Cooking is an important life skill. Teaching children to cook can start as early as preschool. While these young chefs shouldn't be expected to use a knife or to read a complex recipe, you can teach them some good, solid foundation skills, such as measuring, time management and following directions.
Preschoolers are curious about their world and are interested in learning things that require a bit of independence.
Teach Basic Skills
Cooking requires some basic skills, and starting with these will provide a good foundation for these future cooks. Such skills are measuring, food group knowledge, herb identification, kitchen safety and following directions.
Lesson 1: Safety
Start by teaching basic kitchen safety. Explain the dangers of fire and a hot oven. Show that there are proper ways to handle hot pots (i.e., potholder). Let the child know that an adult should always be the one to handle such hot items. Move onto other safety issues, such as knives and proper hygiene in the kitchen (washing hands, handling meats).
Lesson 2: Measuring
Show the child the different ways to measure in the kitchen: by the cup (or part thereof), tablespoon, teaspoon and gallon.
Choose a recipe where the student can practice measuring and adding simple ingredients, such as making a powdered drink mix. Let her measure, stir and taste her drink. Then, try a more difficult recipe, such as a cookie recipe in which more measuring is required. Again, assist her with proper measuring techniques but allow her to measure and pour the ingredients into the bowl.
Lesson 3: Food Groups
Discuss the different food groups as outlined by the United States Department of Agriculture (see Resources). Healthy eating is an important skill to learn at an early age.
Find items on your shelves and in the refrigerator, and using the food pyramid, ask the student what food group the chosen item belongs. For further fun, ask him about his favorite meal and have him find each element on the food pyramid to see if it is a balanced meal.
Lesson 4: Spices and Herbs
Cooking requires previous knowledge of spices and herbs; what do they taste like? Set out a few different spices and herbs. Tell the child the name of the herb or spice and have her smell it. Then, give her a small taste of the spice. It is best to pick spices she may eat on a regular basis so she may even be able to tell you it tastes like something she has eaten before. Make a recipe that includes some spices and herbs. Have the child measure and add the herbs or spices.
Lesson 5: Experimentation
Children love to create, and cooking requires creativity. Allowing children to create their own recipe can be fun and even tasty.
Choose something like pasta, precooked pizza dough or plain rice. Pick a few ingredients to add like cheese, meat, vegetables and spices. Give enough choices to make it fun for the young chef but not too many choices that could lead to a cooking disaster. Then, allow the child to create a recipe. Encourage him to add different items.
Lesson 6 - Cooking by Recipe
Show the child what a recipe looks like and follow a recipe, though the child isn't required to read. Again, the goal is to show the child how it is done. While you will be doing the majority of the work, allow the child to help measure and show her how you are following the directions.
Tags: following directions, allow child, food group, food pyramid, kitchen safety