Cooking With Kids

Cooking With Kids with Felice Gerwitz

Podcast # 224

Do you realize all the reading, math, science and advanced thinking skills are involved when cooking with kids? In this podcast, Felice discusses the long history of cooking in her family long before “farm to table” was fashionable. With a large family, cooking is something we do often – so why not include your children in the process?

Thanks to our sponsor, Raddish Kids!

Check out this info pack: Raddish One Page

Kids like to eat what they cook. Allowing them to serve their own food helps them in their food choices. Set a good example by eating a variety of foods or having foods available for them to eat. Especially finger foods and cut up fruit.

Age-appropriate tasks and expect a mess!

Show Notes: Cooking With Kids

Children Helping in the kitchen:
Setting the table
Washing dishes / putting dishes in the dishwasher
Cooking with mom
- Select food choices
- Exempt for cleanup
- Help plan the menu

Homeschoolers Cooking with Kids -Make cooking part of school:

Hands-on experience for the little kids
Cleanliness – teach children to be neat in the kitchen
Kitchen safety.
Writing out the recipes – the children can use it for copy work.
Reading and following directions.
Math skills – temperature to cook, measuring, calculating, fractions, dividing recipes or increasing them (two or three times), depending on family size.
Agriculture – learning about how things are grown
Geography: Source – where do foods come from?
Good nutrition – how food works to make us strong.
Cooking skills – learn various techniques.
Shopping for foods – putting together a grocery list.
Different cuisines – Asian, Spanish, Italian, Mexican, Thai etc.

Here are some things to ensure better quality time when cooking with kids:

If you are pressed for time, including the kids may not work.
Weekends – the best time for cooking
Age appropriate skills
Safety consideration – sharp knives, hot stove, etc.
Simpler dishes and meals again – again, Raddish kids offered things like chocolate pudding, sloppy joes, and tater tots and salad making. Very high on kids lists of favorite foods – and if you use organic ingredients.

Muffins, or assembling a pizza – you can use mini-bagels, or gluten free flatbreads or English muffin.

More thoughts –

Prep ahead. Sometimes the messier activities are better done in advance, like measuring out flour or sugar and having it ready in containers for the little ones to just pour, older kids can do this on their own.
Washing berries like blueberries – unless they are fresh (frozen makes a mess)
Keep paper towels handy.
Doing some prep work in advance, such as rinsing the berries for muffins etc. in advance does help – again with age appropriateness.

Cooking with kids – kid-friendly ideas

Set the stage for healthy eating – encourage kids to help
Teach kitchen cleanliness. Wash hands first, use clean surfaces.
Use stool to stand on or a separate lower table so they can reach
use charts with the recipes
Raddish Kids – great illustrated cards
Use kid friendly utensils – blunt knives so they can help
Be creative. Use skewers for bite size pieces.
Serve real food – nothing processed
- As close to raw as possible
- Organics or locally grown
- Should recognize what you are eating
Kid favorites:
1. Kabobs
2. Smoothies
3. Fruits
4. Cheese
5. Meats
Resources –
1. Cooking with kids – https://cookingwithkids.org/
2. Jamie Oliver – Cooking with Kids Video Series – right here

Special Thanks to our Network Sponsor!

We’d like to thank our Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network sponsor Raddish – a cooking club and curriculum, specially designed FOR KIDS by chefs and educators! Raddish is perfect for homeschooling families! Teach thematic cooking lessons that incorporate math, science, nutrition, geography, and culture. With Raddish, the kitchen is the tastiest place to learn! Use coupon code PODCAST at checkout for $15 off a 6 or 12 month membership. Visit RaddishKids.com/Homeschool to learn more and to download a free lesson.

Check out this info pack: Raddish One Page