Kids and Cooking - Activities for Different Age Groups

I received several comments sharing their thoughts on the wonderful secret of cooking and teaching kids. One of the comments asked if there could be a list of cooking activity to match the different age groups.

Thank you for the comment. It is perhaps useful to summarize.

We must recognize that each child develops differently and may have different likes and dislikes. I hope you will be able to use this as a guideline to help with cooking with your kids.

I am also hoping to put together recipes appropriate for each age group.


It would be wonderful if you can share your recipes for mums and dads all over the world to equally share them with their kids.


Children Ages 3-6 years:
1. Stirring and Mixing
2. Rolling
3. Washing - vegetables and fruits.
4. Shred lettuce for a salad - tearing large and small pieces
5. Add ingredients to the recipe

Teaching opportunities – motor skills, cleanliness, order and organization, instructions, reading, sizes


Children Ages 6-8 years:
1. Set the table - this is a great way to show organization
2. Use child safe knife to cut soft foods
3. Beating ingredients
4. Fill and measure
5. Prepare simple meals

Teaching opportunities – motor skills, accuracy, math, instructions, sizes, handling knifes, sense of accomplishment


Children Ages 8- 10 years:
1. Prepare recipes
2. Use kitchen appliances
3. Measuring and estimating ingredients

The cooking opportunities grows as the child grows


Children Ages 10-12 years:
1. Prepare more complicated recipes independently
2. Use kitchen appliances such as an oven, microwave, knifes etc
3. Figure out recipes, maybe even create own ones


Children Ages 13-16 years:
1. Prepare recipes with multiple ingredients - helps child organize kitchen skills
2. Prepare recipes independently with little supervision - mastering these skills builds self-esteem and builds trust

Cooking with kids has immense rewards! I believe the best memories center around food. Food is the secret weapon to happiness and calmness and togetherness. And the potential satisfaction to our children and for us to be able to be with them.


Happy Cooking and Teaching!

My Nine Year Old Made Dinner!

My nine year old boy made dinner today! He did not touch the stove. He called it "Vegetable Curry With Treats".

My little boy said that he will make dinner. My boy tends to use vegetables and meat from the fridge, mix them together with water. And finishes with the sauces available.

This time he used some cauliflower, lettuce, cabbage and spinach.

"Vegetable Curry With Treats"

He some some curry powder and pepper and had some ketchcup on the side.He added some bread as a side dish.

We did not eat it of course! But if you think about it - he provided his veges with flavour and there is nothing wrong with raw veges.

Happy Cooking and Teaching!

Why take the trouble To Teach Kids While Cooking

The ability to cook is a great asset for our kids. Hear the phrase 'Give a child a fish, he eats for a day, Teach your Child to Fish, he eats forever. In this case, teach your child to cook, he will never go hungry and at the same time helps them eat healthy.

Children are so "teachable" and there exists opportunity for strengthening food-related life skills. And with it they take care of their own nutrition. Cooking gives children a boost of confidence, exposure to new and/or healthful foods, and often provide the curiosity and motivation needed to continue cooking. Cooking also promotes togetherness between parents and their children - cooking creates bonds and memories that cannot be taken away. It makes the trouble all so worth it.

Cooking with Kids is a wonderful strategy to help children with so many things. Helping them with school lessons, teaching them to be self reliant and the most beautiful part of it, mum/dad and kids create special moments. Cooking a meal does not become a chore but an activity that becomes incredibly fulfilling experience.

Happy Cooking!

Please tell me what you think. Look forward to your views and experiences.

Cooking with Children: 15 Lessons for Children, Age 7 and Up, Who Really Want to Learn to Cook

slI found a fantastic book on Amazon.com, on Cooking with Children It is written by Marion Cunningham who is probably best known for her work on the Fannie Farmer books. In Cooking with Children she shares her experience on teaching both children and parents the basic skills for the kitchen.

The book is really for children age seven and older, the books is designed partly to instruct and partly to provide an opportunity for parents and children to share in preparing and eating meals--an element of family life that is quickly vanishing in this age of busy schedules and microwave meals consumed on the run.

