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10 Reasons to Cook With Kids (and Ideas for What to Cook Too!)

This post is sponsored by Nuffnang.

There’s no doubt that cooking with kids takes more time and organisation than cooking alone but when we consider the benefits to their development and learning, it makes the extra effort feel all the more worthwhile.

10 Reasons to Cook With Kids

1.  Literacy
Cooking experiences provide a natural way for children to learn new vocabulary – as you talk together about the ingredients you are using, cooking processes and changes observed, they are being introduced to new words and their meanings. Reading the recipe aloud to your child and referring back to it as you cook teaches your child about one of the important purposes of literacy – to provide instruction or information.

2.    Food knowledge
Cooking together provides a wonderful opportunity to talk informally with your child about types and origins of food, food production and nutrition. Being involved in food preparation, talking about and handling food can also be wonderful for encouraging a child to be more adventurous when it comes to trying new foods.

3.    Brain development
Sensory experiences are wonderful for brain development and cooking with your child engages all of their senses – seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and (most fabulously) tasting!

4.    Motor skills
Stirring, whisking, chopping, peeling, beating, kneading, tenderising – all of these cooking processes provide the opportunity to develop physical skills – both fine (fingers, hands and co-ordination) and gross (arm and body) motor skills.

5.    Mathematical concepts
Cooking experiences provide a hands-on, contextual way to introduce mathematical concepts to children and being actively involved within a meaningful context is important when it comes to early learning. Especially with abstract concepts such as those related to measurement, number and sequencing.

6.    Self esteem
Children feel a real sense of achievement when they have the opportunity to serve food they have helped to prepare to family and friends. Immy recently helped make a birthday cake for my Dad and she was so excited to take it to his house to surprise him.

7.    Family traditions
Food plays an important part in a family’s unique culture. For most families, food plays an important role in both every day life and special celebrations, and it is the joy and sense of belonging that stems from the repetition of these traditions that stays with children into adulthood.

8.    Developing life skills
I have heard of children as young as seven who regularly cook a simple meal for their family! Cooking is such a useful life skill and involving them in the kitchen regularly from a young age is a big step towards developing future independence.

9.    Keeping communication open
Making a regular date to work side by side in the kitchen with your child is one way of maintaining regular time to talk together. This time has the potential to become more and more important as they grow and develop, and as the pressures and influences of schooling, peers and life in general become more prominent in their lives.

10.    It’s fun!
Need I say more 🙂

As a domestic disaster, even though I know how good cooking is for children and their development, I do struggle with finding recipes to cook with Immy, and especially to cook for our family as a whole. You would probably not be surprised how often we eat spaghetti bolognaise! I often sit down with our menu plan for the fortnight and think ‘what are we going to have this time?’, and thanks to both a lack of time and energy, I regularly fall back on the old familiars. So when I was asked to review the new Coles for Kids recipe section of their website, I was interested to see what ideas were on offer.

The Cooking for Kids area includes sections with recipe ideas for babies, toddlers, school lunches and party foods and offers a great range of recipes that appear simple to prepare, nutritious and child friendly, and we test drove one savoury and one sweet recipe – the Chickpea Patties and Homemade Muesli Bars.

Easy chickpea patties recipe

Immy is a patty kind of kid, in fact she is mad for tuna patties so I thought the Chickpea patties were a good one to try (plus I always like to find recipes that include legumes as they are so good for you). These patties are easy to make and it would be easy to substitute the vegetables out for others that your children prefer. If I was to make them again, I would probably use grated carrot instead of peas because I find mashed up green foods to be more than a little off putting to small children. If your children aren’t used to eating chickpeas, it could be a good idea to add seasoning or a little more cheese as chickpeas can be bland – also if I was going to serve them for adults, I would serve with a dipping sauce.

Easy muesli slice recipe

I have tried a few homemade muesli bar recipes in the past without much success. This one is way too more-ish! It is an easy recipe to involve children with, Immy could help with many of the processes, including measuring, stirring, pouring, pressing and spreading. The only thing I would change in the future is to add more chocolate (as shown on the website)!

