Top Ten Benefits of Cooking with Kids

5/24/2022

So, sometimes parents ask us "What's with all the cooking? Is it really helping my kid learn?" To which we answer a happy hearty "YES!".

Early Childhood Education experts agree that cooking with children has innumerous benefits from laying the foundation for basic math concepts to supporting healthy eating habits.

"We believe that children learn best through play and when they are able to fully engage all of their senses.

The textures, smells, and tastes from the various ingredients provide an unmatched organic experience with an ability to enthrall, entice, and spur a sense of wonder in the children’s eyes. As educators, we foster each child’s independence and encourage the exploration of culinary creations, igniting a sense of accomplishment which provides an insatiable desire to push boundaries while we work together to create tantalizing results."

NAEYC National Association for Education of Young Children

Here are our top 10 benefits of cooking with kids!

1. Healthy Food Choices

Children look to adults to see what a “good” food is. Often times children are more likely to eat food they have prepared, even if it is something they may not taste otherwise.

Exploring Pomegranates

Modeling healthy food choices in cooking and preparing meals helps children build a healthy attitude toward eating and food that will continue on into their adulthood.

"One of the greatest benefits to cooking with children is helping them develop an adventurous and diverse taste palette. Children are more likely to try different ingredients and foods if they experience them at an early age."
-NAEYC

"When children prepare food that they eat, they naturally develop their own sense of good nutrition.
- American Dietetic Association, 2011

"It's hard to come into a new relationship with food unless you're engaged in an interactive way at an early age; it's hard to change your values."
- Alice Waters of The Edible Schoolyard

2. Cooking Encourages Creativity

You can incorporate the appreciation of cooking as an art by calling attention to colors, textures, and patterns while allowing children to make decisions, add extra features, and do as much of the work as possible.
(Early Childhood News)

"Cookery... is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements."
- Marcel Boulestin

3. Brain Development

Sensory experiences are wonderful for brain development and cooking with children engages all of their senses – seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting!
(Childhood 101)

Banana Coconut Muffins

Cooking inspires children’s curiosity, thinking, and problem solving, offering new opportunities to make predictions and observations. As they follow a recipe, children organize ingredients, follow a sequence, and carry out multiple directions.

Cooking offers authentic opportunities for students to understand and apply their knowledge of measuring, one-to-one correspondence, numbers, and counting.

Children’s brain development is nurtured as they encounter new foods, solve problems, process language required to understand and follow directions, and stretch their imaginations.
(Growing Minds)

4. Motor Skills

Stirring, whisking, chopping, peeling, beating, kneading... 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. Understanding Time

Time is a challenging concept for little ones to grasp, but each time they experience setting a timer and waiting for it to alert them when the food is done cooking helps to form an understanding of something very abstract.

6. 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.

Shape Kabobs with Cucumber Circles, Carrot Triangles, and Apple Squares

While cooking, children synthesize logico-mathematical knowledge as they notice shapes, combine ingredients, observe changes in the texture and color of the mixture, and chart their preferences.
(Guidelines for Preschool Learning Experiences)

7. Language Development

Cooking experiences provide a natural way for children to learn new vocabulary – as we talk together about the ingredients we are using, cooking processes and changes observed, they are being introduced to new words and their meanings.

8. Self Esteem

"Hands-on cooking activities help children develop pride and confidence in their skills and abilities as well as encouraging self-direction and independence."
- Creative Enrichment - Stimulating Young Minds

"Children who cook say "I can" not "I can't".
- NY Times

9. Science Concepts

"Cooking activities connect to three important content areas in science: life science, physics, and chemistry.

The ingredients in recipes come from plants and animals. Children begin to understand the connection between their own lives and the plants and animals that help meet their needs.

Experimenting with simple machines, tools, and actions and their effect on objects connects cooking activities to physics.

As children combine liquid and dry ingredients, they can immediately see a change in materials. The addition of heat and cold also causes changes in materials that children can observe. For children cooking is beginning chemistry."

- Teaching STEM in the Early Years by Sally Moomaw

Making butter by shaking cream in a jar with a marble

Shake the cream until you can't hear the marble anymore

"Science curriculum can be effective through the engaging medium of cooking, and lend to positive life skills in health and nutrition."
(Harvard University)

"It's magic!"

10. Social Emotional Development

Food is a great vehicle for communication. Children learn to share, how to take turns, and to enjoy eating together. Cooking promotes social knowledge as kids learn healthy practices for hygiene and dining, explore cultural traditions regarding the creation of certain foods, and follow safety precautions during preparation and cooking.

Making Chocolate Together

Bonus: Cooking is Fun!

We offer all kinds of activities at the Children's Garden but cooking is the one activity that every kid comes running to the table, eager, curious, and ready to learn. Stay tuned for our new cookbook 'Kids Love to Cook!'.

Applesauce Muffins

We were inspired to make this Pecan Persimmon Pie with locally grown persimmons from Lauren Hubele's blog. Lauren is our alternative health care practitioner and our family has been flu and allergy free all season with gemmotherapy!

To make the crust, we collected pecans from the huge pecan tree in our front yard.

Uncle Bear removed a small branch for us so we could see how the pecans attached to the tree.

The kids adored using this nutcracker. It's so easy and effective!

They carefully shelled the pecans and delicately removed the pits from the dates.

We combined 2 cups pecans, 3 large pitted dates, 2 TBS coconut oil, and a pinch of salt in the vitamix and blended until smooth.

We oiled the pie plate and carefully pressed our crust into a pie shape.

Bake the crust at 350 for 15 minutes and let cool before filling.

To make the persimmon filling - be sure the persimmons are very ripe and soft to the touch or the flavor will be too astringent. We used Fuyu persimmons.

Scoop out the flesh of 4 persimmons.

Prepare fresh ginger juice by grating an inch knob of ginger and pressing out the juice from the pulp with your hands. Discard the pulp after pressing. The kids loved using this Asian box grater and enjoyed the zingy scent of the ginger.

Combine the Fuyu persimmon puree with:
½ cup coconut milk
¼ cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon ginger juice