Cunningham bases her book on her experiences teaching youngsters both privately and in community center programs. What she learned about a child's capabilities, likes, and dislikes has been distilled into 15 basic lessons, all centered around a particular recipe. The first chapter, for example, entitled "Vegetable Soup," teaches how to peel and chop vegetables, how to sauté, how to be organized in the kitchen, and the difference between boiling and simmering. Chapter 6, "Pancakes and Popovers," teaches how to mix a batter, test the heat of a skillet, grease baking cups, and more. The instructions for each recipe are clear, detailed, and easy to follow. The recipes are easy enough for older children to follow on their own. Cooking with Children is a terrific introduction to the culinary arts for kids--and makes a pretty nice refresher course for adults as well.

There are 35 favorite recipes, from vegetable soup to a birthday cake in color.

I like the the book because it is easy to follow and we can get our kids to read it. It provides great guidance in the kitchen and to prepare nice and delicious meals. And it keeps it simple. And the book is not very expensive - it used one is going for less than US3.00. A new one about US16 but i think you can get it at USD6 or USD7 if you buy within a certain time period. A few of our friends bought the book and they really loved it and asked me to get it. I got one for myself rather than borrowing. And books you gonna use in the kitchen will definately get stains and drips of this and that. Best to get one of your own which you can keep and refer all the time.

Have a look. Click on the picture or any of the the links
on the article.

I hope you will let me know what you think.

Useful Resources on Kids and Cooking

Dear Parents, I hope you have been enjoying reading experience this blogs on applying cooking to teach our kids.

If you would have noticed, for a lot of the articles, I set out links to information that could be useful to you if not directly, indirectly in your dealing with your kids and the whole cooking experience. Being an accountant, I have also included some elements of finance. Its for your convenience and I thought that a lot of these material, are an excellent choice and provides value for money.

For this entry, i thought to provide some easy reference information and material that could be useful in teaching kids and cooking. The internet is a huge place and there’s just everything of everything everywhere. And sometimes, we just want something simple. How to get the kids to eat or even trying to figure out what to Ccok.

Some of the books and resources are from Amazon and a lot of others from various places, which I thought are quite good.

365 Foods Kids Love to Eat The bestselling guide to happy, healthy mealtimes with kids. 365 Foods Kids Love to EatHere is-the cookbook with carefully chosen, great tasting, good that appeals to the whole family, especially the kids! Encourage healthy attitudes toward food and lifelong, wholesome eating habits with 365 Foods Kids Love to Eat! Perfect for busy parents.

Kid Approved Meals! 13 Weeks Of Breakfast & Lunch Menus That Are Kid-Tested & Mom Approved, With Categorized Grocery Shopping Lists Accompanying Each Menu. Perfect For Homeschool Families, Stay At Home Moms, And Daycare Providers













This site http://astore.amazon.com/http1teachinb-20
has some great books and ideas in one page. The prices are also reasonable and constantly with ideal promotions. The books are about recipes but what is more interesting is that there are selected books about cooking and kids.

I do hope enjoy these resources. Do let me know if there are other useful resources for other mums and dads. Glad to post it on the blog

Mummy, Do Cookies Grow on Trees?

My younger boy, who is five, watched Tiger and Pooh some days ago. The episode was very entertaining and had the usual learning ideas that children should take away.

I can’t remember the exact details now, but Tiger found chocolate cookies ‘growing’ on an oak tree in the 100 acre wood and so everyone thought that the best way to have more cookies was to take one from that tree and plant it. And after some time, everybody should get their very own chocolate cookie tree!


Yesterday, as I was sending my son to school, he asked about cookies and how wonderful if he could have a chocolate cookie tree. He loves chocolate and suggested planting a cookie tree!

This gave me an idea that he should learn where cookies come from. It was about time I showed him and maybe along the way, he’ll learn a thing or two.

Here’s what I did:

1. Look for a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe

2. Next build a shopping list and go shopping for the ingredients

3. Start baking

4. While baking I showed my little one where flour comes from and salt and sugar and chocolate. If possible you either have your computer and the internet handy or prepare pictures beforehand. For older children (6 and above), slip in where the ingredients come from and how it gets here

This will take a bit of effort, a little homework on our part and also because he is not going to believe you immediately when you say that flour comes from wheat and sugar comes from sugar cane and so on.


Here’s a simple family recipe for chocolate chip cookies (I try to keep the recipes simple if the agenda is to teach my kids during that cooking time):

Shopping List

1 3/4 cups flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 3/4 cups unsalted butter or margarine, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 1/2cups chocolate chips (or more if you like) and of course one last ingredient which you can’t get from the store is lots of hugs and kisses.

