13 benefits of cooking with preschoolers (you may not have thought of)

Need to get dinner ready but your child wants to play with you? Or perhaps you've been looking for a new activity to do together that doesn't require leaving home?

You can start in the comfort of your own kitchen by cooking with them! There are so many benefits for both you and your little one. And you get dinner done at the same time!

Gayatri Kembhavi-Tam, mum to Emile (5) and Anya (2) cooks regularly with her children.

She says, "Not only is cooking a nice way to spend time together, it's also important for children to learn how food goes from raw ingredients to something you eat at the table. It's really lovely to see how fascinated they are to watch the process of cooking."

She adds that being in the kitchen has given her children a better appreciation for flavours and helped to develop their palate.

Here are 13 benefits of cooking with preschoolers.

1. It's a life skill!

You teach your little one to ride a bike and swim--skills they'll have throughout their lives. Cooking is also a valuable life skill.

When your child knows how to cook, it puts him in charge of his own feeding and nutrition when he's older and living away from home. One less thing for you to worry about!

Once he learns a few cooking techniques, how kitchen equipment works and how to combine simple ingredients to form meals, he'll feel confident in preparing his meals wherever he goes.

2. Builds confidence

Your little one feels happy when he draws beautiful pictures and makes play-dough sculptures by himself. This sense of satisfaction contributes to boosting his self-confidence.

Combining raw ingredients to create beautiful and delicious meals will also give him that sense of satisfaction and confidence.

There is so much pressure on your child to perform and be perfect, whether at school or at their outside activities. However, he learns best through exploring, making mistakes and figuring out solutions by himself (with your help when he needs it!)

Offer the kitchen as a safe haven where he is free to learn through trial and error.

Did he add too much salt into the soup? A quick taste will give him the answers he needs. Talk about what happens and perhaps next time, he'll add less.

Allow him to make mistakes, messes and have fun while learning! Through learning from his errors, your little one will develop a sense of trust in himself and his abilities. Just one of the few benefits of cooking with preschoolers

3. Discover where food comes from

Can your child tell a carrot from a cabbage? Does he know how vegetables are grown?

Through cooking at home, he'll get to look at ingredients in their original form, before they are chopped up and added into meals.

Step up the learning with a trip to your favourite market. Chat with stall holders to find out where their produce comes from.Wander around a supermarket together, and talk about what you find. Its a great way for your little one to learn about raw ingredients (and perhaps even pick up a few tips!)

For a truly hands-on experience, a visit to the farms in Kranji will have your little one gawking in delight at goats being milked. While you are there, you can pick up fresh goat's milk to use in your cooking adventures! Your child can even participate in harvesting vegetables and tasting honey straight from hives. This outdoor adventure is definitely one of the more fun benefits of cooking with preschoolers.

No time for farm trips? Have your child help you grow little pots of herbs at home and use them when you cook together!

4. Develops fine motor skills

There is so much for your little one to do in the kitchen! Cutting, stirring, whisking, kneading--all of which use a variety of hand and finger movements. Through repeating these movements, your child is working hard at developing his fine motor skills. And these are essential to hand-eye coordination activities like writing and playing with blocks.

Good fine motor skills help your little one feel confident in his abilities to do things by himself. And they are important for healthy cognitive, social and emotional development too!

Who would have thought that these are one of the many benefits of cooking with preschoolers?

5. A feast for the senses!

Cooking isn't just about making a meal. Other benefits of cooking with preschoolers is that it's a chance to stimulate their senses--from sight to sound, touch to taste.

Your preschooler learns best through his senses. And sensory play is essential for healthy brain development and learning about the world.

Let him feel the textures of silky tofu and coarse pineapples. Take a good whiff of lemongrass and pandan as you add them to your dishes. Tickle his tastebuds with juicy mangoes and crunchy cucumbers.

Appreciate the rich red of tomatoes and deep green of spinach. Knock on a watermelon and listen to the hollow sounds it makes. There is so much to explore with your ingredients!

6. Family bonding

Families bond through having regular meals together, so why not extend this into the meal preparation!

Spending time in the kitchen together gives you an opportunity to try out old family recipes and create new ones together. You'll be creating happy memories together that he'll always carry with him.

Another of the many benefits of cooking with preschoolers? Your child will also learn good social skills through interacting with his siblings (and with you!) in the kitchen.

There are opportunities to reinforce good manners, to take turns and help each other with the jobs that need to get done to have meals ready on time!

Cooking together gives busy families sacred time to talk and be together in a fun and productive way.

7. Appreciate food from different cultures

With Singapore being a melting pot of cultures, there is no shortage of opportunities to savour different cuisine. But do you know what goes into preparing these dishes?

Trying out new recipes from other cultures in the comfort of your kitchen allows you and your little one to experiment with new ingredients and styles of cooking.

It'll give him a chance to learn about other cultures and the foods that inspire them (and broaden his palate too!)

So try out a new recipe for fish ball noodles or chicken curry next time you are stuck on ideas on what to cook together!

8. Better nutrition

A child who's involved in cooking his meal is more likely to eat it too. Now that's music to any mum's ears. And a great reason to get him involved in the kitchen.

Cooking at home allows you to choose healthier recipes which provide better nutrition for your little one.

Next time he asks you why he needs to eat his greens, talking about food and its nutrients while you prepare a delicious serving of spinach together may inspire him to try it too.

9. Stimulates creativity

Just like drawing and painting, spending time cooking also offers your child a chance to exercise his creativity. Watch his little imagination set on fire through seeing how ingredients are combined to create new meals.

He may come up with his own recipe suggestions. Perhaps let him choose his favourite additions for a fried rice recipe or toppings for cupcakes.

Put him in charge of what goes into his meals sometimes and he may surprise you with his ideas!

10. Expand verbal skills

The more time your child spends on TV and electronic devices, the less time he spends talking. To balance this, your little one needs other ways for him to expand his verbal skills.

Spending time cooking together offers many opportunities to have conversations. You also get to name ingredients and discuss ways to cook--all great ways to introduce new words into your child's repertoire!

It doesn't just have to be about cooking. Making kitchen conversation about other things in your child's life can help build his language too.

11. Hands-on maths

Cooking offers your child an interactive way to learn maths concepts! You can count out quantities of fruit and vegetables together.

He'll learn measurements through scooping out cups of flour and weighing sugar. He'll become familiar with sequencing through following recipes step by step. Best of all, he'll figure out these concepts in a hands-on and fun way.

12. Science in action

Your little one will find it magical to watch ingredients transform before his eyes! Cooking is a great way to make science come alive through watching ingredients change from one form to another.

He'll observe how butter melts when you heat it and how vegetables change size and shape as they cook and soften.

He'll be fascinated at watching how raw batter than goes into oven cooks and rises to make a cake. Take a few minutes to talk to him about how these changes happen as you watch them together.

13. Kitchen safety

You teach your little one to stay in the playground and around the home. The kitchen is a great place to build up on this. Through watching and talking with you, he'll learn the correct ways of handling kitchen utensils and appliances.

Feeling inspired to cook with your child? Go for it! With such a diverse array of benefits, he'll learn and have fun while spending quality time with you.

Do you have questions on the benefits of cooking with preschoolers that are listed in this guide? Share with us in the comments!

Written by

Maniesha Blakey

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