Simple Cooking Activities to Do at Home with Your Children

The kitchen can be a fascinating place for young kids. It isn't always convenient to invite them into the kitchen to help, but consider doing so when time allows. Choose time when your kid is well-rested and not easily frustrated. For younger kids, consider starting with simple dishes with fewer than five ingredients. Then your child won't have to wait it out while you tackle a complicated step. A tossed salad or an easy muffin recipe can be great to start with. Younger kids can watch what you're doing and help out with small tasks, like stirring something, passing the ingredients while you mix them together or even helping you to set up the table. Older kids can be taught how to crack eggs or measure ingredients. This is a great opportunity to share some quality time together, talk about healthy ingredients, and finally enjoy what you prepared together. Here are just a few things that your budding masterchef is learning by helping you cook:

• Making Healthy Choices - Getting children involved with meal preparation creates a better understanding of healthy ingredients and nutrition.
• Cooking Inspires Creativity - While creating his culinary masterpiece, your child is exploring sweet, salty and sour flavors, discovering a world of colors, textures, and aromas and creating a symphony of sound.  Cooking also helps introduce your child to new cultures and traditions.
• Learning about basic math, science and language skills - As kids learn to crack eggs and stir sauce, they also gain new science, language and math skills.
• Exploring their Senses- If you are making muffins for example your child can listen to the whir of a mixer, mix the dough, smell it while baking in the oven and finally taste the warm muffins fresh from the oven.
• Learning about the Responsibility- From following a recipe and learning how to safely handle kitchen equipment to cleaning up spills and putting things away, helping in the kitchen provides great opportunities for children to learn responsibility.

Here you can find some fun things to make with your kids, tips on how to make it safe, and much more. Bon appetit!

https://mommyuniversitynj.com/2015/03/16/10-benefits-of-cooking-with-kids/

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