If you ask any soon-to-be-graduating high school seniors what they wish they had learned before heading off to the real world, chances are one skill would come up pretty often—how to cook. To many young people, gourmet means grilled cheese, microwave popcorn, and Ramen noodles.
How do parents get their children interested in cooking? The answer is easy—start early. Children should be taught at a young age to prepare food, starting with simple meals which then become more complex as they get older. Instead of spending so much money on fast food and restaurants, parents can bond more with their children by helping them learn how to cook.
The effort to teach meal preparation to their children may prove educational for the parents as well; by teaching young ones this necessary life skill, parents will also be able to discuss the need for proper nutrition and eating habits.
If this sounds like something you want to undertake with your children, there are some helpful tools available that can help you make the process a bit more, shall we say, palatable.
Lunches – Sandwiches to Sushi
One of the toughest parts of being a parent is balancing work time, dinner time, and then finding time to prep the next day’s nutritious school lunch. One way to fix this is to involve the kids. Children can get their start in the kitchen by helping you load up these meal prep containers.
You can start with something simple, like sandwiches and fruit and then, as your child becomes more comfortable in the kitchen, they can progress to more elaborate meals. They will be the envy of the cafeteria when they roll in with homemade sushi or roast chicken for lunch instead of PB&J.
Kid Size Utensils
One of the ways to instill in your children a sense of ownership is to give them something they can call their own, like kitchen utensils. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to give a seven-year-old their own set of knives, but this Curious Chef 11-Piece Chef Kit can help them feel like real chefs. The kit comes with an apron, spatula, measuring spoons, and a whisk – just what you need to help your child feel like a grown-up – and to keep them interested and motivated in the kitchen!
Camping
Camping offers another fun opportunity to teach children how to learn to cook. Cooking outdoors always seems to make the food taste better than at home, doesn’t it? If you are going to try this, then perhaps the most time-honored camping tradition is roasting marshmallows and hot dogs over a campfire. The MICRO Marshmallow Roasting Sticks can be used to safely roast food over an open flame without having to worry about the stick bending or breaking and without worrying about safety issues.
Gold Armour features a mess kit that is perfect for camping families so that you can use an outdoor get-away to teach your child how to cook in the wild with a frying pan and mini-stove. You can also choose the Outdoor Anywhere mess kit with durable non-stick pots and pans for a trip.
There are plenty of original and exciting ways to get your kids interested in cooking. By doing this, you will not only teach them necessary life skills, you will also be teaching them a skill that will stay with them for a lifetime. Learning how to be creative in the kitchen can lead to all sorts of artistic endeavors while gaining the confidence of being able to do more. These skillsets are key to building confident young adults.