6 AMAZING BENEFITS OF COOKING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
Today, my article is about the benefits of cooking in early childhood. Let’s see what cooking can do in early childhood education (other than give yummy food, of course)
Cooking may not be your favourite thing to do and I get it.
But it’s a basic life skill and a truly essential one and let’s see what we can do to spark some joy in it along with our kids.
The kitchen gets a whole new level of bustle when the kids are in it but it’s one place where you get to bond and make life-long memories together. Not to mention the benefits of cooking in early childhood.
Kids are going to explore, experience, create, recreate and relish some good food over there and isn’t it amazing?
Importance of teaching cooking skills to children
The benefits of cooking in early childhood are just too many to count according to experts. Children develop their cognitive skills, fine motor skills, creativity, social skills, confidence and so on
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Promoting Healthy Eating Habits
Importance of introducing healthy food choices early on
Introducing healthy food choices early on is vital in early childhood as these habits stick with the kids and they grow up to be healthy eaters.
It’s believed that the nature of our relationship with food is determined in the early years, so as parents all we can do is expose our kids to as many healthy choices as possible.
How involving children in the cooking process encourages them to try new foods
Needless to say, when children are involved in cooking, they get excited about it and love to taste the food they prepare.
This is the best chance for you to diversify their palette and add different types of healthy food to their food. It doesn’t have to be a drastic change to their preferred diet.
It can be as subtle as adding some spinach to their pizza, celery to their smoothie, or banana to their chocolate cake.
For a child who doesn’t fancy trying new food you can try stews, wraps, pizza, salads, or smoothies and add the new ingredient along with his favourite ingredients. Chances are they may love the new added flavour.
Tips for making nutritious meals fun and appealing to young palates
- Try food art
- Cut them in different shapes.
- Serve them on attractive plates or boxes.
- Try fakeaway (homemade fast food replica wrapped and served just like popular fast food do)
- Outdoor picnic
Building Confidence and Independence
How cooking empowers children to take charge of their own meals
Cooking empowers children. They get to be actively involved in an important activity. It fills them with pride and a sense of independence. They get to make suggestions, decide, experiment and learn in this process.
Rather than just passively coming and sitting for dinner, their active involvement builds up confidence and independence.
Benefits of successfully completing cooking tasks
- It builds up confidence and a sense of independence as we mentioned before
- Improves teamwork and family bonding.
- Good food and good times, obviously!
- Makes lifelong memories and family traditions.
Ways to encourage autonomy and self-esteem through cooking activities
- Read the recipes together with the child so that they know what happens before starting.
- Ask for their opinion and suggestions.
- Allocate age-appropriate tasks like peeling, washing, mixing etc.
Enhancing Social Skills
Opportunities for teamwork and cooperation while cooking
The kitchen is a great place for the whole family to spend quality time together. Helping each other, having a chat, cracking a joke, learning new skills, experimenting with new dishes, making mistakes and learning from them are some of them.
Allocating age-appropriate tasks for kids can always give them an idea of how fun teamwork can be.
Importance of communication and sharing responsibilities in the kitchen
When it comes to the benefits of cooking in early childhood, there’s one important point to mention is that from a very young age, children learn that it’s a basic life skill for everyone. Not just for one specific family member but for every family member.
Allocation of tasks, getting involved, helping each other, mentoring and so on all need very good communication among the family members. It’s a great place to share ideas, knowledge and opinions at home.
Boosting Cognitive Development
Cognitive development in early childhood
Cognitive development refers to the ability to think, remember, argue, use critical thinking and solve problems.
Do cooking activities inspire kids to do problem solving and critical thinking?
Why didn’t I feel like I was doing something super nerdy?
How cooking engages children’s senses and promotes cognitive growth
Cooking provides sensory stimulation. The smell of frying garlic, super soft bread dough, sizzling sound of meat, crunchy peanuts and bubbling gravy stimulate all our 5 senses giving us an amazing experience.
As we all know sensory activities are important in early childhood education as they help cognitive development.
Connection between following recipes and problem-solving skills
As our kids are actively involved in cooking they get to read/look at recipe books. They try to understand the process. They will help you with measurements and problem solving.
If the pan is too small for caramelising 2 cups of sugar, they may help you telling -” Mommy we need a bigger pan”
There are kids recipe books with a lot of pictures describing the process which will help your little one understand better.
Read this comprehensive article about cognitive development activities
Encouraging Creativity and Imagination
The role of cooking in fostering creativity
Cooking doesn’t need to be according to a recipe all the time. You can be yourself, add a little bit of yourself to the recipe and have your own version of it.
Encourage your kid to make their own version of food.
It can be something like adding your child’s favourite fruit to cake mix , spicing up a sweet dish a bit or changing the texture to your own liking.
It doesn’t matter how it is done, break some rules and most importantly let your child make decisions.
It will be a great time for them to experiment and learn from it.
Benefits of allowing children to experiment with ingredients and flavours
Children get confident when they feel that you believe in their judgement. And trust me they will do their very best and even amaze you with their skills.
You guys can invent your very own signature dishes and be proud of them.
The more autonomy kids get in cooking, the more they will love cooking.
How cooking can inspire storytelling and imaginative play
To make your cooking time more interesting, you can get ready for tea time by preparing cookies and sandwiches.
Ask your child to invite their friends (real or just pretend) or you can have a tea party with their dolls and teddies.
It’s a great time for you to make up a story and be a part of it.
Wondering how to develop creativity in kids? Read about developing creativity skills
Development of Fine Motor Skills
Explanation of fine motor skills and their importance
Fine motor skills are the ability to control small muscles in one’s hands and fingers in order to control, grab, manoeuvre, and move objects with a purpose.
Cooking involves cutting, measuring, opening lids, stirring, kneading, peeling etc.
All these activities require our hands and fingers to control an object.
Kids, as they practice these activities are going to improve their fine motor skills.
Examples of specific tasks that enhance fine motor skills
- Assembling a pizza
- Using cookie cutters and cutting shapes
- Stirring and mixing
- Adding ingredients using a spoon
- Using a spatula to flatten a surface
- Knead a bread dough
- Opening bottle lids
- Separate cabbage leaves or lettuce
- Read more about fine motor skills
Conclusion
The benefits of cooking in early childhood are underrated and not encouraged enough. But the skills our kids learn and the good times they have are totally worth the mess they make.
Let’s spend more time in the kitchen with the kids. Happy kids, good times and good food!!
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