Spending time in the kitchen and cooking with kids has more benefits than we think. Did you know that cooking improves physical, mental, sensory, social and emotional skills?
Children are very interested in the kitchen from a young age. They see the dishes prepared for them, the ingredients, the washed vegetables; they realize and learn much more than we thought. Therefore, when they get older, they show a great interest in toy kitchen stuffs. The pizzas made of play dough or tea parties are what they have observed before. Cooking with kids gives them much more benefits than you think.
What are the five benefits of cooking with kids?
Cooking with kids improves their five senses
One of the benefit of cooking with your kids is improving their five senses. You can let them taste ingredients such as sour, sweet, salty, bitter. If you are kneading a dough, you can ask about its texture. They can also learn by experiencing different degrees such as hot, cold and warm. It is also very important for the development of the sense of vision. You can do activities such as watching a puffing cake or melting chocolate. You can explain them cause- effect relationship by observing. For example; if there is steam coming out of a glass, we can say it is hot. In this way, we can teach children important safety-related information.
Cooking with kids develops their fine motor muscles
Hand skills of children develop over time and is mastered as they practice. The development of fine motor muscles is also of great importance to children; most of the things they do in the kitchen actually help them develop this skill. They can grab a spoon and take a spoon of spices from the spice jar and pour them, extract the grains of the kidney beans, mixing a mixture you have prepared, cutting the dough into pieces and shaping them. These activities contribute to the fine motor development of your children . Whenever possible, let them give and try any responsibility. Wait for them to succeed patiently and enjoy their progress. Hand and eye coordination is another skill for children. This skill, which is about directing the muscles in coordination by the eyes, enables us to do activities such as brushing teeth and combing hair. You can contribute to the development of hand-eye coordination with many activities in the kitchen. For example, you can reinforce this skill with many activities such as transferring something from a bowl to another bowl, kneading the dough from one hand to another, sprinkling sesame seeds on the pastries.
Cooking with kids helps mental development
You can teach your child many important things such as counting, measuring, organizing, and observing which contribute to intriguing, thinking-stimulating mental development with kitchen activities. Breaking three eggs or adding half a glass of milk contributes to the mental development. You can make their culinary adventures much more enjoyable and instructive by sharing simple information from time to time; even doing small experiments that do not confuse them as they get older. For example, you can talk about the weights; mention that solid and liquid substances are measured in different units of measure.
Cooking with kids helps them to gain social skills
Spending time in the kitchen contributes to the development of many social skills of children. It is an incredible source of self-confidence for them to complete the tasks and see the result; especially while they are preparing a meal. It is possible to gain many useful social skills in the kitchen, such as following the given directions, taking responsibility, successfully completing the grandmother recipe, learning how to divide the work, to be a part of teamwork and to share. By guiding them, you can contribute to their development in different areas. In addition, you can spend a great time with your child and collect good memories with the fun kitchen activities you do together, and you can share the memories you experience in the kitchen with other members of the family.
Cooking with kids improves their language
It is possible to contribute to the language development of children while cooking. In the kitchen they can learn many new words. Therefore, talking at every stage of cooking with children, explaining the details, showing them every new ingredient provide great benefits in kitchen activities. It is especially important to direct them; ask about the colors of the vegetables, introduce different textures, and ask them to explain what they do. For example if they see broccoli for the first time, you can tell the name, talk about its color, size and texture. Children love repetition and learn much easier with repetition. Do not forget to make them
repeat new words. Then ask them for the names of new things he learned from time to time.