By pursuing cooking as a hobby, children can learn a lot of things. Learn more about the benefits of encouraging children to take-up cooking as a hobby.Neha is surprised to see the sandwiches that her son served her when she came back from the office. She never knew that her son has keen interest in cooking. She decided to enrol her son for the cooking classes during his vacations. She has realized that cooking can be a great hobby for her kid. Neha is sure that by joining
cooking classes he can learn many new dishes as well as enjoy his hobby.
Choosing Cooking as a Hobby for the Kids
It is the responsibility of the parents to help their kids to spend their leisure time in positive activities so parents must guide their kids in choosing the hobby. Children find kitchen to be a fascinating place and think they have lots of fun to do in the kitchen. It is not untrue at all. Many kids especially the teenagers find very much interested in cooking and consider cooking as their hobby.
What Cooking Teaches the Kids?
Here is what children can learn from the
art of cooking.
Practical Knowledge
Kids learn much more than simply making sumptuous dishes when they cook. Many important tips they get while they learn cooking and these tips are very helpful for them later on in their lives.
Learning Basic Mathematics
Learning of basic mathematics is possible during cooking. When children cook a dish, they get acquainted with the new terms for measurement, proportion and counting e.g. a dozen, 500 grams, one tablespoon of etc.
Learning New Words
During cooking children get to learn new words and their vocabulary gets improved. They get introduced to the words like grating, dice, whisk, bake, sauté, deep fry, shallow fry, marinate etc.
Introduction to Scientific Concepts
Children get introduced to many scientific words and concepts during cooking. They learn about fermentation, freezing, thawing, pasteurization etc.
Learning Life Skills
Cooking teaches many life skills to the kids. They learn how to proceed in a logical and orderly way to reach a particular result. Children learn to work in stepwise manner and also learn to follow instructions. Cooking enhances the multitasking ability of a child.
Improved Presentation Skills
Cooking does not limit to preparing the dish only. It also requires good presentation. Children get to learn the presentation skills when they present the dishes cooked by them.
Becoming Self-Reliant
A child who has cooking as a
hobby will surely become self-reliant and independent as he or she grows up. They need not depend on processed or canned food as they can themselves cook their meal at home.
Keeping Kids Involved
Some activities of cooking are great ways to utilize the energy of the kids. E.g. whipping cream or beating eggs help the kids to utilize their energy in a positive way and they feel satisfied after they are done with the dish.
How Hobby of Cooking Helps the Entire Family
When the kids have cooking as a hobby automatically parents also get involved into this activity. For other leisure
activities of kids like swimming, music etc. parents need not participate in them but when cooking is done, all the family members can participate in this activity. Even if the kid of the family has cooking as the hobby, participation in this activity works as the stress buster for the elders. Children learn to respect food and know more about healthy food when they do cooking. This also helps in controlling the wastage of food. When children realize that so much of effort goes into making food, they would automatically see to it that no food is wasted. Parents and children can communicate very well while they are engaged into cooking.
A hobby teaches many things to a child. At the same time, a child must enjoy the activity. Cooking is a hobby that is full of enjoyment and at the same time teaches many important values of life thereby helping the kids to grow well.
Why should children take-up cooking as a hobby? What are the benefits of taking-up cooking as a hobby for children? At what age should children start learning cooking? Discuss here.