Brownies or Pancakes? Bring on the cooking this holiday.

The holidays are upon us, and we’re here to remind you of a joyful, wholesome, and educational experience that you can do in the comfort of your own home - COOKING! It’s learning + connection + possibly delicious treats.

This holiday season, we’re encouraging you to bring your children into the kitchen for a chance to connect, share an opportunity for learning, and eat something delicious.

Why is cooking such a great thing to do together?

Reading. Depending on the age of your child, you might ask them to read the recipe (one step at a time). If you have an emergent reader, you can encourage them to go on a word hunt. Do this by picking a word, like ‘pasta’ and writing it in big letters on the recipe. Give your child a highlighter and ask them to go through the recipe and highlight every time they see the word ‘pasta.’ Obviously, this only works if you have a printed-out recipe.

Science. When you cook, you are mixing ingredients together and looking at the changes in the food that occur when you bake, stir, mix, and boil. Ask your child questions like: What changes are you noticing? What do you think will happen to the cheese when it goes in the oven? How is heat affecting this dish? How do you think the shape/size/texture will change once we cook it?

Math. We love measuring cups to master fractions! If the recipe calls for 1⁄2 a cup of flour, how about upping the ante and giving your child a choice? We can do ½ a cup of flour OR ¼ of a cup TWO times. Those amounts are equivalent to each other. And as you’re doubling, tripling, or dare we say quadrupling recipes…meet multiplication!

Social studies. Perhaps you choose to cook something inspired by your culture, country of origin, or from another culture altogether. Use time spent cooking to connect about traditions, stories, and experiences from places far more exotic than where you may be in the moment.

Attention. Cooking is full of multi-step directions to practice focusing, remembering, and sequencing.

A few tips before the kitchen timer starts…

● Adjust your expectations. Cooking with children isn’t the fastest or cleanest, but it can be fun. Choose age-appropriate recipes and come to the kitchen with patience and a sense of humor. Even a recipe fail can still be a learning success!

● Start simple. While a souffle may be on the menu, we recommend choosing an easy recipe to start. For the younger ones, multi-step directions are HARD. Start with a simple cookie recipe, a salad, or a soup.

● Give your child some autonomy. This experience will be better if your child has a chance to make some decisions. If possible, offer them an opportunity to put their creativity to work. Can they pick the ingredients? Can they decorate the cookies?

● Praise what works! If you see something going well (careful hands, thoughtful pouring, etc.), let your child know. It’s so important to acknowledge what’s working and going well. Remember…the process is more important than the product :)

Finally, if you’ve got some time, we HIGHLY recommend watching the Bluey episode “Omelette.” Everything you need to know (humor, patience, mistakes, and more) is in that episode.