By Lauren Sands, M.Ed.
The holiday season is abundant with cooking large, festive meals and decorative cookies. This year, consider inviting the children in your life to help you in the kitchen.
Here are 5 reasons cooking can benefit your child(ren).
1. Cooking with your kids has mental health benefits.
The kitchen is a great place to work together as a family, building a stronger relationship between you and your child. It is also a great place to learn independently, finding confidence and improved self-esteem while learning a new skill that is fun and strictly for dopamine. It is also a way to be creative, learning that they can add their own unique twist to a traditional recipe or a recipe that they have found on their own. There is research that suggests creative tasks and projects can lead to people feeling happier and more satisfied in their day- to- day life (Conner, DeYoung, & Silvia, 2016).
2. Cooking can help your kiddo develop fine motor skills.
If you’re cooking, I’m pretty confident that you’re going to open a container. Whether you are opening a ziplock bag, a bag of vegetables, or unscrewing a lid, you’re opening SOMETHING. Let your kiddo help you. You can also have your kid(s):
Use a ladle, serving spoon, or tongs
Chop something up with a safe, age-appropriate utensil
Spread toppings or condiments
Squeeze condiments
Sprinkle Spices
Cooking also helps promote bilateral hand coordination (using two hands together), wrist extension (helps fingers manipulate an object without the wrist moving), and gross grasp strength (i.e., squeezing your fingers shut around an object).
3. Cooking can be a sensory experience.
Cooking can promote sensory integration - which is directly linked to self-regulation, self-control, motor skills, and higher cognitive functions, like attention and memory.
So how does cooking help with our senses?
It’s pretty obvious that we use our senses when we cook. We smell the foods to see if they’re ripe and we breathe in the fragrance of flavors melting together. We hear food sizzle on the pan, the rustling of aluminum foil, water boiling, silverware colliding, and the beeping of timers. We feel the slimy inside of a ripe avocado, the dew of freshly washed berries, and the bumpy, smooth rind of an orange. In theory, if your kid is an active participant, your kiddo is working towards being a more efficient organizer of their sensory inputs by simply cooking.
Working on tasks that activate our senses can help kiddos improve the way their brain processes complex sensory information, helping improve emotional regulation, improved personal-social skills, and even improvement in verbal communication. Sensory experiences can also help
strengthen:
Self-esteem
Hand preference
Attention
Muscle tone
Bilateral Coordination
Force, or grading of movement
Visual Discrimination
Motor Planning
Really, the list goes on and on!
4. Cooking has educational benefits.
From converting units of measurement and adding, subtracting, dividing, and/or multiplying fractions, math is definitely a strong subject to pair with cooking. Cooking also requires kids to follow explicit instructions (baking) and follow step-by-step instructions. There are also many resources that explain the chemistry behind cooking (did you know that yeast is REALLY interesting?). Incorporate science by placing the ends of green onions in water; watch the roots and vegetable grow. Hypothesize which would be more successful: green onions in water or green onions in milk?
Cooking can teach kids about healthy eating habits and nutrition, financial literacy/budgeting, planning a shopping list with a recipe, how to navigate the grocery store, and how to get to the grocery store (how to read a map). There are so many educational benefits in the kitchen, I don’t think I can even begin to list them all!
5. Cooking can strengthen relationships & build community.
Cooking with kids can create positive bonding experiences. It also makes us put aside quality time together during our busy and demanding lifestyles. You’re also doing something that benefits the whole family - a plus if you are eating your meals together.
Food is also meant to be shared. You can take a small treat to a friend or invite friends to cook with you. We were recently gifted Christmas Puppy Chow from our 3-year-old bestie, Leo. It made my girls’ day and made Leo smile SO BIG when we all tried a handful and thanked him for his yummy treat.
Sharing food with friends and neighbors is already a great way to promote community and healthy relationships. Make it more meaningful by inviting your kids to cook with you- watch your kids light up when they see how their food and hard work brought people together.
It doesn’t need to be fancy, complicated, or messy!
Having your kids actively participate in cooking can provide so many positive experiences and cognitive benefits… and sometimes it can be a little daunting.
Try something small and simple, like rolling some turkey and shredded cheese in premade crescent rolls (the kind that comes in a tube). You can smear peanut butter on apple slices - take it up a notch by adding raisins for pretend ants. My oldest daughter and I recently made spinach lasagna together. In the pictures, the girls are making turkey, cheese, and pepper omlettes in a mug - muglettes! It was super easy, quick, and yummy!
What are your favorite recipes to make with your kiddos? I’d love to hear them!
Comment below to share!
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