Everybody loves to eat, especially kids! Teaching young children how to cook is the ideal way to demonstrate the principles of good nutrition and encourage healthy eating habits they will keep with them throughout their lives. Because everything is new to them, young children are more likely to try out unfamiliar foods like new kinds of vegetables, especially when they participate in preparing them. If they helped make it, it must be good, right? As children become exposed to new ingredients their stock of acceptable foods expands, putting them on course to be “good eaters” from the very start!
The value of cooking with very young children has now been recognized by educators, and facilities like the Penrith Early Learning Centre boasts a kitchen and a resident cook who helps kids prepare their own meals! This kind of hands-on learning experience inspires kids to be confident and helps them explore their world by doing instead of just watching.
Cooking with preschoolers gives them an early exposure to many useful subjects like language, science, maths, art, and reading. Working in the kitchen also offers important lessons in basic chemistry by discovering first-hand how the various ingredients combine, react, and change as they cook. Math also comes into play, ingredient lists are the perfect way to introduce concepts like amounts and fractions. Describing what the young one sees, tastes, and feels adds to their vocabulary, and is a great way to practice expressing themselves, and letting them play with food’s many colours and textures is both fun and inspires experimentation. Reading a recipe together with children helps them learn the basics of how to follow instructions, and fine-motor skills are practiced when they tear, stir, and pour with their little fingers. Learning to make and enjoy holiday treats and cuisines from different cultures exposes them to a variety of the wonderful tastes our world has to offer.
You can, and should, also start cooking with your children at home, the earlier the better! Even babies sitting in a high-chair can watch and listen as you narrate what you are doing in the kitchen. Talk about the different ingredients as you display them to build understanding and vocabulary, and describe the processes you are going through as you cook so they can see verbs in action. “I’m chopping the carrots and onions. Now I’m frying them in the pan. Do you hear them sizzling? Let’s add some more olive oil!” You can bet that baby will be fascinated as they are watching, listening and learning!
As they get older, children can move from being observers to being participants. At just one year a child is old enough to help out by dropping some grapes in the salad, or sprinkling some seasoning on the veggies. Your kids love being part of the process!
Make sure to choose fresh and healthy ingredients to help your child grow, and have fun cooking together and enjoying the delicious results, you will both love it!