You may not think cooking with kids can really teach much, but you might be surprised. Cooking with kids can start when your little ones are pretty young — even toddler age, depending on what you’re making. But there are many benefits and reason to cook/bake with your children.

Cooking has many of the same benefits that gardening with the kids has. Cooking with kids is obviously is a hands-on activity which is a wonderful way for children to learn.

Safety First
Kitchen/cooking safety is A BIG DEAL!!! You know the basics, knives are sharp and dangerous and the stove top and oven are hot. What about things like not coming into contact with harmful bacteria from chicken? Checking to make sure ingredients haven’t expired or are too old to still be effective? There are a lot of rules as far as bacteria and how you should clean and keep things separate in the kitchen. Even just touching on some of the basic rules of kitchen safety is good for kids to learn.

Perfect Fine Motor Activity
Cooking helps little friends develop and fine-tune those fine motor skills. Cracking eggs, sifting flour, pouring, *using items such as cookie cutters and adding ingredients are all great ways to give your children a good fine motor workout.

Heavy Work
What is heavy work? It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It’s more than just measuring or pouring, it involves putting some serious effort into the activity! Mixing, kneading, rolling, and other activities such as these are essential for children who have a hard time calming/regulating themselves.

Learning to Follow Directions
Using a recipe is one way to teach/show children how to follow directions. Even if they can’t read, you can still show them on a recipe card where you are in the order of things and what must come next. Learning process directions is an essential skill for kiddos.

Learning Math
Depending on the age of the child, you can actually get a little jump-start with some math skills. Measuring, adding to or doubling a recipe, fractions, and even cost of ingredients are things that you could touch on while cooking with kids.

Don’t Forget Cleaning Up!
Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere! I cannot stress what an important activity this is for little ones, regardless of age. So many children want to drop everything and move on to the next activity, leaving a less behind for parents or teachers. Sometimes I know it’s easier if you do it, but when you aren’t pressed for time have your child there and assisting you clean up in the kitchen. Cooking can be really messy and cleaning up is the final step in the whole process.

Cooking with your kids can be so much fun and you can create priceless memories for your children. It can also be a teachable moment for kids where they can learn important skills for cooking on their own when their older.

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