Mimi Goodies – Cooking healthy

Cooking with your child or children is a fun, no cost activity that will also teach your son or daughter very valuable life skills. Most, if not all kids love helping in the kitchen so you’ll want to encourage and take advantage of it. You’ll also be able to teach them about healthy eating habits.

Depending on the age of your child start with something simple, if they a very young let them make cinnamon toast. They can butter the toast and sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar. Another good first choice is making Saturday morning pancakes. Young children can help measure and mix and older children can bake them too.

There is a multitude of ways your children can help out in the kitchen. For example, even at a young age they can get ingredients out of the fridge or easy to reach cupboards, wash fruits and vegetables, tear salad greens, peel carrots with a safe vegetable peeler. As they get older they can try their hand at more difficult tasks.

Teach your budding gourmet some good basics recipes, cooking techniques and terms as well as kitchen safety. Additional life skills children can learn when cooking are fine motor skills like pouring, measuring and stirring, math skills like counting, adding and subtracting, reading, being organized, cleaning up, shopping, managing money, plus health and nutrition.

Once your child is old enough to read a recipe, manage a sharp knife and hot pots and pans he or she can make an entire meal all by themselves. This is a real bonus for working parents as meal times won’t be a such chore for you. Eventually your children can pitch in or even completely take over the daily task of making dinner!

We all learn best by example, by seeing how it’s done and by practicing doing things. Encourage your child to prepare their favorite meals and encourage them to make healthy choices. Just knowing how to cook means your child will be able to feed him or her self when they move out on their own. They won’t need to rely on fast food, take out, or unhealthy ready prepared food and they save money as well.

You might think it’s quicker or easier to do all the cooking and clean up yourself but you’ll be missing out on spending this special time with your child and the camaraderie that may develop between you. Not to mention the opportunity to teach them so many valuable life skills.

Cooking to an adult is a chore, but it is a fun learning experience to the children. Children loves cooking because it gives them the opportunity to “play” around. Kneading and rolling out the dough is so exciting to the children, just like their Play-Doh. It not only keeps your child occupied, but will also help in development of fine motor development and hand coordination, especially the younger ones.

Cooking is also a great learning tool because the child can be taught how to read recipes. This will help them improve their reading and comprehension skills. You can also take this opportunity to teach your child the different ingredients used in cooking and many other activities which is not taught in the classroom. The school holidays will be an ideal time to experiment with a few simple recipes. Help them develop their math skills in your cooking session by asking them to measure or weigh the ingredients. Get them to do conversions from one unit of measurement to another e.g. pound to kilogram. These activities will help to reinforce what they learn in school.

Safety Aspects In Cooking

Cooking is great fun but as a parent you should instill the sense of safety into your cooking session. Teach your little one to understand the dangers of fire and safety precautions to take when handling fire. Show your kids how to use the oven mitts when handling hot objects. Pot lids should be removed the farthest from you to release the hot steam and most important of all is how to handle the fire extinguisher when things get out of hand.

The same goes with sharp object like knives, barbecue fork and other similar tools. Place these objects in safe area to prevent accidents. Your children should also be taught to keep the kitchen clean at all times. All utensils and tools need to be cleaned after cooking. Teach your child to clean knife in the proper way.

Modern kitchen comes with modern conveniences. This includes electrical appliances like blender, fruit juicer, microwave oven and many others. If your child is old enough to use these equipment, teach them the proper way to handle such items. When cooking, the hand is always wet. Teach them never to touch electrical appliances and switches with a wet hand.

Fun During The Holidays

Cooking during the school holidays will help kill the boredom. Let your children and probably some of their friends cook something simple over the holidays. It will be a great experience for a change. Suggest some simple recipes and guide them whenever necessary. Let it be their show and never interrupt in their planning and cooking, unless needed. They will have to plan and organize the menu by themselves with as little adult supervision as possible. These cooking activities will help your children feel proud of themselves and build up their self confidence.

Conclusion

Fun and games will help in child development and cooking can be one of them. As parents, we should expose our children to as many opportunities as possible to help our child’s development. Cooking can also be used to reinforce what our children learn from school as applied to our ordinary daily activities.