Teach Proper Skills

Just like with lifting weights, learning to cook should only be done progressively by learning the basics and building on them. Just imagine how you would fare if you jumped right in and tried to cook a soufflé. My guess is it would probably end up as flat as a crepe.

Learning basic skills correctly the first time will save much time and energy later in life when more complicated skills are stacked on. For instance, it would be best to learn how to rough chop before you learned how to dice; and dice before you learn how to julienne. Crawling, then walking we learn everything in life by progressions, so why not keep the same mentality in the kitchen?

Keep Health in Mind

Health is an important aspect of safety in the kitchen. Without keeping health in mind, the kitchen can become a nightmare of a place. A person can wield substantial power in the kitchen, and looking at a majority of the world’s population, it seems as if health safety is not a priority in many cases.

There are many aspects to safety in the kitchen, ranging from knowing appropriate tasks to keeping a clean ship. Safety should always be top priority when in a kitchen and you should always keep an eye out for potential problem areas and correct them as soon as possible.

There are many dangerous things looming in the kitchen, but that should not be a deterrent for getting kids actively preparing meals. As a matter of fact, those dangerous things are exactly what kids need to be exposed to, in time. While teaching children the rules of the kitchen and letting them develop their sense of surrounding, safety should always be on the forefront of your mind.

Know Age Appropriate Activities

While it is important to get kids into the kitchen, there are some activities that are for older kids. Just like the current board games, children who are old enough to understand what is going on should only do certain activities. These age groups may vary for different children based on experience, but here is a basic guideline for progression.

2-3 years old – Simple mixing skills using a spoon, whisk or hands, gathering supplies from the refrigerator and pantry, opening packaging and assisting with meal planning.
3-5 years old – Cracking eggs, simple heating instruction (learning what types of heat and how much are appropriate for different foods), basic chopping skills using nylon or plastic, blunt-tip knife, non-heated food prep and combining ingredients.
5-9 years old – Advanced cutting techniques, parent-assisted cooking with heat and simple meal preparation (such as pancakes, pasta or grilled cheese).
9+ years old – By this time, children should be fully functional and know their way around the kitchen and how to use various tools. At this point, your sous-chef should be fully functional.

By providing a number of different ways to explore the actual cooking process, children begin to work through the creative process. You can almost see it as they try to decide what needs to be added first when sauteing vegetables or if a turkey should be boiled or baked in order to get that signature crispy skin. Letting a kid explore is one of the greatest ways to build their minds.

Clean Up

While the two ideas above deal with being in the present and working with what you have, cleaning up teaches an important aspect of looking ahead. By looking forward and planning ahead, many of the accidents and other mishaps can be prevented. By keeping your mind on what you are doing and will have to do, the child will learn to think about what needs to happen. For instance, if you are not cleaning as you go, you will eventually run out of counter space to prepare food.

Cleanliness also aids with organization skills, making it important to know where everything is located at all times and easy to get to. By keeping your area clean, you will not accidentally scald the milk because you were digging around for the cornstarch.

By learning the power of properly wielding a knife, the creativity of food preparation and the foresight of cleanliness, children will gather many life-lessons from techniques they learn in the kitchen.

So get up, grab a cutting board and a whisk and start explaining what you are trying to accomplish every time you make dinner for your family.

The kitchen, like martial arts or girl scouts, offers many opportunities to teach kids different techniques and disciplines. These techniques help to develop a child’s mind and both self and spatial awareness. Teaching kids different techniques in the kitchen builds more than just one aspect of their being, but instead everything from the inside out. Let’s take a look at a couple of techniques and how they help to develop the child.

Knife Skills

Wielding a knife requires a set of skills all on its own, but being in complete control of the blade has a feeling like none other. Teaching a child at an early age, how to respect a sharp edge, gives them the understanding of how power and authority work. Demonstrating how a simple flick of the wrist can completely demolish a potato or watermelon is both amazing and awe-inspiring to a child.

But understanding how to control that power and manipulate it for a good cause is a lesson that is not taught too often in life. Many times people go around abusing power with reckless abandon and, unlike the once-popular comic books; the good guys don’t always win. These techniques teach self-control and how to use the power for good.

Cooking Styles

Teaching different cooking styles is equivalent to giving a child a box of 100 crayons. With this many different colors and combination’s to use, creativity begins to flourish. The same goes with different cooking styles. Learning the simple differences between wet heat, dry heat and combination heat, the child can begin to play with what works best in each situation.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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?

10. 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.

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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.