Cooking with Youngsters; Have Fun and Learn

Cooking with Youngsters; Have Fun and Learn

A lot of opportunities can be found to spend time with youngsters, teaching them introductory cooking, having a good time, building self-esteem and supporting family growth.  Many youngsters, (we’ll just address girls here if we may, although boys might have the same interest), start showing significant interest in family responsibility type activities at 8 to 10 years.  This can be manifested in many ways as there are so many things that must be accomplished in the typical household.  Cooking together can be a great way for girls to really get to know various members of the family or community as well as getting lessons with lifetime benefit.

When girls start to indicate an interest in cooking, it may or may not be with their mothers.  If it is with their mothers the interest is likely more attuned to helping out; if the interest is indicated with another family member it possibly indicates a desire to learn a new activity.

The age and experience of a young girl impacts the complexity of the dish and recipe, time spent actually cooking, and of course safety concerns.  Youngsters are learning and maturing very rapidly and there can be a large difference between ages 8 and 10. 
Another important consideration is how “serious” joint cooking activities will be.  On the younger end the project might need to be seen as a  form of play, with plenty of time for zigs and zags back and forth to other activities.  As the young cooks mature, they will have more interest in “staying the course” through a dish or recipe, and then moving to another possibly overlapping dish.  It is sometimes a challenge to pick just the right level of encouragement to “stay on task” vs. letting the right amount of play time in.  It’s usually the wise choice to make it a lot of fun and let the concentration come naturally with maturity. 

Choosing appropriate recipes is easy and if possible can be done jointly with the aspiring cook.  Desserts are always good choices led by cupcakes, brownies, fruit bars, etc.  Another good choice because it is easy and you get a lot of output is to make pancakes. There are an unlimited number of choices of course.  Simple recipes and short preparation times are important early on in the process.

When girls at these ages have the opportunity to make something real, with new skills and having fun, and having that result be something that is good to eat and brings a lot of compliments, they get an important sense of satisfaction and self-esteem.  As the joint cooking proceeds a steady improvement will be seen in handling the various tasks, moving from the small steps to overseeing the entire recipe.

If you are very fortunate and have the opportunity to share your cooking experience and knowledge with a young girl and get some consistency to the activity, there are some very attractive and appropriate gifts that can go along with the cooking.  Available on the internet are a variety of children’s chef’s hats, aprons, bib aprons, chef’s jackets & coats, etc.   These are

easy to find on the internet and some come in wild colors.  They will make excellent gifts for the aspiring cook and reinforce an enjoyable and very useful skill.