The Benefits Of Cooking With A Child

Parents are the child’s most important role models, and it is common for a child to imitate them in any matter. For example, children love to play at home, but what if instead of playing, the parents would take the child into preparing family meals, for example? Not only is cooking together fun, it also benefits a child’s development.

The benefits of cooking with a child

Switching from a play kitchen to the right kitchen and cooking together is a good idea as it teaches your child many of the skills needed in everyday life in a fun and playful way.

Communication and language skills

When a child and parent cook together and follow a recipe, effective communication plays an important role. Both need to be aware of the different stages of cooking as well as the kitchen utensils and food needed. Cooking helps the child to absorb new words as well as improve conversation skills. In addition, the child learns active listening and reasoning.

In addition to this, a parent who is fluent in foreign languages ​​can teach the child how to pronounce foreign words related to cooking.

Healthy eating habits

When a child is involved in cooking, he or she is better encouraged to taste new foods and create positive associations with them. It is more likely that the child will follow a balanced and varied diet by eating e.g. fruits, vegetables and dairy products.

Reading and math skills

In order for recipes to be understood, the child must be able to read and understand what he or she has read. Thus, cooking also helps to improve a child’s reading comprehension. In order to make food, you also need to understand some mathematical basics of calculating food quantities as well as measuring raw materials.

Observation skills

Experimenting with new dishes helps the child learn about new foods as well as taste new flavors, colors, and compositions. In addition, the child learns to distinguish between different foods, compositions and flavors.

Psychomotor skills

Learning to cook also benefits the child physically, as cooking involves handling different foods with different kitchen utensils. This has a positive effect on the development of fine motor and coarse motor skills as well as eye-hand coordination.

Social-emotional skills

When the whole family puts food together, the child learns that collaboration is important to make it possible to achieve a common goal. 

When the child is happy with the outcome, the child begins to believe in their own abilities. In addition, the child gains more self-confidence as well as builds confidence in other people. This allows the child to grow both socially and emotionally.

Personal autonomy

Even if you cook with the whole family, it is still important that each family member has their own role in cooking. Initially, the child learns to do his or her own tasks in a supervised manner, but with assistance and over time, the child becomes familiar with the kitchen and begins to do cooking-related tasks independently and autonomously.

So what are you waiting for? Cooking with a child is both fun and instructive! We therefore recommend trying easy and simple recipes, and making food with the whole family!