Cooking with Young Children is Fun and Educational

Kalamazoo, Mich.- Mommy/Daddy can I help cook? If you’re the parent of a child younger than 5 years old, chances are he or she has asked more than once to help you cook. Cooking teaches young people many important skills! So break out the aprons, plastic bowls and measuring cups, and start cooking with your child. You’ll be glad you did!

Skills Children Learn From Cooking:

1. How to follow directions. Show your child what a recipe is, and how to follow the steps in order for the recipe to work. Younger children can use a picture cookbook or recipe while older children can use beginning reading skills to try to sound out the words or read the numbers in a written recipe.
   
   
2. Increase sensory awareness. Use foods that have different textures, smells and tastes. Let your child’s hands feel the difference between foods such as sugar, flour, rice, dry pasta and beans. Taste the difference between sweet (sugar) and sour (a lemon or vinegar) and encourage to smell the different spices such as oregano or cumin, the sweet smell of vanilla or the spicy smell of cinnamon. Allow your child to touch and explore the outside skin of fruits and vegetables such as an onion, a kiwi, a pineapple, an orange, a cucumber and so on. This is a great time to cut fresh fruits and vegetables into bite-sized pieces and encourage your child to taste them.
   
   
3. Work on basic math skills. As you cook, teach your child to compare amounts. You can do this by asking questions such as: Are we putting in more flour or more salt? Which is bigger: one cup or one-quarter cup? Which is heavier: a cup of marshmallows or a cup of milk? What does it mean to cut something in half? How many half cups do you need to equal a whole cup? Develop sequencing skills. Read the recipe to your child; then ask: “What do we do first…second…last?"
   
   
4. Increase words and vocabulary. Teach your child the names of different foods, ingredients and cooking tools found in your kitchen. After you’ve gathered the food and other things you will need for your recipe, play a game asking your child to hand you the butter, flour, pepper, spatula or wooden spoon. Even though these things seem like everyday words to you, they are not to many 3-year-olds.
   
   
5. Understand physical differences. Talk to your child and describe the differences in the foods you are preparing, such as wet vs., dry, hot vs. cold, soft vs. hard, raw vs. cooked, in the pot vs. out of the pot, fast vs. slow, thick vs. thin, etc. Let your child group foods into categories by asking him to “put all the foods that are white over here, put all the foods that are cold over there,” and so on.
   
   
6. Improve motor coordination. Cooking helps your child develop both small and large motor coordination skills. Climbing on and off a chair, opening and closing the refrigerator door or carrying a sack of potatoes helps develop large motor skills. Wrapping potatoes in foil for baking, mashing bananas with a fork, shaking liquids in a closed container or spooning flour into a cup helps improve small motor skills. Children of all ages can gain school-readiness skills—and have fun at the same time—when they help cook. And, children enjoy cooking and are often more willing to eat foods they help prepare. Involve your child in planning and preparing meals and snacks for the family. Expect a few messes and mistakes and most of all, take the time to enjoy this terrific learning experience with your child as much as he or she will!

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