Cooking with Children

Cooking holds all types of educational value for children.  Children learn important lessons in health and safety and their own self care, like safe food handling techniques and basic kitchen safety.  Cooking also teaches math concepts, like measurements and fractions, and science.  Cooking with children can instill healthy nutritional values and good eating habits as well as give your child a head start on caring for himself when he’s older.

Very small children may be content playing in the floor with her own pots and pans, like the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Pots & Pans while you cook.  Toddlers and preschoolers can do all sorts of things to help out in the kitchen.  Young children can get ingredients out, pour items in, and stir.  Older children can help measure out ingredients, read recipes, and use the microwave for heating. 

When you are cooking with your children, always remind them to wash their hands before starting.  Dress your child in a child sized kitchen apron and explain the importance of pulling back long hair in the kitchen.  Teach them to immediately wipe up any spills and to clean up after themselves as they cook.  Demonstrate the proper way to hold knives and how to use potholders to remove hot things from the stove, microwave, or oven.

Help your child understand special terms used in cooking while you read recipes together.  Discuss words like “beat” or “toss” as well as general measurements like a dash or a pinch.  Teach your child to read a recipe while you’re in the kitchen together too.  Read through the entire recipe first and discuss any parts that your child may not understand.  Let your child help gather all the bowls, pans, and utensils you will need and then all the ingredients. 

As you and your child prepare recipes together, practice safe food handling and preparation procedures to set a good example for your child’s health.  Always cut meats separately on a plastic cutting board and wash your hands, the board and knife, and the countertop as soon as you are finished.  Explain the dangers of bacteria in raw meat and discuss how certain foods must be cooked to a specific temperature before we can eat them. 

Show your child how to wash fruits and vegetables with water before eating them or preparing them.  Also talk to your child about spotting contamination from dented cans, cracked eggs, or bruised fruits.  Show her how to pick fresh foods and examine expiration dates together.

A fun, easy, and educational recipe to cook with your children is fruity Jell-o cups.  Boil two cups of water.  Boiling water provides opportunities to discuss science concepts like the states of matter.  Let your child watch how water changes from a liquid to a vapor as it boils.  Let your child mix in one package of his favorite Jell-o flavor and stir it until it dissolves.  Discuss how some solids will dissolve in certain liquids.

Let your child fill  the bottom of small plastic cups with fruit cocktail and then pour the Jell-o mixture over the fruit.  Refrigerate the cups until the Jell-o is set.  Talk about how the liquid turned into Jell-o as you share the snack.

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