What your children can learn from cooking with you!

Social Benefits

• Dinner conversation can help expand a child's vocabulary.
  (According to researchers at Harvard Graduate School of Education)
• Kids feel like they are accomplishing something and contributing to the family.
• Parents get to spend quality time with their kids.
• Kids aren't in front of the TV or computer while they're cooking.
• Learning to cook is a skill your children can use for the rest of their lives.
• They are to respect their bodies by having an awareness of what they are putting into it.
• Positive cooking experiences can help build self-confidence.
• Eating out less (therefore spending less)
• Involving kids in preparing meals is a stepping-stone to getting them to appreciate family meals. Because of challenging work, school, social and sports schedules, families rarely have time to share mealtimes together.
• Promotes teamwork.
• Experiencing the joys of giving and sharing.

Nutrition Benefits

• Parents serve as role models, letting their children observe them enjoying healthful foods.
• Offering healthier, low-calorie foods as well as less processed food.
• Kids generally aren't eating junk food when they're cooking a meal at home.
• When they are exposed to new tastes and textures early on in life, they are more likely to have a diverse palate as an adult.
• Parents can ensure their kids are getting enough of their daily nutritional needs through cooking at home with them.

Education Benefits

• Encourages a sense of creativity and expression through the “artwork” (food) they are creating. For example decorating a cake or arranging ingredients on a pizza.
• Learn an appreciation of food, through smells, sounds, textures and tastes, especially if they have been part of making the meal.
• Increasing manual dexterity and physical coordination.
• Basic mathematics skills like counting , measuring.
• Reading skills from reading recipes and directions
• Science skills – observation abilities, understanding of time / temperature

Between 16 and 33 percent of children and adolescents are obese. Unhealthy weight gain simply from poor diet and lack of exercise causes over 300,000 deaths every single year, costing society an estimated approximation $100 billion!

These are scary numbers and scary times for our younger generation. When I visit schools and see children headed in this unhealthy direction, it affects me on a personal level because I have been down that road, therefore feel a strong need to take proactive action in bringing about change. We know the facts and figures, we know the dangers our children face – so do you think together, we can really try do something about it?