Cooking Kids

This is my favorite month to use cooking as a teaching tool. We are saving most of our christmas cookie baking for the later part of the month, after the kids’ grandma gets into town. However, we will have the occasional Christmas treat to whip up for friends before then.

There are a few basics I cover when teaching with baking:

• Measuring
• Estimating
• Counting
• Size and shape

Although my daughter is only 3, I work with her on measuring flour, sugar, milk and oil correctly. With my son, who is 8, I hand him the cups and tell him what is needed. Actually this year he’ll probably read the recipes on his own. We also work on estimating because for some recipes I might add or take away certain ingredients, but I don’t use any form of measurement. So they learn to eyeball and ingredient and know whether it’s too much or too little. Of course counting cookies and sorting decorations is just plain fun. Hope this gives you some ideas for bringing education into your Christmas cookie baking this year.

It’s important that older kids, those 8+, learn basic kitchen and cooking skills starting as early as possible. While we as parents tend to freak out when our kids get too close to a hot stove or open an oven while something’s baking, it’s important that older kids learn kitchen and cooking skills. You never know when you’ll need your child to help out in an emergency, and it’s comforting to know that you’ve taught them safety skills and basic cooking skills just in case something happens.

Starting at around 8 years old, kids should understand how to turn the stove and oven on and off. They should know what the different buttons and knobs do, and how to work the timer and any other equipment you might have on your range. I taught my son by letting him help me make pancakes one day for breakfast. He got the pan ready with cooking spray, and I taught him how to work the different knobs on the stove. I poured the pancakes and he flipped them. I taught him to watch if the pan was getting too hot and how to adjust the heat without putting his arm directly over the cooking food.

Kids between 8-10 should also know how to boil water, heat up soup, boil an egg, get a stuck piece of toast or bagel out of the toaster SAFELY, (no silverware in the toaster when it’s plugged in), how to use a toaster oven to cook chicken nuggets, pizza rolls, french fries and any other convenience snack. And how to put together a couple different simple sandwiches.

The best teaching moments come when you’re already cooking. Let your child prepare the lunch of chicken nuggets and fries one day, where your only job is to supervise and instruct them on what to do next. If you’re making boiled eggs, let them boil the water and check for doneness. Have them help assemble sandwiches, including those with different toppings so they learn to spread mustard and layer meats and cheese properly.

You might think that your child won’t really use these skills right away, and that’s probably true. Most of the time you’ll be the one doing the cooking and they’ll be eating. But we had a situation once where I got really sick in the middle of the afternoon, right before lunch time. There was no way I could make lunch for the kids because my stomach pains hardly allowed me to stand up, and they were both hungry. I told my son to pour them some cereal, but there wasn’t enough of their favorite kind for both of them. I told him to figure something out because I couldn’t help right then. A few hours later I came out of the bedroom and saw a huge mess of peanut butter, jelly and bread all over the counter. He had made both of them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with chips and strawberries. Thankfully, he knew how to make the sandwiches and slice the berries so that they didn’t have to eat cereal for lunch. He was quite proud of himself. He has a cousin who’s older who struggles to even pour a drink for himself because his mother does EVERYTHING for him.  After that, I started teaching Gavin more cooking skills because I realized that he was older and needed more responsibility. I also realized that, should something happen to me, my son could take care of himself and his sister for a short while. That’s a comforting feeling and the most important reason to teach your children how to fend for themselves in the kitchen.

Everyone knows that herbs have healing powers and are imperative for healing tonics and potions. But herbs are also the number one way of flavoring food without adding a ton of calories or fat. That’s why this year I decided to plant an herb garden in the corner of my backyard. Not only would the garden provide my family with fresh herbs for our meals, but my kids could help gather and prepare the herbs for cooking.

Today was the first day we ventured out to the ‘little garden,’ as it’s so affectionately called my by 3-year old. (That’s a picture of our little herb garden up there on the top.) We were baking a loaf of whole wheat bread and the recipe didn’t call for any seasonings. I decided to add some thyme and rosemary, but my cabinet was only stocked with thyme. That’s when I remembered our little rosemary plant growing outside and took my daughter out to cut a sprig.

Her first reaction when I told her that we would be putting the rosemary into the bread was to say, “Silly, mommy. We don’t eat plants. We just look at them and smell them.” I knew this was going to be a great opportunity to teach my daughter that some plants are for more than just smelling and looking at.

She was excited to perform her job of pulling each rosemary leaf off the sprig and giving it to me to cut up. She smelled, touched and tasted this savory herb and watched me add it to the bread. She enjoyed telling her dad that she baked the bread and put an herb in it. Then she asked a question that let me know she understood that herbs were for more than looking at and smelling. She asked her dad, “Do you love herbs?” He answered, “Sure, I like them.” To which her response was, “Me, too. I love herbs.” And to that I can only say that I, too, love herbs because of the special times they give me with my children. And, of course, for the way they flavor our food.

An easy way to teach preschoolers about mixing colors is by baking up a batch of cupcakes. All you need is a couple cans of icing, a box of food colors and some cupcakes. While the cupcakes bake, have your child spoon a few tablespoons of white icing into small bowls. Then have them color each bowl with food coloring. Traditional food colors include red, green, yellow and blue.

Once they’ve made the primary colors, have them create secondary colors by adding a different color to each bowl. For example, add red to blue and you’ll get purple. Add yellow to blue and you’ll get green. You get the picture. This is a fun way to teach kids colors, while at the same time letting them bake up a batch of colorful cupcakes.

By Rhyah Fletcher