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Teaching kids how to cook is an incredibly valuable opportunity. In addition to bonding with your kids and getting to know them better, this is your chance to equip them with skills they'll need for the rest of their lives.
The question is, how do you teach your kids the fundamentals of cooking in a safe, fun, and engaging way?
Teaching Kids to Cook: Key Principles for Success
These are the most important principles for success when teaching your kids how to cook:
- Safety first. As you might imagine, safety must always come first. Before you teach your kids anything about ingredient preparation or flavor combinations, you should teach them about handling hot materials safely, using sharp implements safely, and respecting the general rules of the kitchen. Your kids will follow your example, for better and for worse, so make sure you do everything in the kitchen as safely as possible to instruct them responsibly.
- Make food that your kids love! Do your kids love pizza and ask for it whenever they can? Consider investing in an outdoor pizza oven and allow them to choose their own custom pizza toppings. Are they obsessed with cupcakes? Find a simple recipe they'll be able to follow. If you make foods your kids love, they'll be more interested and engaged in the cooking experience.
- Get ready for messes. No matter how old your kids are or how many precautions you've taken, you're going to end up with some major messes. You can prepare for those messes by laying out mats, limiting the spaces in which your kids prepare food, and minimizing the appearance of messy ingredients like flour. Even so, bank on some majorly messy times whenever your kids set foot in the kitchen.
- Teach in small increments. Children have understandably short attention spans, so you'll likely get much better results if you teach them cooking fundamentals in small increments. Don't try to teach them everything about a recipe at once; instead, focus on teaching them all in one step of the process. If they get bored, let them leave; forcing them to stay could make it more of a chore than a fun exercise.
- Focus on age-appropriate tasks. Toddlers have no business cutting vegetables with a sharp knife or cooking over an open flame. But there are more age-appropriate kitchen tasks than you might realize. Even for kids as young as 16 months, it's possible to find tasks to help with, such as stirring batter, pouring in ingredients, or taste testing the finished product.
- Give your kids as much autonomy as possible. Early on, it's important to guide your children and help them with tasks. But once they start getting older and more familiar with the kitchen, give them more autonomy. Let them fail and make mistakes so the lessons are more likely to stick.
- Make it a game. People (and especially children) are typically much more engaged with learning when the learning is gamified in some way. Consider using a point system or a timer to make food preparation more exciting and stimulating.
- Find creative ways to restore engagement. If your kids start showing signs of engagement loss, find creative ways to restore their engagement. Can you incorporate a song? Can you make small messes on purpose? Can you put an apron on one of their stuffed animals and pretend they're a part of the process? Your approach is largely going to depend on your child's interests and the reason for their lack of engagement.
- Move to full recipes. Over time, you should gradually move to allowing your kids to make full recipes, from start to finish. Simple dishes, like spaghetti or nachos, or something that even younger children should be able to tackle.
- Clean up together. Finally, make it a point to clean up together. Cleanup is an important part of the cooking process, and let's be honest – it’s going to be nice to have help in this department once your kids are a little older.
Knowing Your Kids
One final note here: every kid is different. Some kids are going to take to cooking immediately, while others may be more reluctant to get involved. Some kids are going to love cracking eggs, while others prefer stirring batter. What's important is that you get to know your kids' individual preferences and customize your kitchen teaching to suit them. There is no standard formula for how to teach children anything.
Teaching your kids the fundamentals of cooking is a rewarding experience, as long as you're willing to look past the temporary messes. With a bit of practice and ample commitment, your children will become little chefs in no time.