Why You Should Teach Your Child To Cook

Cooking with your child or children is a fun, no cost activity that will also teach your son or daughter very valuable life skills. Most, if not all kids love helping in the kitchen so you’ll want to encourage and take advantage of it. You’ll also be able to teach them about healthy eating habits.

Depending on the age of your child start with something simple, if they a very young let them make cinnamon toast. They can butter the toast and sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar. Another good first choice is making Saturday morning pancakes. Young children can help measure and mix and older children can bake them too.

There is a multitude of ways your children can help out in the kitchen. For example, even at a young age they can get ingredients out of the fridge or easy to reach cupboards, wash fruits and vegetables, tear salad greens, peel carrots with a safe vegetable peeler. As they get older they can try their hand at more difficult tasks.

Teach your budding gourmet some good basics recipes, cooking techniques and terms as well as kitchen safety. Additional life skills children can learn when cooking are fine motor skills like pouring, measuring and stirring, math skills like counting, adding and subtracting, reading, being organized, cleaning up, shopping, managing money, plus health and nutrition.

Once your child is old enough to read a recipe, manage a sharp knife and hot pots and pans he or she can make an entire meal all by themselves. This is a real bonus for working parents as meal times won’t be a such chore for you. Eventually your children can pitch in or even completely take over the daily task of making dinner!

We all learn best by example, by seeing how it’s done and by practicing doing things. Encourage your child to prepare their favorite meals and encourage them to make healthy choices. Just knowing how to cook means your child will be able to feed him or her self when they move out on their own. They won’t need to rely on fast food, take out, or unhealthy ready prepared food and they save money as well.

You might think it’s quicker or easier to do all the cooking and clean up yourself but you’ll be missing out on spending this special time with your child and the camaraderie that may develop between you. Not to mention the opportunity to teach them so many valuable life skills.



By: Melody Thacker

About the Author:

Melody Thacker is a Mother of four children who all learned to cook. She also creates informative web sites such as Just The Right Spice where you’ll find easy to follow how to cook articles and recipes. Love Homemaking has recipes and homemaking tips for busy Moms.

Kids Cooking – Benefits Beyond the Kitchen

Children love to help in the kitchen. It can be great fun for both kids and adults to cook together to create something delicious. While you are having fun together in the kitchen, you can sneak in something else: learning. This is a perfect opportunity to help them build other skills, such as reading, math, science, even social studies!

Of course, kids will be learning about nutrition while they help in the kitchen. Because they are taking a more active role in the process, they can begin to make choices about the foods they eat. Let them make meal plans occasionally. You can work with them to encourage healthy choices.

Children learn to follow directions while reading recipes. They must read and understand the sequence and activities within the recipe. Have them read the recipe to you while you do the cooking. Next time, trade places.

Reading skills are improved through cooking. One secret to reading is “practice, practice, practice,” so let your child read recipes, package information, and other things you find around the kitchen.

Very young kids can use kitchen time to improve motor skills. Stirring, scrubbing, pouring, mashing and spreading help those tiny hands develop fine motor skills.

Certainly math is required for cooking. Kids can count cups added to a bowl. Older kids can learn about fractions as you add one-third, two-thirds cup of flour to the mixing bowl. My own daughter is learning about volume right now, so we use kitchen time to estimate volume and convert cups and pints to quarts and gallons.

If you are so inclined, the kitchen can become a science lab when you bake a cake or cookies. You and your child can see how ingredients change with the addition of heat. Kids can learn about evaporation, boiling and melting points.

Your kids can learn about other cultures when you prepare foods from various cultural groups. Your child can even plan a themed dinner, including food appropriate to a certain culture and perhaps music as well.

Spending time in the kitchen with your kids is a wise investment. Not only will they learn to cook, but they can pick up lots of other useful skills that will help them in life.

Barbara O’Brien is an author, cook and mother of two young chefs. She enjoys helping other people make the most of time in the kitchen with their kids. Find safety tips, recipes and more at http://kids-cook.com

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