Blog

Cooking is Great for Kids

in The Too Busy to Diet Blog on January 30, 2015

The Richards girls are participating with leaning cooking skills with age appropriate skills. The eight month old is starting to play kitchen by modeling the behaviors of her two older sisters.

Cooking is a fun activity for families that can involve each family member regardless of their age. Some of the benefits of kid’s involvement include:

1) Children develop many abilities while involved with cooking. These include development of fine motor skill, learning math skills, cooking techniques, and nutrition choices. Depending on the age of the child, they can either observe or participate in measuring wet and dry ingredients. They can also learn to pour, scoop, blend, and scrape while preparing food.

2) Kitchen sanitation can be taught by making sure that children wash their hands and pull their hair away from their faces. Knife safety can be shown to older children
by teaching them mincing, chopping, dicing, and julienning. Separation of an egg is a fun activity for younger children. They also enjoy scrubbing, spreading, tearing, breaking, and snapping in food preparation. Some other activities would include husking corn or washing vegetables in a colander.

3) Learning how to set the table is an activity that can be taught to very young children. They can put out silverware, dishes, and carry bowls and cups to the table.
They can also learn which utensils are appropriate for which foods, and which tools are needed to dish out foods.

4) Young children can participate with cleanup with small brushes or brooms along with a dustpan. They can help put soap in the dishwasher and turn the machine on.

5) Along with teaching cooking skills, children will improve self-esteem by developing pride in the work they do and the development of a product that can be enjoyed by the entire family. Learning to cook allows a child to develop skills they will use for a lifetime and will allow them to learn how to work as a team and delegate tasks among family members.

To learn more healthy eating tips go to www.Toobusytodiet.com.