Perfect for a rainy weekend but also lots of fun and a great way to aid children’s development; cooking and baking with your children is full of benefits. Cooking can help develop your child’s maths and co-ordination skills, whilst also encouraging adventurous eating. By giving your children an active role in choosing what to make, preparing and cooking simple meals, you boost their self-esteem and confidence. Cooking with children is a way of introducing them to new ingredients and a wider variety of foods; they can explore new tastes, smells and textures, widening their pallet and so helping to stop the development of picky eaters.

Preparation:

There’s no denying the fact that cooking with little ones is going to be messy! Before you open your kitchen to mayhem, get organised.

Top tips:

Use large mixing bowls to prevent ingredients spilling over.

Give yourself more time to make your food / cakes.

Try recipes that are not too complicated or time consuming.

Get Children Involved:

           

While cooking, talk to your children. Talk about the ingredients and where they come from. Talk about the processes and the kitchen utensils, safety and food hygiene.

The more familiar with the ingredients and the more involved with the process children are, the more likely they are to eat what they are helping to make.

Maths skills can be developed through cooking, from reading the numbers in the recipe and on the scales, to learning about weight and measurements. Mixing and pouring helps to develop co-ordination and decorating cakes allows creativity.

Some Simple Ideas:

Fruit salad – fresh and healthy

Vegetable soup

Fajitas – quick and easy to make.

Homemade Pizza – the healthy alternative to buying one from the shop; and for a quick fun snack use a simple pitta bread as a base and grill the toppings.

Fairy Cakes – quick and easy and fun to decorate.

Cheese straws

Cornflake Cakes; rock cakes; gingerbread men; jam tarts; apple crumble

Simple bread rolls made with a bread mix – children love kneading the dough!

    

Have fun cooking and baking with your children. We love it at Nursery!