Let's face it, cooking with your kids is a real experience!
We can expect the kitchen to get a little dirtier and the clothes to be thrown in the washing machine instantly... but apart from these little mishaps, involving our children in the kitchen is an idea that only reserves a lot of pleasant surprises!
Cooking with your children is a creative way to enjoy quality family time. Preparing recipes helps to relax because it engages the mind. Furthermore, it gives us satisfaction because we are cooking for the loved ones. Sharing with the people we love the preparation of recipes is a real nourishment for our emotional well-being.
You can start involving children in the kitchen from the age of 2. At the beginning, to stimulate their participation, it is important to prepare a special recipe such as a cake, meatballs, cookies or croissants. Especially in the early days, it is essential to stimulate their curiosity and their desire to "venture" into something new.
First of all, prepare a shopping list together. During the preparation it is essential to encourage your child and gratify him as he performs the various operations, saying how useful his help is.
Why is it good to teach children to cook?
THEY DEVELOP MENTAL SKILLS
In the kitchen, children have the opportunity to develop some mental skills related to mathematics, physics and chemistry as well as reading and comprehension: they read and follow the recipes' steps, measure and weigh the different ingredients, observe the processes related to every single recipe from the start to the final stages and all the evolutions and changes that food experiences before it is ready to be eaten.
THEY DEVELOP PHYSICAL SKILLS
Thanks to the different activities necessary to complete a recipe, the children improve their movement and coordination skills.
THEY LEARN TO BE PATIENT
Activities in the kitchen have their own timing and cannot be sped up, you can't skip steps or shorten cooking times.
Sure, you can try to do it and experiment, but it is highly likely that the end result will not be as good, desirable and tasty as it should have been!
THEY IMPROVES SELF-ESTEEM
In the kitchen, children have the opportunity to see the result of their efforts and commitment in a short time and this helps them to have greater confidence in themselves and their abilities.
THEY LEARN TO BE CAREFUL AND THRIFTY
Involving children in kitchen activities, such as shopping for groceries and choosing the best ingredients for recipes, teaches them the value of money and that cooking with fresh products is healthier and less expensive than buying packaged or precooked food.
THEY LEARN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HEALTHY AND WHAT IS NOT
By learning to cook with fresh ingredients, children are able to understand what is good for them to eat and what is not, which ingredients are better for the body than others.
Growing up they learn to read the labels on food, in short, they learn to take care of themselves, their health and their body!
