How to Start a Kids Cooking Club
Helping kids to learn how to cook is easy when you start a kids cooking club. Kids love getting messy and playing around with food, and teaching them the proper way to handle utensils and prepare recipes benefits them throughout life. A kids cooking club is good for any age, and you can start a club with kids as young as two. While some factors change when planning for different age groups, the basics of getting a club started are the same. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Pick a group of kids in a similar age group so you can then choose appropriate recipes. Good choices are kids ages two to four, five to seven, eight to 10, and 11 and older. Use your age grouping when deciding how many kids to include in the club. The two- to four-year-olds and five- to seven-year-olds should be the smallest groups. Kids at this age want to see and do everything, and are still working on their listening skills. Older kids can spread out more and will pay attention, even if they are not right on top of the action.
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Plan a regular day and time for the cooking club. You can schedule your club for once a month, once a week or bi-weekly. Pick a time that works best for the kids. Younger kids do well with earlier times, such as 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. Older kids need a time after school, so late afternoon or early evening works best for an older group. Since dates don't fall on the same day every month, pick a day rather than a date for your club. Doing the club every other Friday or every Wednesday lets the kids and parents plan for the activity.
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Organize your recipes and set up a schedule. A productive cooking club should have at least three recipes for the kids. You can pick recipes based on themes, or a particular food or a holiday. Make sure the younger group has recipes that are easy for them to manage without a bunch of supervision. This helps little kids feel more independent and really learn cooking skills. Recipes for the older kids can include cooking on the stove or in the oven, and have more exotic flavors and textures.
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Buy the food and utensils you need for the recipes. You can cut costs by saving plastic yogurt cups or applesauce cups, which you can use to hold small ingredients for each child. Provide plastic utensils to smaller children, but ask older kids to provide extra utensils or plates from home, if you can't afford to buy new stuff for everybody.
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Cook up a sample of your chosen recipes, or show the kids a picture of the finished recipe, if you're borrowing the recipe from a cookbook or website. The day of the club, explain what you are cooking and then talk them through the different steps for creating the recipe. Remember to provide drinks if you aren't making a drink recipe.
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Tips & Warnings
If you're running two groups of different ages, you can host a day where the older group helps the younger group. This lets you observe the skills of the older kids and see how the cooking club is benefiting them.
Never let small children use the stove or oven without proper supervision.
- Photo Credit Rhyah Fletcher
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Comments
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I think ehow is good for home schooled children with simple healthy recipes that they can follow with easy reading instructions and non expensive ingredients. Practical and handy for the student who may be going away to college soon too. My husband did not know how to cook anything when he was 40 years old. That is so limiting to someone's health. He made sandwiches or ate at fast food places. Now he bakes and cooks everything. It is never too early or too late.
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I m 98.