What are your top 3 foods to cook with kids at home?

Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.

Filed Under: Cooking with Kids, Family Friendly Recipes, Sponsors Tagged With: cooking with kids

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Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. frog goose & bear (emma) says

    September 2, 2011 at 12:58 PM

    The kids are often in the kitchen helping me prepare dinner. Takes muuuuuuch longer, but it is great for them to be involved for so many reasons as you've mentioned above! The kids are most enthusiastic when helping with mufins or cakes... I think it has something to do with licking the beaters..... Those muesli bars look yum.
    • Christie Burnett says

      September 4, 2011 at 9:31 AM

      They are dangerously yum, Emma :) Immy loves to lick the beaters too!
  2. Bronnie says

    September 2, 2011 at 1:12 PM

    We love cooking at our house. Kids usually help I'm doing spaghetti bolognaise, lasagne, stir-fry whatever. Mr 10 loves to cook chicken kievs - fries them first then finishes in the oven, while Miss 8 and I do the veggies. He's also great at doing scrambled eggs and omelettes all on his own (though I still supervise).
    • Christie Burnett says

      September 4, 2011 at 9:32 AM

      I love that your son does so much himself :)
  3. Alissa says

    September 2, 2011 at 1:12 PM

    Top 3 things to cook - 1 scones, 2 biscuits, 3 pizza. All reasonably quick, easy and tasty.
    • Christie Burnett says

      September 4, 2011 at 9:32 AM

      Pizza is regularly on the weekend lunch menu here :)
  4. Laura says

    September 2, 2011 at 1:15 PM

    We love to do cookies. We take turns pouring and and measuring and turning on the blender. It is great for the kids to learn that lesson as well (sharing and waiting turns.) Plus I think when they help they tend to want to try more foods too.
    • Christie Burnett says

      September 4, 2011 at 9:33 AM

      I agree Laura, when they are involved in the preparation they are more willing to try new things.
  5. Alex says

    September 2, 2011 at 1:29 PM

    Thank you AGAIN! I have tried a similar muslie bar recipe, off to try this one now!
    • Christie Burnett says

      September 4, 2011 at 9:33 AM

      It is very more-ish :)
  6. Sarah @ Real Family Eats says

    September 2, 2011 at 1:54 PM

    This is a really great list Christie. Cooking is such a great activity to do with kids :) Not sure if it is a top 3 but I always found baking to be great with kids. Things like scones, muffins, biscuits and cupcakes are good fun with kids. Lots of measuring, pouring, mixing, rolling and even a bit of Kitchen Aid action. Now who doesn't love to lick the beaters....?
    • Christie Burnett says

      September 4, 2011 at 9:34 AM

      Licking the beaters epitomizes 'childhood' in so many ways :)
  7. Rhi says

    September 2, 2011 at 5:51 PM

    The things my daughter loves to cook the most are cookie cutter biscuits, cakes and slices...or anything with icing! The things she more often helps me with in the kitchen at dinner time are cutting mushrooms, peeling carrots, whisking eggs, and making homemade pizzas. We do heaps of cooking together, and we love it. True, it's slower, but i'd rather spend one happy hour cooking dinner, than have to rush around multi-tasking cooking and entertaining! :)
  8. Jennifer says

    September 2, 2011 at 7:47 PM

    Always in the kitchen! It's a mess and I love it.
  9. Jo @countrylifeexperiment says

    September 2, 2011 at 7:59 PM

    We do a lot of cooking with our kids. We really enjoy doing pizza (kneading the dough is great fun) and fresh pasta. Any cake or biscuit is always popular. I teach High School students Food technology, and I really think that it is important to spend time cooking with kids when they are young, because all the reasons you listed form the basis of success in High school and beyond. My experience is that those students who reguarly and confidently cook are more engaged with their families and school than those who are not (although this is not a very scientific study).
    • Christie Burnett says

