Why is it important for children to learn cooking?
Many schools and nursery providers now offer cooking on the curriculum. Some go so far as to set up dedicated classrooms kitted with workstations, sinks and Montessori towers for safe accessibility for little ones. It seems counter intuitive that children as young as two years old could participate in cooking but they can and it works.
So what are the benefits, apart from the obvious ones of learning an appreciation for cooking and some cooking skills? Well, there are many research documented benefits at various age levels, including social and emotional development, problem solving, confidence building, ability to follow instructions and language development, as a result of the communication between instructor and child. In addition, there are physical development benefits such as fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. There are also educational development benefits as cooking involves mathematical concepts such as weights and measures. At older ages the children learn positive enforcing life skills, creativity and necessary safety protocols such as handling knives with care for yourself and others around you.
Initially, for little ones, it is about helping (see our piece on letting children help), getting their hands into a mixing bowl and using a spatula to mix ingredients, pouring ingredients and the product of mixing out and switching machines on and off. Each cooking event offers an opportunity to introduce topics and new words related to the task; making fruit salad is an excellent way to name fruits and to talk about colours.
As the children grow and develop more and more complex things can be introduced but of course safety is paramount, especially when moving on to using sharp knives, but that is for a later time. For now, all we need to do is allow our little wrigglers to have some fun with cooking and get involved and begin the process of gaining the multitude of developmental benefits from cooking.
Little Wriggler - Kids Cookery Playlist
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