To raise a child to be self-dependent and health conscious, one must do more than just serve him or her nutritious food and send to school. Cooking with kids will help them learn cooking, the food and kitchen safety measures and help them develop good eating habits. You’ll both enjoy doing it together as well. Knowledge of healthy foods and different food groups will develop in them a good sense for the future, when they will have to do it by themselves. So, introduce your kids to different foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, lean meat, seafood etc. This way they’ll acquire a taste for healthy foods too.
For all this to turn out right, you need to design good cooking lessons. Here a few tips to make it easier for you:
1. Make it an enjoyable session
Kids look at you cooking and they want to try it, because it seems like fun to them. Let them do it when they feel like it, just like any other instructional activity. Set aside extra time when you’re including them in preparing a regular meal, allow more preparation time than you normally would. It’ll be easier if you choose a particular recipe and prepare it with your child simply for the experience. Ask him or her to be a helping hand and observe. Don’t involve young kids in open fire cooking like frying eggs or bacon etc. Teach them to prepare salads instead. Toasts and some microwave cooking are okay. Perfect recipes for children are those with fresh ingredients and easy preparations.
2. Appropriate age
Very young children cannot possibly measure ingredients, but they can certainly help assemble the ingredients and do some stirring and sprinkling or garnishing. Make them feel like they’re involved and they played a role in preparing it. Adventurous 10-12 year-olds may be excited to assist you with complicated recipes. Naturally, the understanding capacity will increase with age. However, taking apart lettuce leaves or mixing ingredients of a salad and kneading dough and putting pre-measured ingredients in a mixing bowl is something even a 3-4 year-old can handle. Related jobs like cleaning up and setting the table can be assigned by age, too.
3. Teaching cooking safety
Let your child help find the ingredients needed for the recipe you’ve chosen at the supermarket. Depending on his age, you can also show him compare nutrition labels as you select brands. Explain how to make healthier choices and teach them how to pack or safely carry different foods, for example like frozen raw meat or chicken leaks water, so it must be put in a plastic bag.
4. Teach your kids the hygienic ways to cook
Always wash their hands prior to cooking and teach them to clean up the spills and to put ingredients back where they belong, especially if they’re perishable. This way, they’ll learn that they should not eat raw cookie dough or unwashed carrots.
Make sure the kids never try to cook by themselves until they come off age as accidents can happen anytime. And it’s always good to be early about teaching your kids the necessary precautions to be taken while cooking. Warn them about the hazards of mishandling knives or fire. Encourage your kids’ interest in healthy cooking.