Cooking with Kids

by TheNanny612 on August 28, 2007

Cooking with kids can be one of the most terrific activities that can happen in a home. Sure, there’s going to be mess and there’s always a little bit of risk when putting kids in the kitchen, but cooking with kids teaches a variety of lessons that will apply to all areas of life and education. Plus, cooking with kids helps to establish a bond between you that will last a lifetime.

Here are just some of the things that kids can learn when you cook with them:

 
  • Nutrition. Kids should learn healthy eating habits starting from a young age and what better way to learn them than through learning healthy cooking? By learning about food and their bodies, kids are learning some basic things about science that will help them in school down the line. And they’re learning lessons about good health that will help them for a lot longer than that.
  • Reading. Cooking involves reading directions and looking at labels. By cooking with kids, you are helping them gain reading skills in a natural environment.
  • Motor skills. When you’re cooking with kids, you’re moving plates around and pouring items. When they help, they improve their motor skills.
  • Math. Cooking involves measurements and times which are important foundations in math. Cooking with kids gets them used to using math in a daily environment which makes them more comfortable with it and therefore more proficient at it.
  • Taking care of themselves. Children who learn how to cook are less likely to be adolescents that eat out all of the time. They know how to take care of themselves in the kitchen so they will.
  • Attention and focus. Nobody wants to eat burned cookies and your kids will rapidly learn to focus on the task at hand if they’re in charge of making sure the cookies don’t burn!

Here are some ideas for cooking with kids that help you to teach them these skills without causing too much of a mess or safety risk in the kitchen:

  • Stick to recipes that are simple. Cooking with kids isn’t the same as cooking a romantic four-course meal for your spouse. You should stick to one or two items that have only a few ingredients each so that the kids can be involved with all parts of cooking.
  • Let children find a favorite dish and let them make it once a week. Yes, you might get sick of it but stability is good for kids and if you know that you’re always cooking spaghetti together on Tuesdays, you enhance that.
  • Start early if you want the cooking to be done at a certain time. It’s not healthy to cook under stress and it’s not a good habit for kids to get into so make sure you have plenty of time to make the meals.
  • Read recipe books with your kids and have them pick out some of the dishes. If they’re involved in the planning, the shopping and the cooking, they’ll develop good food habits, learn great lessons and enjoy their meals.
  • Have fun. You will look back on cooking with kids as hours that were spent together. These will be fond memories so enjoy them while you can.

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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Ann August 29, 2007 at 10:17 pm

I used to cook with my kids a lot, and actually used yeast bread to teach some science! It was fun and educational - times they’ve never forgotten.

I just tagged you for a 5 things meme. My name will take you to the post! Have fun!

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