Why kids belong in the kitchen

Ask any adult if a kid should be in the kitchen and you will probably get a bewildered look as if they were trying to say “why would I poke my eye out with a wooden spoon?” Many people think the kitchen is a dangerous place, and they have every right to believe so. What they don’t know is that the kitchen is probably one of the only rooms in the house that can teach as many lessons as a first-grade classroom.

Safety

Kitchens are dangerous, which is exactly why every kid needs to be allowed in the kitchen whenever they please. With great trust comes great responsibility. By allowing your kids in the kitchen, especially with you, they start to develop a sense of self-confidence knowing that an adult puts their trust in them.

Not only does the kitchen offer chances to teach knife safety, fire safety and even food safety, it also gives the child the chance to work on identification. For younger kids, learning to identify different items and understanding the proper words helps to build vocabularies. For instance, you could work through the kitchen, identifying all of the parts of the appliances, then move into utensils and other gadgets and finally finish with the styles of cooking. Tens of thousands of words live in the kitchen and they can come alive in the hands of a cooking child.

Creativity

Combine biology, chemistry and physics and you have the very basic techniques in the kitchen. Combining different ingredients and learning how they work together to form different flavor profiles is a great way to interest children in how things work. Identifying different parts of the protein you are working with is great for learning how muscles work together; think extending and retracting the wing of a chicken.

Watching how a knife slides across a cutting board and learning how levers work when whisking without your arm getting tired. Many people don’t take the time to stop and realize what they are doing in a kitchen and actually turn everyday tasks, such as cooking the family dinner, into teaching lessons for their ever-curious children.

Healthy

Kids in the kitchen also get the chance to practice health, not only with food preparation and hand washing, but they also learn about healthy eating. Nine times out of ten, if a kid has the chance to prepare their own food, they will eat it, no matter what is inside. Children, who would not touch broccoli with a ten-foot pole, suddenly seem to like the chicken and broccoli Alfredo they helped make. The ones who scrunched their nose at bell peppers seemed to love the pizza they created with different colors all over.

Kids belong in the kitchen, not only because they can learn about safety and health while developing their creative side, but also so they can be self-dependent one day. Teaching a kid to cook helps to slow down the obesity epidemic that is sweeping the country, and wouldn’t it feel good to know that you passed down the tradition of cooking big meals for your family?

What cooking builds within kids

There is a great deal of important lessons kids can learn in the kitchen. Of course, there should be an adult present to help out and accomplish any tasks that the children are unable to, but more of the reason is to begin to shape and mold the thought process and inner qualities of the children. These qualities must be placed inside the children as soon as possible so they take root and begin to develop during an early part of life.

Creativity

Creativity is one of the biggest qualities that most successful entrepreneurs encompass, so why not instill that as soon as possible? Creativity is what creates the best inventors, astronauts and world leaders. How can you get creativity from the kitchen? Simple, let your kids try new things.

Safety

Safety cannot be stressed enough in the kitchen. In order to keep safety on the forefront of your mind, you have to be continuously thinking ahead. This offers the ability to teach great foresight, which is in high demand in the world today. Being safe does mean being aware of the surroundings. How you can continuously improve them to protect those around you. This also provides a base for teamwork.

Self confidence

Anytime a kid can do something for themselves, their self-confidence gets a boost. Building self-confidence is second to none. Making sure kids are confident in their decisions and in who they are is great internal real estate. Kids gain confidence when they get through certain tasks and in the kitchen, there are plenty of different tasks to slice through.

Science

Why exactly can toast never return to its former state? Inquiring minds want to know and the kitchen offers a great field for learning science. Learning how things work and react is great for building brain strength. The more you can understand how things work together and how different things can react with each other, the more you will be able to apply it to certain scenarios.

Reasoning

Problem solving is an important skill for anyone. Being able to think through a situation and come up with a solid plan on the fly is a skill that many people desire, but do not have. Being in the kitchen can help teach us to deal with many different problems at once. For instance, the gumbo is about to start burning, the stand mixer is about to be finished with the dough and the whip cream still needs to be made.

This type of reasoning will serve a child well later in life, trying to juggle tasks and people. Critical thinking is a skill that many people struggle to develop late in life, but instilling it early will have a significant outcome on how kids think about the world in which they live.
Cooking is more than just a fun activity. While it provides fun, it also builds necessary skills to help a child think and grow. These skills are not only limited to children, adults can begin to grow them as well, but getting them into children at an early age will help shape their world. So get cooking and build some of those necessary skills in yourself and your children.

Top 10 reasons for kids to learn to cook

It is important for kids to get in the kitchen and learn to cook. Cooking not only builds confidence and prepares a kid for difficult life situations, but it also teaches them to think on their feet. It also develops the same type of discipline as any form of sports or martial arts. Let’s take a look at the top ten reasons for kids to get dirty in the kitchen.

Builds confidence – Remember when you first learned a new skill? It was great; you felt on top of the world knowing that you could do something all by yourself. Cooking is the same way for kids; it is a giant confidence boost for them.

Prepares for life – When life gives you lemons, make chicken piccata. Learning to cook helps kids prepare for other life lessons such as organization and following directions. While learning to cook is not only following recipes, you have to start somewhere.

Sparks creativity – What kind of new creations will your kids come up with in the kitchen? Maybe they will develop the new family favorite meal. Between all of the different sights, sounds and flavors, all of the senses become aware in the kitchen. Creativity begins to flourish and the imagination starts to think beyond the typical, ordinary cuisine.

Develops discipline – Learning to cook teaches the discipline of following instructions and builds the mind. When a kid is in the kitchen, they become the master of their domain and learn to respect everything around them.

Patience - Patience is a soufflé, just ask any chef. If your child needs to work on patience, it is important to get them into the kitchen. All good things come to those who wait. Let them experiment with a cake that is not fully baked or garlic that is not completely roasted, then explain the importance of being patient and show them how the finished product is so much better.

Science – If you ever get the chance to watch Alton Brown in action, you will be amazed at the amount of science that goes into cooking. Help your children prepare for school by teaching them what yeast does to dough and why toast cannot ever be turned back into bread.

They ask questions – Questions are an integral part of developing a child’s mind. Letting them ask questions and then figuring out the answers together will build the base for learning in years to come.

Expands pallet – Kids with narrow minds develop narrow habits. Letting your child help with the cooking will cause them to expand their pallet and try new things. The act of trying new things will help them out later in life when they are trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do.

Passes down or builds new traditions – If your family has traditions, the kitchen is a great place to begin to pass them down. Due to the close proximity, there is plenty of time to talk and explain why things are done certain ways. Also, who wouldn’t want great-grandma’s chocolate cookie recipe?

Keeps family history – Explaining why the pineapple upside down cake was made with the pineapple juice due to the sugar rations during the war is a great way to flesh out your family history. So many families in the old days, told stories and built legends in the kitchen, why not try it yourself?

There are many reasons why it is important to get your children in the kitchen. These ten reasons alone should have you grabbing your children and pulling them in close to prepare the family meal. Get out the little blue cup that doubled as your grandma’s measuring cup and begin explaining what things are, why they work and who started these crazy traditions anyway.