Young children usually enjoy spinning around in the kitchen, opening cabinet doors, rattling pots, playing with spoons, and fiddling with water. At this moment, the cooking process becomes especially complicated – mothers are worried that the baby can burn himself, break something, scatter, get dirty. Do not be afraid of this! Moreover, do not miss the moment when the child himself seeks to help his mother in the kitchen.
For children, cooking is like magic. Indeed, you take different products, mix, cook and steam, and you get something completely new – a delicious and beautiful dish.
You should not refuse to help your child in the kitchen and be afraid to teach him how to cook. The fact that you will also have to teach him to clean up after himself is also good.
Pros of Teaching Your Child to Cook
- Development of fine motor skills (peeling vegetables, sculpting dumplings, dumplings, pies, etc.).
- Development of imagination (decorating dishes, making cookies of various shapes, etc.).
- Teaching diligence and accuracy (adherence to recipes).
- Development of independence (when the child grows up, he will be able to cook his own food).
- Family cohesion (cooking together is an important family bond).
- Vocabulary development (discussion of the cooking process).
- Ideas about shape, size and color, taste, smell (at all stages of food preparation).
- The ability to save time and money (when the child is older, he will choose the ingredients that are optimal for the recipe and your wallet, he will begin to appreciate the fact that parents spend money, time and effort to prepare tasty and healthy food for the whole family).
- Desire and ability to take care (good motivation in the process of “cooking” – cooking for relatives and friends).
Possible troubles and how to avoid them
- Give your child a special plastic (commercially available), disposable, or table knife to help prevent injury. We teach the child safety rules using this knife as an example.
- To prevent the child from getting burned, explain to him that the stoves, pans, pans are heating up. Tell us what the oven mitts and baking mittens are for and how dangerous it is to burn the handles. To assimilate this information, you can feel the heat from the stove (at a distance) or allow you to touch it (but not very hot!).
- It is unlikely that it will be possible to ensure that the child does not litter. This is a matter of experience. Remember yourself in his place.
- It is a matter of time and perseverance for a child to really help, and not interfere. Show restraint and in no case scold him for mistakes. Otherwise, cooking will cause only negative emotions in the child, and he will lose all interest in it.
So how do you start teaching your child to cook?
Buy or sew an apron for your child, as well as a scarf for a girl and a chef’s hat for a boy.
Don’t make cooking a purely mechanical process. With a child, it should be fun and educational.
Show your child how to wash vegetables and fruits. Tell us why this is done. Name the color and shape of the products, make riddles about them.
The dough sculpting process will be very exciting for the child. Separate a small piece of dough for him and let him mold a bun or pie. Rolling out and kneading the dough is very useful for the development of fine motor skills. And this is simply necessary for those kids who have a delay in the development of speech.
Teach your child to spread butter, jam, pate, sauces on bread. To prevent the child from cutting himself, give him a special “sandwich” non-sharp knife with a rounded end.
On a mild plastic grater, a child can grate a piece of cheese or an apple.
Your child will be happy to help you crush mashed potatoes. Let him start and you continue (or vice versa).
Closer to the age of five, you can entrust your child with chopping vegetables for a salad (it is better if these are boiled vegetables).
Children love to cook “fun” meals. Teach your child to make faces out of food, people, animals. For example, prepare a “fly agaric” from a boiled egg and halves of a tomato, draw white dots on the “hat” with mayonnaise
Nothing awakens the love of cooking like effective serving. Keep it bright, even if you are not planning a gala dinner. Have your child prepare canapes of cheese cubes, cucumber and olives on skewers. Together, figure out how to beautifully arrange a cut of colorful vegetables, slices of sausage or ham, make funny sandwiches and porridge. Together with your child, learn the simplest fruit carving. Such lessons will benefit both children and adults.
Be sure to praise your child! But not just like that, but for specific achievements (he cut vegetables well, made a beautiful sandwich, baked delicious cookies). And praise from your father is very important! He should savor the child’s meal and praise the young chef. Knowing that your dad’s dinner depends on him will not only increase your self-esteem, but also give you a sense of social importance.
You can cook not only at home… The child will surely enjoy master classes on making chocolate and sweets, making pizza. Take him to these classes. Some pastry shops and pizzerias organize such lessons for both adults and children.
And yet the surest way to instill in children the desire to cook is personal example… Cook a lot, often, and enjoy. Perhaps this will inspire your child to become an outstanding chef.
As you can see, teaching a child to cook is not only fun, but also useful: the child develops imagination, imagination, and a creative taste.
The ability to use household appliances for their intended purpose is also a pleasant bonus. Having taught your child to use them, you will not worry that your child will get hurt or break a cunning technique.
Conclusion: cooking with children is a pleasure, the main thing is to overcome fears and delusions in this regard.