Raising a happy, healthy child is a full-time job, but the most important part is much easier than you think.
Studies show that spending quality time with your kids is vital for their well-being. Studies show that the more quality time a child spends with its parents, the less likely they are to indulge in risky behaviors like drug and alcohol abuse.
Cooking’s one of the best and most constructive ways to enjoy quality time with the aspirant tiny chefs in your life, and here’s why.
Cooking Builds Vital Skills
Cooking has several intellectual benefits for children. While working through these recipes, they’ll gain practical experience in several major areas of learning. Consider this:
New Words for Youngsters
Your child’s bound to discover new ingredients as they work through a recipe. They’ll also need to follow your directions.
This increases their vocabulary and helps them attach meaning to words.
Baking also teaches them cause and effect. Depending on the age of your children, you can adjust this learning experience so that it’s as detailed or basic as you want.
Cooking With Children Boosts Math Ability
Cooking involves so many math-related elements. There’s a lot of measuring and quantification involved.
Your children will learn to understand how fractions work as well as the basics of addition and subtraction. They’ll learn about halves and quarters as well as how many of a certain ingredient they still need to add to make up the full quota.
It’s an Opportunity to Practice Reading
Ask your children to read the recipes while they’re cooking with you. Small children can start by reading the basics like ‘2 cups’ or ‘1 tablespoon’. As they get more proficient, they’ll soon learn to read entire recipes and follow the directions. They’ll also discover new terminologies and names of food that starts with letter W and more.
Not only is this good reading practice, but it also helps with reading comprehension.
The Science of Cooking
Cooking’s like a science experiment. It involves ingredients and chemical reactions and concrete proof that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Your children will learn about how chemical reactions can change ingredients to create something new. They might also discover what happens when the measurements aren’t 100% correct.
Most importantly, children learn to understand how what they learn at school benefits them in daily life. This can encourage a love of learning when they realize that school isn’t a punishment but rather a place to learn practical life skills.
Cooking Develops Fine Motor Skills
Get your children to help with mixing ingredients, rolling dough, and using cookie cutters. These activities help them hone the fine motor skills needed for cutting, coloring, and writing.
You can make this even more effective by getting them to control their actions in more detail. For example, they could practice mixing faster, pouring slowly, or using an icing bag to make shapes.
Children Practice Focus When They Cook
When they’re cooking, kids need to pay attention to every detail if they want to avoid disaster. Lack of focus at any stage of the process can cause a recipe to flop.
They quickly learn that if they don’t pay attention to every detail, they won’t end up with a delicious reward at the end.
Cooking With Children Awakens the Senses
When children cook, all their senses get involved in the process.
They can see cakes rising, hear a pot boiling, smell the aromas of cooking food and feel the silky textures of batters.
They’ll also learn to guage temperature and texture without having to touch anything. For instance, they can see when a dish is simmering or a mixture is smooth and even.
Cooking’s a Life Skill
Cooking isn’t just a fulfilling hobby, it’s a vital survival skill. If your children don’t learn to cook, they’re doomed to eat takeaways for the rest of their life.
This will affect their future budget and their health. When children learn how to cook, you’re paving the way for them to become responsible, independent adults.
Hands-on experiences with hot stoves and sharp objects teach them caution and hone their powers of observation.
Tiny Chefs Eat Better
Small children are notoriously picky eaters. Yet, when they’ve spent time helping to make a meal, they won’t want to pass up the chance to taste it.
As you go along, you can teach them the importance of healthy eating and help them discover recipes they enjoy that involve good food choices. Learning to love cooking encourages them to eat at home instead of opting for fast food.
Confidence Grows With Cooking Successes
When children manage to create something tasty from their cooking efforts, they experience a great sense of satisfaction. The knowledge that they can create something for the whole family to enjoy helps them feel like an important part of the family.
These aspects help boost their self-confidence and self-esteem tremendously and spurs them on to further successes.
Cooking Fosters Family Bonding
Cooking provides opportunities to create new family traditions, such as cooking Sunday dinner together. You can experiment with new recipes every week or the kids can help with some of the simpler steps in a more complex dish.
Preparing delicious meals together is an activity every member of the family can enjoy.
For the Love of Food
Today’s tiny chefs are tomorrow’s master chefs, so get started spending time in the kitchen with your little ones today.
You’re in the right place for more ideas on recipes, cooking tips, and how to make the most of every meal. Keep reading our blog for more interesting articles involving food, glorious food!
