Educational Cooking Lessons for Kids

Cooking lessons for kids provide many health benefits  but did you know cooking lessons  can go beyond these benefits and be a valuable tool to educate kids at home?

For those of you who are now feeling the overwhelm of having to “do it all” including working  + feeding your kids + homeschooling + managing stress and anxiety around the uncertainty of our world, I am right there with you. It’s a lot, and many days it’s more than a lot it’s down right overwhelming!

Despite all of what’s going on, the one thing we have to do is eat! Right?!  So why not make the time you already need to spend cooking and preparing a meal for the family into an educational and fun moment? Yes, cooking + homeschooling + de-stresser all in one! Outcome is you get food on the table, get your mind off everything that is going on and provide your kids with valuable skills. They will also be gaining knowledge and confidence they can use to be better, more successful students when they go back to school!

Here is a list of development skills your kids can learn from cooking together and simple cooking lessons you can incorporate at home!

Cooking Lessons for Kids for Intellectual, Physical, Cognitive and Social-Emotional Development

Intellectual Development

• Letters
  •  Have kids identify the first letter in the food you are preparing or cooking.
• Colors
  • Have kids identify colors of the foods being used, mix food colors to make new colors.
• Shapes
  • Have kids identify different shapes of foods, have kids find all foods that are circles etc., practice cutting foods into different shapes.
• Math
  • Have kids count the number of different foods or similar foods on the table, count out number of a specific food needed in a recipe etc.
• Reading
  • Have kids practice sounding out or reading the words of foods being used, have older kids help read the recipe.
• Vocabulary
  • Start by identify new names of foods, kitchen tools, cooking methods you are using. Over time you can have your kids identify them!

Physical Development

• Fine motor skills
• Hand-eye-coordination
  • Practice cooking skills like chopping (knife skills), pouring, mixing, squeezing, spreading, putting food onto kabob sticks, kneading dough, using a spatula to flip pancakes, using a rolling pin to roll out dough.

Cognitive Development

• Problem solving
  • Ask questions as you are cooking. What do you think will happen when we add dry pasta to hot water? Where is the water going?
• Follow a sequence
  • Read or demonstrate a recipe with 3 step, have kids repeat by mouth or perform it on their own. Try recipes with more steps with older kids.
• Organization
  • Practice reading through recipe first then pulling out all ingredients and tools and laying them out on the counter. Then begin cooking.
• Creativity
  • Have kids help decide what spices or ingredients to use in a dish or have them create their own recipe!

Social-Emotional Development

• Social Skills
• Self-esteem
• Confidence
  • Working together to complete a task like cooking will allow your kids to work on communication and help build their confidence and self-esteem!

Looking for more Kitchen Activities you can do with your kids at home that are both fun and educational? Check out my FREE printable with 21 Kitchen Activities for Young Kids!

Also be sure to join my Facebook Group Cooking with Kids to see what others are doing with their kids and share your experience!