5 Ways to Inspire Your Kids to Cook
Cooking is a fun way to get the family together, especially on a rainy day. In a well-equipped kitchen, there’s no reason to feel like the kids can’t get involved – a contemporary kitchen with modern appliances is a safe place to be as long as each child is supervised.
Learning to cook from a young age can benefit your child in so many ways. You can teach them about nutrition and healthy choices, you can help them to gain independence and confidence… and you can let them know that treats every once in a while are a good thing too!
Here are our top five ways to get your children off their iPads and into the kitchen. Before you know it, they’ll be cooking dinner for you. Just you wait and see.
- Make The Kitchen Accessible
Kitchen work surfaces and appliances can often be out of a young person’s reach. In many ways that’s a good thing, as it keeps them safely away from any hazards in the kitchen. However, if you’re hoping that they’ll learn to love to cook, you may need to make the room more accessible for them.
It’s easy! Lay out all the utensils they might need before they start so they don’t have to reach for anything, and put out a step for them to use. You can buy sturdy steps from all good homeware shops, and they make the work surfaces and table tops much easier to reach.
2. Let Them Make Mistakes
It can be tempting to hover over a child in the kitchen like a bumble bee, worrying over every single little thing they do.
Try not to take over when it looks like they’re doing something a little… creatively. The most fun aspect of cooking is experimenting, so let them go with their instincts. You never know, they might come up with an amazing new recipe!
3. Get Some Special Cookware
If your child loves helping in the kitchen but finds it hard to use your usual gadgets, why not treat them to a child-size baking or cookery set? They’ll love getting to grips with utensils that are small enough for them to use comfortably, and having their own special cookware will make it feel far more exciting to cook.
4. Research Recipes Together
Cooking doesn’t just take place in the kitchen. You can inspire your child to cook anywhere!
Next time you’re taking them to school, chat about their favourite food on the way, and ask them how they think they could make it even better. When you’re food shopping, encourage them to get involved with choosing the ingredients you’re buying to find out what they like and what they’d like to try.
Not only will this give them more ownership of the dishes they make, it’ll enable them to learn more about each ingredient, and what it is they like and dislike. That’s exactly how great chefs get started, you know.
5. Watch Cookery Shows Together
When the hard work is done and you’re eating the food you’ve all slaved over, why not sit down together and watch a cooking show?
Instead of letting the soothing voices of the Hairy Bikers wash over you, talk to each other about the food they’re making and get ideas for your next project. Maybe you’ll even find out that you want to try more different styles of food, or even that you want go on holiday to a place where a certain type of food is made.
A passion for food is a fantastic thing to inspire in your kids. It offers them freedom and creativity, a chance to express themselves and a way to train them to read and follow instructions. It’ll help them to overcome any picky eating habits they might have developed and it’ll even improve their problem solving skills. Cooking is an amazing skill to have, so get your children interested in it t
Until next time…