when making lemonade – we often lose a fair amount of juice due to spillage when my 3 year old is in control of the pouring!
- Strain the lemon juice into the jug of cooled sugar syrup.
- Add one to two cups of cold water depending on how strong you like your lemonade and stir to combine.
- Dress your lemonade up with lemon slices, mint leaves, rose petals or pretty straws.
- Enjoy!
Tip: There is some waiting time involved in the lemonade-making process as the sugar syrup has to cool. If your kids don’t like to wait you can always prepare the sugar syrup the night before so it is cold and ready to go.
We often set up a special table with a tablecloth and some afternoon tea to accompany our homemade lemonade and every time we make it my kids want to set up a lemonade stand on the pavement in front of our house. So far I have avoided this but I am not sure how much longer I can!
Have you made homemade lemonade with your children?
More fabulous lemoney activities:
- Inspiration to set up a lemonade stand
- Make some lemoney play dough
- Experiment with lemon juice as invisible ink
More great cooking with kids recipes:
Ali Wright is mum to two young mini makers – their favourite place to be is around the craft table with glitter in their hair. Ali's focus is on process oriented art as she loves watching her kids experiment with creative materials. When not busy with art and craft, you'll likely find them at work and play in their small city garden. As the mini makers love a good mess, their days include lots of water and messy play!
It looks like a good recipe if you use enough water (~4.5C to 5C total water–includes the ice)
That produces a volume mixture which is ~11% to 12% sugar & ~15% to 16% lemon juice (a nice lemon flavor).
The lemonade is delicious.
It was delicious. My kids adored it and now want it every day. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe with us.