As parents it is our job to give our children the skills necessary to thrive when they leave the comfort of our homes. One vital skill kids need to learn is how to cook for themselves and their future families. Girls and boys alike can benefit from quality time in the kitchen with you learning how to plan, shop, and prepare meals. In general the younger you start the better. Here are some great tips for teaching your kids to cook.
*** GIVEAWAY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST ***
Why Teach Kids to Cook
Let’s not pretend it is easy to teach children to cook, because it isn’t. It takes a bucket load of patience to teach kids proper kitchen skills which include information on knife safely, washing the food properly and how to follow a recipe. However, the time spent teaching your child can be so rewarding.
Teaching kids to cook also helps encourage
- Time for bonding
- Build confidence
- Learn math and science skills
- Healthy eating habits
- Contribute to the family
- Develop life skills
- Learning to plan and make choices
- Boosts their self-esteem
- Help them explore their creativity
- Learn more about other cultures
- Reading comprehension and the ability to follow instructions
How to Teach Kids to Cook
There are many fun ways to support children as they learn cooking skills. This can include:
- Creating a fun recipe book for children to create from.
- Using basic and enjoyable recipes that are simple to make and encourage basic skills first including things such as mixing, spreading, peeling, grating.
- Use colourful child friendly equipment such as knifes and spoons.
- Involve children in the planning process.
- Ask children questions so they begin to learn the process of cooking.
- Use a variety of ingredients, even unfamiliar ones, so they have the opportunity to learn about and prepare different foods.
- Involve them in the grocery shopping.
- Get hands-on. The best way for children to learn is to do it themselves.
Tips For Teaching Your Kids To Cook
Children of all ages can begin to learn the basics of cooking. The time that you will invest is teaching your children these skills is so beneficial for them and for you. To start teaching your children, try beginning at the beginning, and help them understand the basic equipment, terminology and tools that are needed to help them prepare healthy and yummy meals.
Safely teach your child the basics of cooking
One thing that can get in the way of parents teaching their children to cook is fear that their child will get hurt. A valid thought considering the many hazards in the kitchen. We can not let our fear of the worst get in the way of teaching our children the skills they need to thrive without us. You can, however, practice good kitchen safety when teaching your kids to cook.
One of the most dangerous parts of cooking is cutting food while preparing it. This skill can be taught safely with a few tools. Always keep your knives sharp. This will prevent your child from trying to push too hard and the knife from slipping and should an accident happen a sharper knife causes a cleaner cut that can be repaired easier than a jagged tear. When teaching your child to cut or use other sharp kitchen tools like a mandolin, get a pair of cutting gloves to protect your child’s hands from getting cut.
Another common concern is that your child will get burnt while working in the kitchen. Teach your child to never touch pots and pans with unprotected hands. Use silicone oven rack guards to make it safer for your child to pull items from the oven when they are old enough. You know your child best. Hyperactive children will need to wait until they are older to do tasks that will put them in contact with heat.
Where to start with teaching your child to cook
A great place to start when teaching your child to cook is by teaching them to make their favorite foods. This is a great way to get your child excited to learn to cook and once they master making their favorite foods you will have less work to do each day.
Younger kids can start in the kitchen long before they are ready to cook on their own. Measuring and mixing are great ways for kids to work on motor skills and even math while they help you. This is a great way to get even young preschoolers comfortable in the kitchen and familiar with basic safety rules like staying away from hot pans on the stove.
Have your child join you in the kitchen allowing you to teach them how to make the foods your feed your family. This is the perfect time to demonstrate how to perform basic cooking tasks from flipping pancakes to boiling water the best way to learn is through experience.
Have your child help plan meals. Reading through cookbooks and scrolling Pinterest boards is a great way for your child to help you find new and interesting recipes to create together. Have your child help shop for the items needed for another opportunity to teach math and basic life skills.
The best thing you can do is to just dive in and start teaching your child the basics. Even young preschoolers can fall in love with making sandwiches, mixing baked goods, and helping to shop for their favorite fruits and vegetables. By teaching your child to cook they can look at your stocked refrigerator and not feel the need to tell you there is nothing to eat in the house.
Educating While Cooking
There is so much children can learning while cooking and some kids may find they understand better by using the cooking process rather than reading a textbook or similar.
Teaching children the difference between cups, tablespoons, the sizes of pans, different temperatures and more helps them learn important math skills ranging from fractions to geometry.
Reading comprehension can be improved when they reading and following the step-by-step instructions of a recipe and end up with a delicious result.
The process of cooking, such as browning, boiling and more demonstrate chemistry principles.
Learning about different cultures can be achieved by choosing recipes rather than a sit-down history lesson.
Simple Recipes Kids Can Make
When beginning to teach children to cook, start with very basic recipes so they can learn to understand the basic skills and terminology that is used in recipes.
Some good recipes to start with include:
- Fruit salad
- Cheeseboard
- Pancakes
- Chocolate Brownies
- Smoothies such as this raspberry smoothie
- Jam Drops or other easy biscuits
- Rocky Road
- Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas
Once your children have some basic knowledge of a variety of cooking skills, you could try incorporating cooking challenges into their learning. Check out these fun cooking challenge printables for more ideas.
More Food Themed Resources
- Fruit and Vegetable Tracing Worksheets
- Fruit Paper Craft Activity
- Printable Fruit Cards
- Vegetable Paper Craft
- Vegetable Garden Printable Pack
- Vegetable Cards
- Fruit Cards
- Gardening Journal
*** GIVEAWAY ***
For those in the northern hemisphere, another homeschool year is right around the corner! Many of these homeschool mums are busy preparing, planning, and finalising curriculum choices for the upcoming school year. And many are trying to squeeze every last penny out of their homeschool budget, hoping to afford all the books and resources they will need.
Whether you’re living on one income or are buying curriculum for multiple kids, homeschooling can put financial strain and stress on a family. So I’ve gotten together with a great group of homeschool bloggers to give you a chance to win a gift card to a major online homeschool retailer. Our hope is that we can bless a few homeschool families (although we wish we could bless many more) so they can decrease that burden and buy the curriculum and supplies they need.
Three people will win a $250 gift card to either Rainbow Resource Center or Christianbook.com – two great places to shop for homeschool curriculum and resources, with the best prices around!!
To enter for your chance to win, simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Now I know this is quite a few entries, but each of these bloggers has generously chipped in their own money to make this giveaway possible, so I hope you will take the time to do all of the entries. And hey, the more entries you do, the better your odds are of winning!
Giveaway ends July 19, 2024 at 11:59pm. Must be at least 18 years of age. Must be a resident of the U.S. or Canada to enter. Selected winners will have 48 hours to respond to email notification to claim their prizes or another winner will be drawn. By entering this giveaway, you agree to be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers (see the Terms & Conditions on the Rafflecopter form).
Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas
Love all your great resources. Keep up the great work!