What comes into mind when you think of toddlers in the kitchen? Spilled flour, broken china, cut fingers, burned and scalded hands, or burning pots? Many parents love the idea of cooking with toddlers. However, the idea only stops at “pass me the knife Eugene” and not actually asking them to do the cutting.
Cooking with kids can be disastrous – especially if they are two or more. They will fight over who stirs the pot, who cuts the tomatoes, and who pours. They will all want to follow the steps and they want to come out as helping more. Sometimes, it is hard to focus on what you are cooking amidst the fights, whines, and tasting. But you can find a way to get your kids in the kitchen. Perhaps assign them days or assign them tasks beforehand.
Amid all the chaos they might bring in your kitchen, toddlers learn a lot when you have them in the kitchen. Read on to learn more.
Boost their Confidence
When a child learns how to cook, it not only boosts their confidence in the kitchen but also their overall confidence [1]. Children want independence and they also want to succeed at many things. They want the validation you give them – they want to feel helpful and useful. When you make them feel whole in the kitchen, their confidence shoots through the roof. When they know they can cook tasteful food that family members enjoy, they feel good about themselves.
Make Kids Try New Foods
Are you trying out new recipes? The easiest way to make your children adventurous eaters is to involve them in making the food. Children are more likely to try new things if they prepared it themselves.
Create Interesting Family Time
What time do you have to spend with your kids? If you are always pressed for time and cannot spare a day to hang out with your children, cooking with them will draw you closer together. When you are all in the kitchen, them making a mess and you correcting them, you get to connect. You get to create unique flavors and catch up as you make cooking fun. All you need to ensure is that they are safe from burns, scalds, cuts, and falls on slippery floors.
Reinforce School Content
Cooking is an interesting way to reinforce what kids learn in school. While cooking, kids get to calculate, measure, add, multiply, divide, memorize, remember, cut in good shapes, and follow steps among others. In cooking, your kids are not just reading on books but rather doing the action. This kind of education is phenomenal in enhancing the content learned in school.
Teach Life Skills to Children
You must teach your kids life skills, they not only need to be confident but also able-bodied and successful when they grow up. They need to learn how to cook, where food comes from, what goes into a given meal and the preparation stages. Most of these skills cannot be learned by watching food programs on TV. As you cook together, take your time to talk to the kids and ask them what is going on in their lives in school.
Build a Healthier Generation
Instead of telling your kids what healthy food is, how about, you show them. Instead of bringing them ready food, you can let them be a part of making healthier food choices [2]. As you cook, talk to them about why some foods are considered healthier than others and the nutritional contents of different foods. For instance, you can educate them on why they need to eat their broccoli and vegetables and why they need to cut down their meat intake.
In conclusion, you need to make your kitchen safe for kids. Teach them the importance of keeping the floor dry, switching off gas taps, how to store knives, how to avoid burns and scalds, and much more.
Sources
[1] https://childmind.org/article/12-tips-raising-confident-kids/
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/education/2006/mar/14/schools.uk3