Children learn lots when helping to prepare food- and everyone needs food so there are times every day to practise, making cooking a wonderful learning opportunity.
They will be developing gross and fine motor skills as they pour, mix and carry. They’ll be building on their language and communication skills as they talk to you about the ingredients or steps, and as they get older perhaps follow some simple recipes themselves (more about that later). They’ll even be beginning to understand mathematical concepts like quantity and weight as they scoop or pour for different meals.
We know that children learn lots of important cognitive skills from having the opportunity to do familiar, repetitive tasks often – and helping at home is ideal for this. We’ve written about this before in our article How helping at home benefits the brain.
So, how do you begin to embrace cooking with your child?
Initially, and especially if your little one is still a baby or young toddler, it is more about letting them see you preparing food and helping them do small actions which are appropriate for their abilities.
As they become more familiar with this, you can then let them do some of these smaller actions themselves while you cook.
This might be letting them hold the spoon with you as your stir batter, then as they get more confident letting them stir it themselves. Similarly, they might be able to move towards scooping out a cup of oats, flour or other ingredients and pouring them into the bowl by themselves.
At first this will probably be messy, but with experience your child will be able to scoop and pour more neatly when they’re cooking.
Set them up for success with smaller containers
One way to make it more likely that you all enjoy cooking together is to plan ahead and make sure the inevitable spills will be fairly minimal. This avoids waste and big clean ups, so is a double win!
Instead of giving your child a bottle of milk to pour some into their oats, for example, give them a small jug or cup of milk to pour from. It helps them get a feel for pouring the amount they need without it being a disaster if they tip in the whole thing – or miss the bowl.
If they’re helping you with a recipe, measure ingredients from large bags into smaller bowls or containers before you invite your little one to join you. They can then either tip the whole thing into the mixing bowl for you, or use a spoon to slowly add the amount you need.
This is an approach you can use with your child from a very early age. As soon as they are able to sit or stand with you and coordinate their movements you can ask them to help you pour small amounts of ingredients and mix up batter.
Have a few familiar recipes they help you with
Repetition is an important learning tool for toddlers and children, so picking a few favourite recipes which are safe for your child to help with helps you both to become confident cooking together.
These can be as simple as making porridge for breakfast or be a favourite lunch or tea that they can help you with.
Picking a recipe you know will be made often, and giving them clear jobs to do that are the same each time, means you will both feel confident and, over time, they will become really good at the tasks they practice.
Older toddlers and children can start to help you chop fruit or vegetables using a butter knife (or child-safe knife) - start with softer foods at first like courgettes or bananas and work up towards them cutting slices of firmer vegetables like cucumber, potato or pumpkin. Larger vegetables can be chopped into slices or discs by you to start them off, before your child chops them more finely.
Find recipes they can follow with you, and eventually take the lead on!
Giving your child as much ownership of the cooking process as possible can really inspire them to get stuck in. One way to do this is to use visual recipes, with simple steps for your child to follow.
Although you’ll always need to be by their side keeping them safe while they cook, they can start to use you as an assistant instead of the other way around! By having a recipe they can follow more independently they can also practise important cognitive skills as they make sense of the pictures and recall the order different tasks need to be done in.
We’ve created a very delicious banana pancake recipe using images, which you can print or display on your phone or tablet screen for your child to follow.
They can adapt the recipe by adding more flavours, such as cinnamon, or fruit to the mix once they feel confident with the basic recipe.
We’d love to hear your top tips for cooking with your child, if this is something you already do, and find out what delicious things you make together if you decide to give it a go after reading this.
You can share your cooking stories in our Facebook community, tag us on social media or send us an email to askusanything@mffy.com.