The idea of cooking and baking with your child can feel stressful. The process is bound to be messier and longer than if you were just doing it yourself. While it’s not realistic for most parents to have their kids help with every meal, especially if you’re in a hurry, there are lots of educational benefits that come from taking a little time out of your day every so often to get in the kitchen with your kids. Read on to learn more about these benefits, as well as some library resources to get you inspired!
Cooking and baking with your child…
- Boosts Reading and Language: Most recipes have written directions, so this is a great opportunity to practice reading. When kids read directions and follow them, they can put meaning to the words. In addition, there are lots of new vocabulary words that can be introduced in the kitchen.
- Supports Math Skills: Whether it’s for ingredients, temperature, or time, numbers are an important part of cooking. Counting, addition, multiplication, and fractions are just some of the math concepts children are exposed to while cooking and baking.
- Encourages Creativity: Sometimes, the best part of making food is going outside of the recipe! Foods like salads and yogurt parfaits allow kids to pick what toppings they want to include. Certain flavor combinations may not work, but discovering that is part of the fun.
- Improves Fine Motor Skills: Actions like stirring, scooping, and rolling strengthen children’s hands, and as they become better at those skills, they can move on to actions that require more control, like chopping.
- Introduces Basic Kitchen and Life Skills: By spending time in the kitchen, kids learn how to use the utensils and appliances they’ll be using in the future to make their own meals. Topics like food safety can also be tackled in simple ways like reminding your little that we wash our hands before we get started touching food.
- Encourages Healthy Habits and Exploring New Foods: Home-cooked meals are generally healthier than meals from restaurants, so by teaching children these skills now, they will be equipped with the knowledge to make healthy choices in the future. Fun challenges, like trying to make a meal with all the colors of the rainbow or picking out a new fruit to try at the store, introduce children to new foods and encourage adventurous eating. You can also use cooking as a way to introduce your family’s culture to your kids. Maybe your child can help you create a special dish for a holiday or event.
Want to get started? To find cookbooks for kids in our catalog, search “cookbook” and filter the results to just Juvenile Non-Fiction.
Here are a few to explore:
- Kid Chef (J 641.5 Kid)
- The No-Cook Cookbook (J 641.79 Woo)
- The Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs (J 641.815 Com)
In addition, check out our new monthly program, Kid’s Kitchen, which is designed for children ages 6-11 to learn more about cooking and gain confidence with some basic skills. Our first session will be May 17th, at 3 pm, in the Handley Library Benham Room on the Lower Level. Registration is required, so be sure to sign up on our website to secure your spot. We hope to see you there!