12 Benefits of Involving Your Pre-schoolers in Cooking
To be honest, I never thought of involving my kid in kitchen activities at an early age. It scares me a little thinking about all the dangerous tools my little one will touch and the big mess he will make in my kitchen. A little while ago, when I talked to one of my close friends, she mentioned that her little daughter loves cooking. Then, she told me about all the fun activities they had in the kitchen. She involved all three of her kids, two boys, and one girl, in making breakfasts and desserts. They also decorated cakes together. It sounds fun, but what about all the safety and the mess?
I started researching how to involve little kids in kitchen activities, and to my surprise, cooking has so many benefits for the little ones. Let’s go over these benefits in this blog post together.
12 Benefits of Cooking with Your Pre-schoolers
- Promotes creativity. Cooking is a great way to spark creativity in your kids. Kids can usually add their own touch to an existing recipe. Let them try it out; you might be amazed at what your kids can do in the kitchen.
- Develops problem-solving skills. Cooking allows kids to have the opportunity to encounter a problem and come up with a solution for it. They can apply their learned knowledge and thinking to solve the problem.
- Improves communication skills. Communication is an important and useful skill to have. Cooking together allows your kids to have the opportunity to ask questions and voice their ideas or opinions.
- Enhances confidence. Completing a recipe and eating the fruits of their labor will give your kids a feeling of accomplishment. This will help build their confidence.
- Encourages self-learning. Cooking also gives kids chances to explore and experiment with different things. The excitement will foster a self-learning mentality.
- Boosts physical development. Cooking requires various physical movements. Thus, it will help improve your kids’ coordination and fine motor skills.
- Helps kids learn to follow instructions. There are multiple steps your kids will need to take in order to complete a recipe. Also, many of these steps needed to be done in the right order. Cooking allows your kids to learn the importance of following instructions.
- Improves math skills. Cooking involves a lot of counting and measuring. This is a great way for your kids to learn to apply their math skills in everyday life.
- Promotes curiosity. Cooking involves many different types of science, from physical to chemical. It is a great opportunity to use cooking to introduce science to your little kids and promotes their curiosity.
- Encourages sharing and teamwork. Cooking together requires teamwork, and it is also a great activity for your kid to learn more about sharing. This works especially well when you cook with multiple kids.
- Helps kids learn to be responsible. Cooking with kids can be very messy. However, it is a great opportunity for you to teach your kids about responsibility, like cleaning up after themselves.
- Facilitate family quality time. Like many other activities, cooking is a great way to spend time with your kids. It is a fun and involved activity that will strengthen your bonds.
Conclusion
Cooking offers many benefits for the development of little kids. However, not every kid likes to cook. It is very important to understand and embrace your kid’s interests. Forcing the matters will cause negative impressions and consequences. If you and your kids have a great time cooking together, don’t forget to share your favorite dish! If they are not interested in cooking, you can do many other activities with them. Check out “45 Awesome Activities You Can Do with Your Three Years Old Toddlers” for more details.
