Cooking with kids

Cooking can be a great gift for special occasions but most of the times it’s an everyday gift that moms and sometimes dads make to their children. No doubt it is an entertaining activity but also a good teacher. It helps the young cooks improve their math and motor skills, work on their coordination as well as get creative. Cooking with kids also benefits parents who learn to be more patient, give good directions and teaches them how to demonstrate.

Here we have 14 moms from around the world share their experiences. No matter the country they come from, what language they speak, boy or girl, age they were introduced to cooking, these children love being in the kitchen and helping with all sorts of activities and this because of their dedicated parents! Thank you mothers for cooking with your children!

1. At what age did you introduce your children to cooking?
1. I think, Theo was 2, almost 3, when we baked our first cookies together.
2. What are some of their favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. They love baking cookies, cinnamon rolls and Streuselkuchen (crumb cake). Then they cook vegetable soups, first cutting the vegetables and blending everything in the end. And we make pizza together. They’re not allowed to cook alone yet … Too wild around the stove …

Nicki (USA) – mom of Coen (5 )and Mabel (3)
1. At what age did you introduce your children to cooking?
1. I am not much of a baker, and I’m a terrible cook, but I do think it’s a valuable lesson to teach our kids. So I try 🙂 I involved them in my meal making from the age of, I’d say, 2.
2. What are some of their favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. My son cracks eggs better than I do and they both love stirring batter (and licking the spoon). Our specialty is pancakes, and white chocolate pretzels. I’m not sure if those qualify as “cooking” but they involve an oven and teach the idea of measuring and math, so we are halfway there, right? 🙂 One of our seasonal favorites is Christmas M&M pretzels

Kate (USA) – mom of Niamh (6) Zoe (4) and Fiona (2)
1. At what age did you introduce your children to cooking?
1. I think I had them all mixing batter by the time they could stand and walk so about 1, but, I let them in the kitchen at all ages.
2. What are some of their favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. They love baking breakfast muffins and brownies but we also have a bunch of recipes chicken + sauces that they also help with. At 4 we let them use knives with supervision, and, mix things on the stove top… They don’t cook on their own but they do microwave like champs 🙂 Even Fiona microwaves~

Diana (USA) – mom of Noelle (3)
1. At what age did you introduce your child to cooking?
1. I started cooking with Noelle when she was 18 months. She has always helped me in the kitchen, or just played in the kitchen along side me as I cooked. She now loves to bake, and she pretends to cook food for others all the time.
2. What are some of her favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. She asks to make cupcakes weekly, and she loves to help with pouring and mixing! Her favorite thing to make is cupcakes, especially pink (aka strawberry) ones. She also likes to add food coloring to most baked treats to make them “pinkilicious!”

Gianna (USA) – mom of Kyla (9), Tori (8), Dash (6) and Jack (4)
1. At what age did you introduce your children to cooking?
1.We introduced cooking to our kids as soon as their were interested. And that meant most of them were 2. Usually they help with baking (even now) to stay away from the heat. Plus the fun is to mix all the ingredients together anyway. But as they get older, most of them want to deal with more.
2. What are some of their favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. Our four year old loves to help with Mac and Cheese. Our eight year old would help with whatever you ask of her. They all love to make pizza and cookies and pancakes.

Gabriela (Canada) – mom of Edwin (8)
1. At what age did you introduce your child to cooking?
1. At the age of 15 months he started being with me in the kitchen and helping me cook soups by handing me potatoes and other ingredients.
2. What are some of his favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. Cooking vegetable soups is still one of his favorites.

Marvellina (USA) – mom of Fiorina (4) and Iven (1)
1. At what age did you introduce your children to cooking?
1. Both my kids had been in the kitchen and watched me cook since they were about 1 year old. The first time I actually had Fiorina helped me out at the kitchen was when she was around 2. She would help me stir dry mix and easy stuff like that. When she was almost 3, she could help me with cutting cookies with cookie cutter, decorate cookies, and cut some veggies (with kiddie knife).
2. What are some of their favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. Fiorina is now 4 years old and she loves to bake cookies. She is not able to do it alone yet, however she can mix the dough with my help and shape the cookies. She loves to make some toasts for breakfast, decorating ginger bread house too. She likes to toss her favorite veggie, kale, with some oil before I roast them in the oven to make kale chips.

