My youngest son started working this summer in a cafe. He seems to have enjoyed the experience and it has developed his interest in prepping food. I can see a little chef in the making, which might be handy for extra help at home at mealtimes!

It’s important that children have some kind of food education. They need to know what is healthy to eat and the basics of preparation and food hygiene. These are important life skills for the future. I have included some of the main benefits of getting your children cooking below:

Keener To Try New Foods

Children who are involved in cooking are also more likely to try new foods, so if you have fussy eaters at home try and get them involved in the kitchen.

Learn To Appreciate Parents

When children are involved in cooking, they can see the effort it takes to provide a healthy tasty meal for the family. Rather than listening to them grumbling they are hungry get them in the kitchen to give a helping hand.

Teaches Maths

When you measure out the ingredients or have to adjust the quantities for more or less people you are using valuable skills to improve your mathematical ability. You can introduce ratios and fractions e.g., if it said 5:1 flour to butter ratio or ½ cup of butter.

Boosts Self Esteem

Cooking can help boost self-esteem as they get better with more practice.

How Can You Encourage An Interest In Cooking

Now you know how important teaching cooking to your children is, you might be wondering how to encourage an interest in cooking.

Gaming

There are lots of kids cooking games they can play. Games give children a sense of accomplishment that might make them keener to try out their practised skills in a real life scenario.

Sweety Cooking Chocolate Cake

I like how this game introduces the name of the kitchen equipment. You have to click each one to remove it from your list.

Then you go on to the process of making the cake.

I also got to use the microwave to melt chocolate and butter together. It’s just about becoming familiar with the items in the kitchen and their purpose. Once the cake is completed you get a celebratory cheer!

The Pizza Baker

The Pizza Baker was a simple but ever so slightly addictive pizza making game. When you get the ingredients correct on the pizza then the bear happily loads it into the oven, and you get some gold coins!  You can then turn this experience into a real activity at home. My boys always enjoyed our pizza nights when they were younger.

Burger Time

Another enjoyable game to try is Burger Time. You have to make up orders for customers against the clock. It’s a good way to teach children its important to get your timing right in the kitchen.

Be Patient

When it comes to cooking with children its important to be patient. Expect mess and a pinch of chaos when cooking with children. Make sure you have some kid friendly recipes, start off quite easy and build up to more complicated recipes as they confidence and skill increase.

Book a Cooking Class

When ours were quite small we booked them onto a cooking class. They made lots of fun foods shaped like animals. They got a real sense of pride seeing the end results and that did spur them on to want to continue cooking at home.

Work With Their Interests

Another way to get children involved is to work with their interests. If your child is obsessed with dinosaurs work with that theme! Your first cooking project could be dinosaur shaped biscuits.