Cooking With Children These School Holidays

Behaviour
Written By Fern Rodrigues

With Winter school holidays just around the corner and the cost of living going through the roof, you must be asking yourself how you’re I going to keep the children busy without having to sell a kidney - regardless it’s yours or theirs!!

I know mums are clever cookies and will always find ways to solve this and an infinite number of other problems to provide for their kids, but I wouldn’t be writing this article if I didn’t think I had something valuable to contribute… and, since this is a children’s nutrition site, so, I will humbly stick to that bit and give you a few ideas for activities that will keep the kids busy for a while and even help with their food intake. Like the sound of it? Then, keep reading…

children food play

The science of cooking with children

There is compelling research evidence showing that young adults who can cook have and maintain better health than those who can’t. So, the sooner you foment their interest for the kitchen, the better.

Providing opportunities for children to cook is beneficial to them on many levels. It can increase their intake of fruit and vegetables and it can improve their preference for nutrient-dense (aka healthy) foods over nutrient-poor (aka junk) ones. Plus, it helps children make sense of so many other things real life throws at them: problem solving, measurements, sorting, development of gross and fine motor skills, self-esteem, sense of agency etc. Plus, as they become more proficient, they can be of some help too and take up on a few tasks YOU do today. It may mean for you a cup of HOT tea or a proper shower. Think about it. 😉

Professor Clare Collins published an article on The Conversation a few years back where she reported results of a study in which they found that adults who had learnt to cook as children or teenagers were significantly happier, more confident, had a greater number of cooking skills and practices and mostly had better overall diet quality and health.

“Mothers had been the main person who taught them how to cook. Learning to cook from an early age is important.” – Prof Clare Collins

So…

Let’s get cooking

If this is a totally new territory for you and your little one, to start off, choose a super simple recipe of a food you are confident to make and that you know they like. Let’s say muesli…

Or muffins, or hummus, or pizza, or cookies, or hot chocolate, or popcorn, or Vegemite on toast…

But if you’re already a champion in the kitchen, then go ahead and share your culinary wisdom with your descendants and keep it rolling in the family for one more generation.

If you want inspiration, send me a message and I’ll send you a recipe eBook with 30 recipes for breakfast, snacks, dinner and lunchbox. Friendly recipes for all: nut-free, gluten-free, animal-free (aka vegan) etc. It’s cost-free too. 😉

Cooking with your children doesn’t have to be super elaborated. In fact, the more spontaneously and naturally it happens, the more it will feel normal and safe for your child to want to participate, and then simply become part of day-to-day life.

Now, a warning: do not expect them to go eating every single thing they prepare. It doesn’t happen that way. They might eat what they prepare/cook, but they might not. You should keep your cool and don’t make a fuss about it – they are the fussy ones here not you, right?

Cooking is a great activity to let children explore foods and expose them to new or not-yet-liked foods without pressure to eat. So, let it be just that, and don’t put pressure on them to eat or you may even put them off cooking altogether.

Delegate the task

If you’re not confident in the kitchen or can’t deal with the mess, maybe cooking with children – or with YOUR children – may not be for you.

This doesn’t suggest you can’t provide this experience to them though. There are fabulous people out there who can help you with that.

Foodie Nature Play playgroup is a wonderful service for the folks living at NSW Central Coast. During school terms, they meet twice a week at SWAMP Central Coast. Check them out.

Foost runs children cooking events at public spaces around the country and will be busy during the coming weeks. Check their holidays calendar here.

For online sessions, you could have a look at Kids Love To Cook. They have a monthly subscription with several sessions and recipes for 8 to 14 year-olds.

Have a look at your local community centre or garden, or public library as they usually run school holidays events and there’s always one or two that involve cooking.

So, there you go, a few ideas to encourage little people to learn an important life skill with a huge potential to keep their health in check for decades to come.

And if you need help with this or with any other aspect of your children’s nutrition, you know you can also reach out to us.

Learn about My Unique Fussy Eater programs here. Cooking lessons with Fern can be part of the program that will be developed specifically for your unique child.

 

References

Fern Rodrigues
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