Teaching Your Child to Cook
When I got married I knew how to make two hot dishes: canned chunky soup over rice and macaroni and cheese from a box. And one time I forgot to drain the macaroni.
What a blessing to have a patient husband! I well remember the first time I tried to make egg salad and I misread the recipe. I put one tablespoon of pepper in, instead of one teaspoon. Have you ever seen gray egg salad? Bless his heart, he actually took two bites while I quit after one bite.
That first year of marriage is hard enough without having the added stress of floundering in the kitchen every day! And if your child does not get married, he has even more of a reason to know how to cook for himself! Cooking can also be a wonderful act of ministry within the Body of believers, as well as a great service to family members. In short, we will be doing our children a favor if we make it a priority to give them the Home Skill of cooking.
How, you ask? Simply invite your child into the kitchen as you cook and bake. What do you do once they get there? Let’s review the five steps of learning any Home Skill.
- Watch – The child watches you do the skill.
- Help – The child helps you do the skill.
- Work side-by-side – The child works with you as you do the skill together.
- Do – The child does the skill while you watch.
- Inspect – The child does the skill alone, then you inspect the work.
“But what dishes should we make?” you may be wondering. Relax. You don’t need all of those fancy children’s cookbooks or purchased curriculum on Home Economics. As with any Home Skill, just let the child help you and use common sense as you progress from easy to more difficult and dangerous. Common sense is crucial because most cooking involves heat (sometimes with open flames) or sharp knives. Safety must be our first concern.
So here is a little list of suggestions to help you think through how you might progress from easiest and safest to more difficult and responsible. When you think about it, you can actually do a lot in the kitchen before you introduce knives.
Stage One: The Countertop Stage
Introduce easy countertop activities first that use a spoon, a whisk, or a table knife. Possibilities in this stage can include making peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and honey sandwiches; adding liquid and stirring things like frozen concentrated juice, jello, or instant pudding; measuring; arranging food on a serving plate; spreading frosting or other spreadables; spooning; sprinkling. You get the idea — safe and easy activities that involve no fire or sharp instruments.
Many children love to start helping in the kitchen when they are only two or three years old. For those young ones, it’s a good idea to have a sturdy stool that makes the child tall enough to reach into a large bowl on the countertop. Make sure the stool has feet that grip the floor, so it won’t slip out from under the child, and slip-proof steps. Also, keep in mind that children at this age have a varying attention span. Some days they might stay and help you cook for an hour; other days they may be done after five minutes. That’s OK. If Michele wants to stir the cookie dough only once and then leave, let her. The important thing is to keep a positive attitude and make cooking fun.
Stage Two: The Simple Stovetop Stage
Once your child is tall enough to reach the stovetop comfortably and can easily lift a saucepan of water, you can move on to Stage Two activities. These activities are done on the stovetop but require minimal interaction. In this stage you can teach your child to make pasta and rice. You can also have him make soup (with ingredients that you have already chopped, as needed).
Stage Three: The Progressing Stovetop Stage
Once the child is comfortable with simple stovetop activities, you can introduce some that require more constant attention, activities like browning meat, making gravy, and mixing and cooking pancakes.
Stage Four: The “Stick It In and Forget It” Oven Stage
Introduce oven activities once the child is tall enough to reach into the oven over the open door without getting burned and strong enough to lift a heavy dish in that position. It might be easiest to start with foods that require a long baking time, so the child accesses the oven only a couple of times while making that dish. These long-baking-time foods can include casseroles (again, with already-chopped ingredients), baked potatoes, a roast, quick breads, cakes, and pies. This stage would also be a great time to start learning how to make yeast breads.
Stage Five: The “Pay Attention” Oven Stage
Now your child can advance to foods that require paying more attention and checking more often to make sure they don’t burn. Foods that use a shorter baking time can include biscuits, pizza dough, and cookies. With cookies, the child will be reaching into a hot oven several times, so don’t introduce this activity too soon.
Stage Six: Finally, Knives!
Did you ever think that you could teach your child how to make all of those dishes listed above without ever giving her a sharp knife? I hadn’t realized it until I made this list! By the time your child has advanced through Stage Five activities, he should be old enough and responsible enough to learn how to handle a sharp knife safely. At that point you can introduce peeling and chunking potatoes for mashed potatoes, and chopping and slicing his own ingredients for soups and casseroles.
It’s such a blessing and a relief to have two other chefs in the house at this season of our life! Yes, it took time. No, it wasn’t always easy. (I remember when my oldest daughter went through an experimental stage that included adding food coloring to make green scrambled eggs.) But it was well worth it! I encourage you to intentionally give your child the Home Skill of cooking. You’ll be glad you did.
Q & A
Q: How can I teach my child to cook if I don’t know how?
A: That was pretty much my situation too. (Remember the macaroni I forgot to drain?) But I determined that it was a skill I needed to learn in order to minister to my family. I didn’t have any ambitions to be a gourmet chef, but I did want to feel comfortable in the kitchen and know how to prepare a number of dishes. So I opened the step-by-step cookbook I had gotten as a wedding present and started following the instructions. Little by little I learned.
As with any Home Skill that you don’t know yourself, you can find ways to teach yourself with the resources around you. Check your local library or search the Internet for easy step-by-step recipes and try one or two a week. Of course, you can also look around for an experienced cook who would take some time to teach you (and your children). This idea is lots of fun even after you know how to do basic cooking. For example, we’ve enjoyed learning how to make German dishes when a friend’s mother comes to visit each year. And another friend gives us great recipes and samples of Jewish foods.
Q: At what age should a child be able to follow a recipe?
A: As soon as a child can read and follow instructions, she can learn to follow a recipe. Have the child read the instructions on the box of pudding or from the cookbook or on the recipe card and help her follow them. It may be easier for you just to throw together a dish, paying little heed to any written recipe, but it will help the child if she grows up familiar with recipes and how to use them.
Now, for all of you who like to do the “a little of this and maybe some of that” style of cooking, I’m not saying that you have to go strictly by the letter for every dish, but please make sure you have an ample helping of recipe-following in your shared cooking times.
