Benefits of Children Cooking

Cooking with your child can help gain many great benefits. First and foremost, it is a nice way to have fun with your child, despite the possible mess. Cooking develops a variety of good skills including:

  • Exploring and discovery – it can help get children to open up to new smells, textures, and tastes. Taste testing what they prepared for the family is often more readily accepted than their willingness to try to eat from a pile of something on their plate.
  • Following directions – model them, practice them and enjoy the benefits of having their tasty food they made as a direct result of following the recipe.
  • Self-confidence – enjoying the food they have prepared and cooked gives children an opportunity to feel successful through their accomplishment.
  • Reading skills – a chance to learn and practice reading about something new and exciting in a fun environment using the recipes and labels.
  • Math and measuring – learning about various units of measurements and fractions, while using measuring cups and spoons to make a recipe.
  • Sensory skills – uses fine motor skills while doing things like measuring and stirring. It also uses their sense of smell, touch, taste, sight, and hearing.

In effort to help enjoy cooking with your child, it is certainly helpful to be equipped with the right tools. Some of my favorites kitchen tools include: an apron, plastic bowls, plastic measuring cups, and children’s nylon chef knifes. There are many brands of chef knifes and my favorites are: StarPack Nylon Kitchen Knife Set (3 Piece), Curious Chef 3-Piece Nylon Knife Set, and Tovla Kids 3-Piece Nylon Kitchen Knife Set.

While having fun cooking and learning, please always remember to be safe and supervise your child in the kitchen at all times!