You should get about 30 cookies from this recipe.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F



Place the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a large bowl and beat until combined. Add egg and vanilla to the butter mixture and beat. In a smaller bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture little at a time. (during this time, chat your kids). Get your kids to stir in the chocolate chips. Mold the cookies onto the cooking sheet. Let your kids enjoy this with their little hands – it will be their creation. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes 10. And of course, great time to tidy up and for kids to understand this part too and sharing the responsibility.

Teaching Kids Where Cookies Come From while Cooking is the Best Way to Teach Kids, Dont you think? And you get to eat your product too!

Experience Cooking with Kids - Memories Your Children will carry forever

I found through my kids that cooking is a great advantage and a powerful tool. Through cooking and being in the kitchen, they have gained confidence, developed language skills and their imagination.

These are pictures of a menu that my son came up with. He used ordinary stuff he found around the house – pictures of food from books and magazines and toy food and play money. He glued them to a note pad he found lying around and he presented it as his menu with vegetables, meat and fruit and the prices to go with it.

Over time, he also wrote a cookbook (with me to help). He decorated it himself and we wrote down the recipes – some were ours and some were from books. He was extremely proud of the cookbook because it was his creation and we were always referring to it to cook. We are slowly building on the cookbook with family recipes and recipes we pick up as we go along.

These are simple activities but fun and the children learn a lot;
- Have your kids work together to write a cookbookand let them decorate it as they like – use things from around the house – colored paper, perhaps a hard cover for the cover of the book, pencil colors and other stationery. They could also paste dried leaves, spices and other things from the kitchen. Don’t forget teaching also happens when they label them.

- Help your kids write a menu – have them decorate it. Let them have a go at what to serve – appetizers, main meal, and drinks and so on.

- Always also have a note book handy to copy recipes which you and your kids can later transfer to the family’s cookbook

These activities teach children:

(i) Language skills – Understanding, Reading and Writing

Children are exposed to vocabulary – the younger ones learn words. Flash cards are fine but it is nothing like showing them the real thing. Pictures tell a thousand words and it sticks. Example – What is this? This is butter.

Bigger children learn to put together words – make them read recipes and the instructions and at the same time start a recipe book. Allow them to be free with their imagination.

(ii) Help children understand the importance of instructions

Cooking is really about following directions. A step by step method allows children to understand the importance of following instructions and you can show them the implications/dangers/consequence of not following directions.

If you are cooking with more than 1 child – assign them tasks and accountabilities and at the same time encourage them to work together. Cooking is a great opportunity to reinforce. - Concepts like “sharing,” “cooperation,” and “taking turns.” which also prepares them for life.

(iii) Grow the kids confidence
One of the greatest gifts that a parent can give to their children is to instill confidence in them. Cooking is a wonderful tool. There is no need to spend money on courses and seminars and such. Allowing children to start and complete tasks and giving them responsibility builds their self esteem. Cooking is especially wonderful for shy or timid children - the whole cooking process and what goes into is real confidence booster.

Remind yourself of your objectives. Children will make mistakes and a mess, especially the first few times. Allow them – the cooking experience must be positive, fun and relaxed. Help them clean up. Turn everything they do into a learning experience. And if you are too tired to teach them or not in the mood– that’s ok too because your children are having fun WITH YOU. This experience will become memories which they will carry forever.

Cook for Favourite Dishes From Famous Restaurants Right in Your Own KItchen

Thinking what to cook next – what would entice my kids to eat and to cook with me. Something different, something that you have enjoyed when eating out at your favorite restaurants.

This will definitely get your kids excited! Happy kids are easier to teach. I found this delightful book on preparing

» Red Lobster
» Applebee's
» Chili's
» Olive Garden
» T.G.I. Fridays
» Outback Steakhouse
» Starbucks

This book helps you learn to cook these famous recipes while teaching kids all sorts of things from math to where food comes from and why eating raw is better for some food and not for others.

Click Here To Find Out More about the CopyCatCookBook!

Cook the same recipes from your favorite restaurants for friends and family and have them convinced that you've ordered in. They simply will not believe that you've learned the secret, guarded recipes from the best restaurants! And guess what, you kids will never be prouder. Cooking Tip: Don’t take an ounce of credit. – give them all to your kids. They will be eating out of your hand at the next lesson.

This book has 332 recipes and comes with some freebies and money back guarantee.