As a nanny, you have endless opportunities to encourage children’s curiosity and learning through hands-on activities. One delightful way to do this is by involving kids in cooking and baking! Getting children into the kitchen provides numerous developmental benefits while teaching them a valuable life skill.
When children help prepare food, all of their senses become engaged. They can touch and smell different ingredients, observe how things transform with heat, and ultimately taste the delicious results of their efforts! This multi-sensory experience reinforces critical cognitive abilities like following sequences, measuring, making predictions, and problem-solving.
Cooking together also supports early literacy as you read recipes and has surprise math lessons by counting, fractionalizing, and learning about volumes/weights. Children hone fine motor skills through mixing, pouring, spreading, and other tasks that build coordination. Their focus, patience, and ability to follow multi-step directions are practiced.
Beyond just academics, kitchen time allows bonding between adults and children. It provides a safe, comforting environment to have conversations and share cultural traditions. Cooking promotes self-esteem and responsibility when children can take pride in contributing to a final product. It can foster adventurous eating habits as kids gain an appreciation for how food is prepared.
To make the most of culinary fun:
- Start simple with no-bake recipes, such as trail mixes or fruit kebab creations
- Let children do as many steps independently as possible (with supervision)
- Make clean-up part of the process so they learn full-cycle cooking
- Discuss ingredients and where they originate from
- Praise kitchen helpers for their efforts, not just the end products
- Tie recipes into lessons about nutrition, math, reading, or geography
- Most of all, model a joyful, casual cooking attitude so they develop kitchen confidence!
Mixing up meals and treats together provides quality time creating memories. But it also sets children up for future success by teaching indispensable home economic skills. So embrace the (hopefully contained) messes and get cooking – the delicious developmental rewards are unbeatable!
Below are some fun articles with easy recipes you can try with your charges, but you can also check out our Pinterest Board!