Cook with your kids! Let them get into the kitchen, make a mess, and make dinner… I know, it sounds so frustrating and messy, but the benefits are far more reaching than your messy kitchen… and with the proper supervision, it can be done without much stress. It just takes a little patience and a little time! Trust me, it’s actually fun!

BENEFITS:

  • Develops fine motor skills (stirring, mixing, adding ingredients. This is especially true with baking)
  • Develops cultural awareness in children/preschoolers (try exotic dishes– Mexican food is a good way to start. Think chips and salsa or guacamole!)
  • Develops cognitive thinking skills (measuring, the reaction of mixing and baking, for older children fractions and amounts, for younger children size and color)
  • Develops inter-generational relationships (share grandma’s cookie recipe, talk about what it was like to cook with your mom, talk about the differences between cooking now and cooking then. These verbal connections are so important in children of all ages. Take the time to connect with them!)
  • Develops self-confidence (When you cook with your child, he feels important, special, and loved. As he learns the skills involved in cooking, his self-esteem will soar. Think Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages– for children, Industry vs. Inferiority)

This list could really go on for days– there are so many developmental reasons to cook with your kids, but I think I’ve made my point pretty clear. Now, how on earth do you go about cooking with your kids without going completely crazy? These are my personal, kid-tested techniques for cooking in the classroom or at home with your kids. Feel free to experiment with them, some things will work with your children and some will not! This is by no means the end all to cooking with children, rather it’s just a starting point!

IDEAS:

  • Be sure to let your children do the cooking!!! The temptation is to take over when a task becomes too difficult, DON’T! Think about your child’s zone of proximal development… when you help him, he can do so much more than he can on his own. When the cookie dough is lumpy, verbalize to your child how to mix the lumps in better, explaining that it makes the cookies taste much better. If he still has trouble understanding, stand behind him, your hands on his, showing him how to mix the batter with a strong hand and swift motions. In younger children, this also increases their vocabulary.
  • To avoid the crazy mess in the kitchen, supervise closely!!! Stay in the kitchen, talking to your children and showing them new things. Introduce them to new tools and ingredients. Yes, this takes a lot of time and patience… Yes, the kitchen will still be a mess. However, there will not be spaghetti stuck to the ceiling. Use the mess to explain that clean-up is an important aspect of cooking.
  • Make or purchase an apron for your child. This goes back to developing self-confidence. Putting on a “uniform” instills a certain amount of pride in a child. Allow him this pleasure, it makes the whole experience more exciting when he feels like a “real cook”
  • Cracking eggs is not easy. To teach young children this skill, let them crack the eggs into a separate bowl. This way, he can remove any pieces of shell from the bowl before adding the eggs to the other ingredients.
  • Use a cookbook with illustrations. This will help your child develop cognitive thinking skills by learning to follow sequential instructions.  I like the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Children’s Cookbook.

I hope this proves to be helpful… at some point I will post recipes that I’ve tested out on kids. Until then… I’m sure all of you resourceful readers out there can find some on your own! :)   Have fun, enjoy your children, and enjoy your dinner!