COOKING CLASSES
3 1/2 to 11 years

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Cooking with Children: A Valuable Learning Experience

Spending time in the kitchen for a grownup might be a chore, but for children as young as 2 ½ years the kitchen is a fun and exciting place. Children love the whole process of adding ingredients together to create something unique, it gives them a great sense of satisfaction. They enjoy kneading and rolling out dough, cracking eggs and mixing ingredients together. Cooking helps children develop and refine important skills such as language, sensory-motor development, socioemotional development and mathematics. They also learn about social studies, science, nutrition and art through cooking.

Young children learn through their senses. Cooking offers an array of sensory experiences which include seeing, touching, tasting, smelling and listening. Children can develop motor skills through pouring, stirring, measuring, peeling, sifting, chopping, rolling, kneading, squeezing, grinding and beating. Valuable math skills are learned through counting, measuring, timing and sequencing events. Science concepts such as volume, temperature and changes in physical properties are also explored. Reading skills are developed and children learn to follow directions. Good nutrition can be encouraged through cooking. When children see exactly what goes into a recipe they can make better choices about what they are eating.  

Planning a Cooking Experience with Your Child

First include your child in the shopping experience. Read the recipe with your child and make a list of the ingredients that you will need to purchase at the market. Don’t forget to bring a washable marker with you; this will give your child the opportunity to cross off the ingredients on the list as your child places them in the shopping cart. Talk about the ingredients with your child. For example, “Where do eggs come from?” — “The eggs that we eat usually come from chickens but other animals also lay eggs — birds, turtles, snakes, etc.” If you are buying potatoes, show them the variety of potatoes available at the market; Russet, Yukon Gold, Fingerlings, red potatoes, purple potatoes, sweet potatoes . . . Explain that potatoes are root vegetables and that they grow under the ground. There are so many things we can teach our children just by talking in detail about them.

Get organized first before inviting your little chef into the kitchen. Make sure to have all of your ingredients and tools available. Bowls, measuring spoons and tools should be plastic, wood or metal (no glass). Appliances should not be plugged in until being used by an adult. Also remember to unplug them immediately after use. Be prepared for messes, they will happen. Just relax and get ready in advance with a roll of paper towels and a sponge.

Wash your hands together before you start. Begin by talking about the ingredients and the tools you both will be using. Name the ingredients and tools. Discuss how the tools work and what their job is when you are cooking. There are so many interesting kitchen tools that you can introduce to your child. Look for recipes that will incorporate the use of these tools. Hand held beaters, sifters, whisks, spatulas, potato ricers, potato mashers, vegetable peelers, apples corers, egg slicers, salt and pepper grinders etc. Remember that children have short attention spans so give them quick and simple jobs. They get very excited when cooking; give them instructions one at a time and repeat directions as often as needed.

Let your child learn about ingredients through their senses. In small bowls let them touch, taste and smell the ingredients you may be using, e.g. sugar, flour, salt, bread crumbs or any other ingredients that you will be using. Children should not consume raw meats or foods such as eggs and fish. Talk about the texture, taste, color and smell of the ingredients and how they are grown or produced. How can these ingredients change the outcome of our recipe? If we add too much salt to our bread recipe, our bread will taste too salty. If we over measure sugar our cookies will be too sweet. If we don’t add enough flour to our cake batter, our cake will be too moist or soggy and may not rise. Proper measurements will affect the outcome of our recipe; therefore, learning to follow directions in a recipe is an important part of the cooking experience.

In the end, you may make foods that don’t taste or look as delectable as you expected, but the sense of pride your little chef gets from preparing foods for others will far outweigh this. When children cook, they feel very responsible and confident; they also are more willing to try foods that they have prepared. So get your little chef cooking — there is so much to learn.

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