It is never too early, or too late to encourage your kids to join you in the kitchen. While you may need to allow for extra time, patience, and inevitably some mess, cooking with kids can provide so many wonderful benefits – plus it’s fun!
5 Positives to Cooking with Kids:
- Builds confidence early
- Encourages quality family time
- Improves their acceptance of new foods (helps to reduce fussiness)
- Develops motor skills
- Encourages creativity and imagination
1. Builds confidence early
Did you know that cooking with kids is one of the best ways to boost their confidence and self-esteem? This is because they can actually see (and taste) what they are capable of doing. When they say “I’ve made it myself” or “I helped cook dinner”, they can feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Even if a recipe doesn’t turn out the way your child expected, you can encourage them to continue to work at it until they are happy with their delicious creations. Through this positive process, your child can further develop their confidence and cooking skills to take on new challenges in the kitchen.
2. Encourages quality family time
The kitchen can be a fantastic place for families to spend quality time together. It can be a place to talk about family food traditions, favourite recipes, or to catch up on the events of the day.
Additionally, cooking gives kids an opportunity to practice key social skills they need throughout their life. By cooking with their family, they can practice listening and communication skills, plus learn cooperation and turn-taking, especially if they have siblings.
3. Improves their acceptance of new foods
A common concern many parents with fussy eaters share is that it can be difficult to offer new foods to their children – especially if they get quite anxious around unfamiliar foods. A great place to start is by involving them in the kitchen. You can begin with tasks that don’t directly interact with news foods, such as reading recipes together, or writing grocery lists. From there, you can start to build up their involvement – such as stirring ingredients, adding spices to dishes, or washing fresh produce. When they feel more confident, (and without added pressure), their acceptance to new foods can increase!
4. Develops motor skills
Practising fine motor skills can help kids develop the dexterity and coordination they will need for daily tasks at home, school, and in play. Cooking allows them to practice and strengthen these skills, through cooking motions, such as:
- Stirring ingredients with a spoon
- Cracking eggs
- Pouring milk into a measuring cup
- Kneading dough
- Sprinkling cheese on a pizza
- Grating carrots
5. Encourages creativity and imagination
Cooking doesn’t always have to follow a recipe – in fact, that’s when I enjoy cooking the most! Allowing your kids to experiment with different ingredients, flavours or tastes not only inspires creativity and imagination, but sometimes makes cooking as a family more fun! Try to make sure they are involved in plenty of the decision making process. Once you have made your new creation- you can always name it after them. Try serving ‘Jack’s milo cookies’ or ‘Imogen’s pumpkin scones’.
Any opportunity for your kids to get in the kitchen, whether it be reading a recipe, flipping pancakes, or cutting apples is beneficial! My best advice is to expect some mess, be patient, and most of all have fun!
Happy Cooking!
