Cooking for the kids is a difficult thing. It can be hard to get them interested in new foods, and there’s always a fussy eater around the table! However, teaching the kids to cook for themselves can be one of the hardest tasks you’ll ever manage. When they’re young new things to do are always interesting, but when they reach the pre-teen years this can just be another boring chore!
So let’s cut out most of the hard work here. Some cooking skills are more important than others, and if you focus on passing those on you can encourage a love of cooking in a few simple steps. Here are a few examples that’ll help get your kids into the kitchen learning the number one life skill we all should have.
How to Handle Cutlery
It might be a little worrying to allow a child to pick up a knife, but if you school them in how to do so first, they’ll be less likely to mess around and/or hurt themselves.
Make sure you state just how serious proper knife and sharp tool handling is. Remind them that there’s no game here, and you can get in trouble if you don’t follow the rules.
How to Follow a Recipe
Following a recipe is a key skill that people often don’t pick up naturally. But if you teach it to the kids when they’re young, they’ll never be intimidated by a long list of cooking instructions containing terms they’ve never heard of before!
Start small here with something short yet detailed, such as this rotisserie chicken recipe, and then slowly go through more complicated recipe sets. As you go, have the kids remind you of basic recipe rules (such as reading the whole thing first!), and ask questions about what certain terms mean.
How to Use Up Leftovers
Leftovers are a big part of any meal. But wasting food shouldn’t follow. If you teach the kids early on how important it is to save ingredients that haven’t been eaten, they carry this principle forward with them.
They’ll also be able to be a bit more creative with food, and find combinations to make good use of leftovers. Very little will go to waste, and they’ll always have something in the house to eat when on a strict budget.
How to Store Food Correctly
Storing food, and the general concept of ‘food hygiene’ can be missed off the syllabus when the kids are young. However, storing food correctly will help to keep them healthy as they get older.
They’ll know not to put cooked and uncooked meats next to each other, and when to throw out an ingredient if it’s been stored for too long. They’ll also know early on not to touch raw meat and then touch their face!
Kids should learn how to cook from an early age. It’s an ever-expanding skill, and picking up the basics young will really help them as they grow.
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- Lisa has been blogging since 2013, and loves sharing resources and ideas for living a simple life. To get free printables, bonus words, and more - sign up for the newsletter.
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And be sure and teach your sons! I know men in their 50’s and 60’s that can’t even cook simple things like spaghetti or a scrambled egg.
Thank you for this post. I totally agree that all children should grown up with cooking skills!
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
I wish someone had taught me basic cooking skills when I was younger. My journey would have been easier.