Things You'll Need:
- Basic Cooking Skills
- Patience and Understanding
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Step 1
Kids who cook usually end up being more knowledgeable about and interested in fresh, healthy ingredients than those who don’t.
It’s fun for young cooks to work with colorful fruits and vegetables when they first start helping out in the kitchen. Letting your children help out assembling ingredients for a meal, using melon ballers, small ice cream scoops, and plastic knives to help put together a delicious fruit salad, etc. can be a great way for smaller children to enjoyably and safely contribute to family meals.
Depending on their maturity level, you may also want to start working with your older children to learn the proper and safe knife skills needed to help with more elaborate meals. Of course, proper adult supervision is always a must. -
Step 2
Kids who are comfortable in the kitchen are more likely to make healthier and much more diverse choices in the long run when it comes to their own nutrition.
Not surprisingly, an interest in cooking at a young age often leads to the development of an expanded palate; making meal planning more interesting and less challenging than it is for the parents of children who left to their own devices would happily eat such nutritionally dubious meals as hot dogs and boxed mac and cheese 365 days a year.
Best of all, kids who cook tend to be much more willing to try new and unusual foods than their non-cooking counterparts.
Being raised in an Italian home, I was exposed to a wide variety of tastes not commonly found in mass produced tv dinners. As a result, I now happily enjoy eating the foods of just about any cuisine. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve being taught to cook by my old, Italian grandmother.
One good way to encourage your children to become intrepid food explorers is to take them to farmer’s markets so they can see what the foods they eat look and taste like at their freshest, meet the farmers and cooks who regularly work with such bounty, as well as to sample a variety of delicious and homemade foods in an inviting, non-stuffy atmosphere. -
Step 3
Cooking young helps give children a healthy sense of responsibility and self reliance that can help them build a balanced sense of confidence and independence.
Even small children can be encouraged to make such no-cook snacks and meals as tuna or cheese sandwiches or spread some peanut butter on celery for an after-school nosh, help mix pudding by hand, and use cookie cutters to cut fun shapes out from dough.
Older children can learn how to make pasta and simple sauces, help out with basic food preparation, bake with supervision, as well as use food processors and blenders to make smoothies, shakes, pestos, homemade salad dressings, and salsas.
Later, when they are of college age and/or moving into their first apartments, such early kitchen experiences will help them make healthier and more financially sensible choices than just having Pizza Hut on speed dial or regularly hitting the McDonalds’ drive-thru. -
Step 4
Cooking teaches valuable life skills, encourages empathy and caring, and is a fun way to strengthen your family bonds.
After years of cooking meals for your family, you may find yourself stuck in a culinary rut. But everything is new and exciting to the young chefs helping out in your kitchen, and working with food is full of sights, smells, and tastes that will excite your child as they experience everything for the first time.
You may find that cooking with your children helps you rediscover a sense of play and creative experimentation that you’d forgotten about as you teach your children about various spice and flavor combinations.
Additionally, kids who cook learn practical math skills and gain a sense of visual proportion as they learn to use measuring spoons and cups as well as convert and work with solid and liquid measurements.
Cooking also encourages creativity and organizational skills as your child first follows (and later is inspired to improve on) various recipes, assembles ingredients, and helps plan a meal. -
Step 5
Who knows, your kid could be the next Thomas Keller!
Many of the best chefs and cooks, including Thomas Keller and Anthony Bourdain started out helping in the kitchen at an early age.
Comments
luv2blog said
on 8/17/2008 Great article!
Limowreck said
on 8/5/2008 This is a great article! I have a big problem with my son being a fussy eater. Your tips sound like they could really help. Thanks for all the excellent resources too! *****
acole said
on 8/2/2008 Great article. Cooking is a fun thing to do with kids!