      September 4, 2011 at 9:35 AM

      That is such an interesting observation, Jo, thank you for sharing.
  10. Annamari @MommyPlaysEnglish says

    September 3, 2011 at 1:44 AM

    I'd add another reason: I cook with my kids to practice English. (Our mother tongue is Hungarian.) Cooking is a good opportunity for children to acquire a language through all their senses, and so it provides an ideal and fun environment. :)
    • Christie Burnett says

      September 4, 2011 at 9:35 AM

      That is so true, Annamari, thank you.
  11. Sonia says

    September 3, 2011 at 6:17 AM

    Great post. It's funny how you mentioned the muesli bars. I've tried many times also without success so I will definitely be trying your suggestion. I often involve the kids in cooking. We make muffins weekly. I use a base recipe and then add the variations - pear and walnut, apple and cinnamon, choc chip, raspberry... The bonus is that if when we use pastry, they get to play with the leftover uncooked pastry just like playdough. My kids definitely appreciate the meal more when they're involved. They understand the effort and love that goes into it and are more willing to try new foods. They're focus is more about flavour rather than the individual ingredients that may not seem appealing to them.
    • Christie Burnett says

      September 4, 2011 at 9:36 AM

      I think a thicker layer of chocolate would make them easier to cut (with a knife dipped in hot water). These were so delicious.
  12. Annette says

    September 3, 2011 at 7:15 AM

    I love when my kids want to help in the kitchen. Since my daughter was very small one of her favorite games was smelling spices. Now, at 4yrs, she can name quite a few of them by sight or smell.
    • Christie Burnett says

      September 4, 2011 at 9:37 AM

      What a great idea, Annette. I must start encouraging Immy to smell the spices :)
  13. Cheryl says

    September 3, 2011 at 10:12 PM

    I love reading a story and then making a food. Green Eggs and Ham. Yes, kids love green eggs. If You Give aMoose a Muffin. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie./Users/Gish/Desktop/133377162_X7Puv7wE_b.jpg Gingerbread Man. Monkey Stories followed by a Monkey cupcake./Users/Gish/Desktop/100630953_mV8yteNm_b.jpg /Users/Gish/Desktop/126175760_MQm0OYFb_b.jpg
  14. Petrina says

    September 4, 2011 at 1:28 PM

    2yo SP will almost always join me in the kitchen when I'm cooking. As many others have said, takes time but lots of fun! My favourite recent idea is to plan to sweep and mop the floor straight after our weekly baking session. I'm so much more relaxed about the mess when doing the floors was my next task anyway.
  15. Rene says

    September 6, 2011 at 7:18 PM

    I started cooking projects with my son at 18 months old. (He is now 27 months.) We make something together at least twice a week. He really enjoys it. Most recipes do include a batter so he can help the most. We make pancakes, fritters, cookies, cupcakes, oatmeal bars etc.... All very healthy versions. I pretty much put vegetables in everything! He will also help prepare his oatmeal or other hot cereal after I cook it. We've also begun working on him spreading cream cheese, butter or nut butter on toast or a bagel. He loves cooking. A GREAT site for kid friendly recipes is Weelious: http://weelicious.com/ Catherine McCord has really easy, healthy and tasty recipes. I have been making my son things off of her site since he was one years old.
  16. Laney @ Crash Test Mummy says

    September 7, 2011 at 6:11 PM

    CrashGirl is 3.5 and is a little foodie already. When she was a baby CrashHubby used to take her with him to check is herbs each morning and smell them all. Her favourite is to help Daddy make his famous weekend pancakes. She can crack eggs like a pro!
  17. John says

    October 31, 2017 at 4:12 PM

    Thank you author for throwing light on such as interesting topic. We at www.hapclap.com believe that children should be engaged in cooking activities at an early age so that they can develop the above mentioned features in their character.

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    [...] also helps introduce them to different foods that they may have been apprehensive to try before. Childhood 101 states that children who learn to cook will benefit just as much from the creation of a family [...]
  3. Subject Analysis | LIS 653-03 Knowledge Organization says:
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