The Benefits of Cooking With Your Children (Not as Ingredients!)

Posted on 23. Jan, 2010 by Daniel Wiggs in Eating and Drinking

Kids learning their way around the kitchen is about more than getting them to help you peel potatoes or stir the cake batter, although it is nice when they can help you out. Kids cooking is also about more than trying to keep them busy so they’re not whiney and bored, although it does make for a fun time. The other benefits I’m thinking of are what they learn in math, science, literature, and art when they cook. Ssshh… most kids don’t even realize they’re learning school stuff while they’re having a good time in the kitchen.

Math and Cooking

Anyone who can cook can do math. So much of what you do in the kitchen involves doing math and that’s why children can learn through following simple recipes.

Take, for example, the subject of adding fractions. When kids have to learn fractions by looking at a bunch of numbers on a page, it doesn’t always make sense. However, if you decide you’re going to make a double batch of chocolate chip cookies and all of those ingredients (most of which are written as fractions) need to be doubled, your son or daughter can find great motivation in learning how to add those fractions together. After all, they wouldn’t want to come up short on the chocolate chips.

Science and Cooking

If you’ve watched many cooking programs, you may have already become familiar with the magic of science that’s at work daily in your kitchen. Helping your children notice the science and giving them permission to experiment with it can be a great learning experience. It will also make for fun lessons they won’t soon forget.

For example, you could teach the children about the three stages of matter: gas, solids, and liquids. You could boil water and watch it evaporate, you could freeze water to make it into a solid, and you could use water in its liquid form as part of cooking. If you have several kids, ask them to predict how long it will take for an ice cube to become water vapor on the stove top.

You can design experiments that show what happens to cookies if you leave out the baking soda or the flour. My daughter got firsthand experience with this very thing last weekend when we ran out of flour. She found that pancake mix is not a good substitute.

Literature and Cooking

Another fun way to use cooking in your lessons is by incorporating it into your studies of literature. For many years, schools across the country have been serving green eggs and ham to celebrate the Dr. Seuss classic. Your child could prepare the same thing with a little bit of food coloring.

When your kids are reading stories about children in different lands, find recipes for the foods that kids eat in those countries. You can create a whole meal around a foreign country; and cooking up the native food is an educational winner.

Another idea is to set aside a certain part of the day for literature discussion. Your kids can prepare a snack while discussing the book they are reading. It’s a good way to get them used to discussing books.

Art and Cooking

One of the other nice things about the kitchen is that it’s a great place for kids to show off their creativity. Children can use traditional food items, such as uncooked macaroni, to create artwork. They can also make pancakes to look like butterflies or mice. Ask your kids to create a sugar cookie then decorate it so that it serves as a model of a human cell.

With kids cooking in the kitchen, the time can be both educational and fun. Help them explore new worlds through their kitchen at home!

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Technorati Tags: Adding Fractions, Cake Batter, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Chips, Chocolate Cookies, Cooking In The Kitchen, Double Batch, Fun Time, Having A Good Time, Kids Cooking, Kitchen Kids, Kitchen Math, Learning Experience, Literature And Art, Math Science, Potatoes, School Stuff, Science Literature, Simple Recipes, Solids And Liquids, Stove Top, Water Vapor

Tags: Adding Fractions, Cake Batter, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Chips, Chocolate Cookies, Cooking In The Kitchen, Double Batch, Fun Time, Having A Good Time, Kids Cooking, Kitchen Kids, Kitchen Math, Learning Experience, Literature And Art, Math Science, Potatoes, School Stuff, Science Literature, Simple Recipes, Solids And Liquids, Stove Top, Water Vapor

12 Responses to “The Benefits of Cooking With Your Children (Not as Ingredients!)”

mohan111

10. Feb, 2010

its nice one to mix up cooking with learning..really its a happening thing..you can make sure of learning while going through household chores..conceptualizing yours child’s inner strength is the near task to complete to make him better person..you will sure make win win situation by allowing him into kitchen..in mean while you know him better..
hassanroz

10. Feb, 2010

this article is very nice i hope to have children and Cooking With my Children
and i learn new ways to make our children have fun and learn in the same
thank you for this article
svishnugopal

10. Feb, 2010

It is really a wonderful experience cooking with my kids, i don’t have to worry about what they are dong alone and recently i have noticed that amazingly myyounger one has learnt a lot of kitchen work just watching me daily…
gurujosh76

10. Feb, 2010

We do think alike… I completely agree… You can do this for free… I think although parents can always pull out some kid-friendly recipes and hold their own class at home.
Danciu

10. Feb, 2010

That’s very interesting. i never looked at it this way. Your children deserve full attention and if one can mix school with such fun lessons that’s great! I will definitely try it
onida143

10. Feb, 2010

hey buddy good article nice information as u said thier are really many benfits if we have our children while cooking even they will learn few new thinsg which they dont know & also i am really benifited with one thing when i am not thier in home my kids will cook on thier own this the major benifit i got becuase my kids were thier when i was cooking
ammoo

10. Feb, 2010

Cooking with kids around can sometimes be difficult but if one can involve them by creating their interest,it can be two fold beneficial.Firstly their cooking know how enlightens and it introduces them to cooking creativity and on the other hand the usual academic concepts are also practically inculcated in their nascent minds.A nice passage for masses at large.
sweetandsexyprincess

10. Feb, 2010

I have a little boy and a girl. And as they see me a lot in the kitchen, they sort of developed a love for cooking as well. I ask them to help around when I’m making stuff in the kitchen. Not only it teaches them to be responsible, they learn to cook certain dishes as well. Yeah, the kitchen ends up a lot messier than when I do it alone…. but spending time with the kids is so much fun, i don’t mind the cleaning up.. besides, they help me with it too.
deepu23never

11. Feb, 2010

I really appriciate with thgis article and It is really a wonderful experience of cooking with learning . Our children deserve complete attention and if one can mix school with such fun. thanks
kayartikel

11. Feb, 2010

I just know if he cooks a lot of science that we can teach because the children are usually regarded as spam if we’re cooking or doing kitchen activities
ssaauh

12. Feb, 2010

cooking is one of the various exciting ways to spend time with your children and you do it with them,they also feel loved,really nice way for parents to show their children that they care for them and have time for them
digger73

12. Feb, 2010

Cooking is not just a simple task to teach to our children so that they may learn how to deal with cooking when they grow up. As it was discussed, it is also a learning process for our child on how they would do things orderly to come up with a good result, which is the good taste of what you have cooked. This relates to our everyday responsibility in life. It also give us chance to entertainment and developing closeness with our child.