Mother’s Day Chocolates

For Mother’s Day, a couple of weeks ago, our Year 8s worked together as a team and made more than 800 chocolates to be delivered to the school for Mother’s Day. They had so much fun!

This activity reminded me of the importance of giving children the opportunity to get involved in the kitchen and allowing them cook or bake. I know it can be messy, and the results might not be great (at first). However, aren’t these life lessons themselves? We learn to cope with frustration, how to react when things get messy, and reflect on what can be done next time to avoid the same outcome? Practice makes perfect. There are endless lessons when cooking and so many benefits for children as young as toddlers and all the way to adolescence.

Below, I have compiled a list of reasons why you should let your child cook:

1. It is an important life skill: imagine giving your child the confidence and independence to cook. Many people reach adulthood not knowing how to cook mainly because they were never given the opportunity to do so when young.
2. Builds relationships: Cooking with your child is a wonderful, fun and proactive way to spend time together and bond with them. Moreover, cooking together fosters cooperation and communication among the family.
3. Develops Fine Motor Skills: A lot of cooking tasks (like pouring, rolling, stirring, sprinkling) allow young children to refine their fine-motor skills.
4. Requires following instructions: To make sure the end product tastes good, they need to follow recipes and stick to specific quantities, times and procedures.
5. Develops reading skills: For the younger children, you can start with recipes that include visual ingredients and ask them to list them for you. For older children, and teens look for easy-to-follow recipes (or write them yourself) and let them read them and follow through. There will be new vocabulary they will learn.
6. Develops Maths Skills: Believe it or not, cooking involves lots of Maths, from simply counting, to taking measurements, to working with fractions, etc.
7. It is a creative outlet: Young kids love to be involved in deciding what is for dinner and to choose different ingredients as well as experiment with textures and flavours.  Older children can use their creativity in developing a dish or meal and the presentation, or using whatever is in the fridge and/or pantry to make a meal. Master Chef here we go!
8. Creates opportunities to serve: Whether it is helping to cook dinner for someone going through a hard time, making a snack for a family member, or making chocolates for a fundraiser, food is such an amazing way to show love, to serve and care for others.
9. Gives appreciation for food: When cooking a meal from scratch, one realizes how much effort, time, and ingredients are required for one meal. This is an opportunity to be thankful for having access to food, to talk about food wastage and appreciate the cook’s effort.
10. Relieves mom or dad: This might not be the case at the beginning (especially with younger kids) but imagine one day not having to make your child’s lunch box, or their afternoon snack or perhaps even having the night off courtesy of your child! Making food can become another way of helping at home.

Written by: Mrs Mariana Quintero, Spanish Teacher