Some of the best adult memories can come from time spent around the kitchen table or helping with the holiday meals. Fun family times can be educational family times also. In tough economic times, more families are declining the eating out option and choosing a meal at home. Unfortunately for some of the newest generation out on their own, their foundations in how to cook are not strong and they are learning to cook during these tough times. Teaching your children to cook is good for them. It teaches a skill which will offer them independence and the ability to support themselves later in life. The younger a child starts, the more simple the learning task must be but any task learned early in life is one that is mastered for years to come.

The secret to how to teach your children to cook is simple. Make it fun. Fun times are more memorable and will instill a good work ethic when children see parents working and enjoying the task. For steps to take in teaching children to cook, first determine the skill level of the child and how much they can absorb or safely accomplish with your help. Starting with fun tasks like decorating food, baking, helping to frost cupcakes, or simple non heat related tasks are good early learning phases in cooking. Continue on as the child grows and with each added skill learned the child will become more confident and ultimately be cooking on their own.

An early step in teaching children to cook is to teach them basic instructions. If they can read, this means showing them the recipe or the instructions on a package and how to follow them. If they cannot read but can follow basic instructions, this step may be simple like “put one paper liner in each cupcake pan”. You can explain why in cases that you think the child will understand. Even if the child will not be using the oven, you can explain basic steps like what preheating the oven does.

This is a good time to teach basic measurement steps like using measuring cups and spoons and even at an early age, you can demonstrate simple things like “adding 1/2 cup of water”. This helps prepare the child for learning measurements and fractions. For children learning these items at school, having them find the right measuring cup and performing this part of the recipe reinforces school lessons.http://www.preparedpantry.com/teachingkidstocook.aspx

Choose simple tasks to help teach your children to cook. If you are making brownies, choose a simple portion of the recipe for the child to do. This can range from stirring the mix at a very young age, to helping pour in the pan as they get older. For a main course meal, have an older child help gather the ingredients while reading the recipe card, or the younger child may pour the milk you have measured into the mixing bowl. In order to keep the children interested, plan a task for them to do in each part of the cooking. Sometimes you will need to keep reminding the child of their next involvement in order to keep their interest. Simple recipes work best for children to help with. If they can help mix something, and then play while the item cooks, returning to help decorate or finish off the recipe it allows them to stay interested.

Using a non-cooked recipe as your child moves into older ages, allows you to teach them to cook completely on their own. Once your child has mastered reading recipes and following instructions, they can make something like a fruit salad on their own. Making a complete item by themselves is a confidence booster and will let their love for learning to cook grow. Jello items, pudding desserts, tuna salad or other cold food dishes are good recipes to be prepared alone by children.

Once non-cooked recipes are mastered, you can progress to recipes where you provide a portion of the ingredients as cooked items and the children complete the rest of the recipe.