Joanna(Singapore) – mom of Megan, Keagan and Reagan
1. At what age did you introduce your children to cooking?
1. I introduce cooking to Megan and Keagan when they were 10 and 11 respectively.
2. What are some of their favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. Megan was more adventurous and tried simple dishes fried omelette and fried broccoli. These are her favorite dishes and I find it easier to get her interest to “try”. Keagan was less adventurous because of being scared of heat and oil splattering on him. However, I find that it’s easier to get him into “wanting to try” when he see Megan does it.
Last year during the holidays I organized a “bake off” challenge for them. What I made them do was to find a simple dish of whatever they wanted to bake from the Internet, and I brought them to the grocery store to get the ingredients. So they went home to bake.
Megan started to bake on her own when she was 13. Some of her favorite recipes are cornflakes cookies, chocolate chip cookies, plain cupcake with frosting. Keagan prefers to cook dishes like instant noodles 🙂

Claudia (Germany) – mom of Olga (3)
1. At what age did you introduce your child to cooking?
1. My daughter was introduced to cooking around the age of 1. I had to keep an eye on her while cooking so I used to bring her along in the kitchen, started explaining to her what mommy was doing and little by little she became interested. Now she comes on her own to help me and I can see that she enjoys it. She kneads dough, separates egg yolks from whites, mixes, licks the bowls 🙂
2. What are some of her favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. Olga doesn’t cook on her own yet but she loves to knead and play with dough, and bake all sorts of cookies and goodies together with her mother. At the beginning, while working on her dough, Olga used to drop it on the floor so I would toss her unbaked cookies. Seeing how this affected her made me keep a closer eye on her so didn’t drop it anymore and I could bake them with the rest. The minute I open the oven she asks for her own goodies and eats them with a lot of satisfaction.
As for what’s her favorite food, she told me that she would never cook, only bake. She’s obsessed with baking! 🙂

Renu (Canada) – mom of Vivaan (3)
1. At what age did you introduce your child to cooking?
1. Vivaan has been in the kitchen with me since he was about 18 months old. He used to help me scoop stuff and wash – nothing near the stove though. He used to love looking at ingredients and can rattle off names of pretty much everything in my kitchen He knows which one is baking soda and baking powder 🙂
2. What are some of his favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. He loves to bake with me and we make cinnamon rolls, muffins and such. He loves making rotis too.

Silvia (USA) – mom of Felicia (19), Laetitia (7), Patricia (6), Adelicia (4)
1. At what age did you introduce your children to cooking?
1. I do let the girls get involved in the kitchen, actually they started pretty early, about 3 years old. The girls just love to help with anything, not chopping of course. They can help with making mash potatoes, peel vegetable. As long as not holding knife 🙂
2. What are some of their favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. They love Chinese steamed radish cake ( lo pak ko ), yam cake, spekoek (Indonesian spiced layer cakes). They love all kind of nyonya kue (the fusion between the Chinese and Malay cooking).

Alexandra (Romania) – mom of Mircea (4)
1. At what age did you introduce your child to cooking?
1. My son is fascinated by anything cooking-related and is eager to get involved. We cook everything together. He helps me peel carrots, pours cornmeal for polenta, pushes the blender button, adds salt and oil, mixes the ingredients for cakes…
2. What are some of his favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2.One of his favorite activities when grandma babysits him is to bake together cookies, sweet breads or muffins. We dyed the Easter eggs together last year and had a blast so we look forward to it again this year.

Wendy (Canada) – mom of Charlotte (6)
1. At what age did you introduce your child to cooking?
1. As soon as she could wield a balloon whisk. I am a terrible parent for not remembering milestones, but it must have been around 18-24 months. As soon as she could take direction from me, I would let her whip up the eggs for breakfast or the batter for pancakes. When she was 3, I let her start using a cutter and she would have the job of chopping mushrooms, and just recently she’s felt more comfortable being near the stove. She always asks to help on the kitchen so I try to have a job for her as we do 95% of our cooking from scratch, so she’s fed the hopper to grind the meat for mince & tatties, she’s grated cheese etc..
2. What are some of her favorite things to cook or bake (alone or with you)?
2. If you asked her, it would be cupcakes, but she’s lucky if she gets to make them once a year 😉 Lately, she likes to make what we call pan pizza. She makes a simple pizza dough, and then dry cooks it in a skillet, flips it, and then adds toppings. This way, she doesn’t have to crawl inside an oven. She also loves making turkey pie when we have a roast dinner, and she aces it!!! 🙂 which has been super handy as we have a newborn on the house. Its great having dishes that I can delegate to her 😛