Cooking with Children: 15 Lessons for Children, Age 7 and Up, Who Really Want to Learn to Cook

slI found a fantastic book on Amazon.com, on Cooking with Children It is written by Marion Cunningham who is probably best known for her work on the Fannie Farmer books. In Cooking with Children she shares her experience on teaching both children and parents the basic skills for the kitchen.

The book is really for children age seven and older, the books is designed partly to instruct and partly to provide an opportunity for parents and children to share in preparing and eating meals--an element of family life that is quickly vanishing in this age of busy schedules and microwave meals consumed on the run.

Cunningham bases her book on her experiences teaching youngsters both privately and in community center programs. What she learned about a child's capabilities, likes, and dislikes has been distilled into 15 basic lessons, all centered around a particular recipe. The first chapter, for example, entitled "Vegetable Soup," teaches how to peel and chop vegetables, how to sauté, how to be organized in the kitchen, and the difference between boiling and simmering. Chapter 6, "Pancakes and Popovers," teaches how to mix a batter, test the heat of a skillet, grease baking cups, and more. The instructions for each recipe are clear, detailed, and easy to follow. The recipes are easy enough for older children to follow on their own. Cooking with Children is a terrific introduction to the culinary arts for kids--and makes a pretty nice refresher course for adults as well.

There are 35 favorite recipes, from vegetable soup to a birthday cake in color.

I like the the book because it is easy to follow and we can get our kids to read it. It provides great guidance in the kitchen and to prepare nice and delicious meals. And it keeps it simple. And the book is not very expensive - it used one is going for less than US3.00. A new one about US16 but i think you can get it at USD6 or USD7 if you buy within a certain time period. A few of our friends bought the book and they really loved it and asked me to get it. I got one for myself rather than borrowing. And books you gonna use in the kitchen will definately get stains and drips of this and that. Best to get one of your own which you can keep and refer all the time.

Have a look. Click on the picture or any of the the links
on the article.

I hope you will let me know what you think.

Useful Resources on Kids and Cooking

Dear Parents, I hope you have been enjoying reading experience this blogs on applying cooking to teach our kids.

If you would have noticed, for a lot of the articles, I set out links to information that could be useful to you if not directly, indirectly in your dealing with your kids and the whole cooking experience. Being an accountant, I have also included some elements of finance. Its for your convenience and I thought that a lot of these material, are an excellent choice and provides value for money.

For this entry, i thought to provide some easy reference information and material that could be useful in teaching kids and cooking. The internet is a huge place and there’s just everything of everything everywhere. And sometimes, we just want something simple. How to get the kids to eat or even trying to figure out what to Ccok.

Some of the books and resources are from Amazon and a lot of others from various places, which I thought are quite good.

365 Foods Kids Love to Eat The bestselling guide to happy, healthy mealtimes with kids. 365 Foods Kids Love to EatHere is-the cookbook with carefully chosen, great tasting, good that appeals to the whole family, especially the kids! Encourage healthy attitudes toward food and lifelong, wholesome eating habits with 365 Foods Kids Love to Eat! Perfect for busy parents.

Kid Approved Meals! 13 Weeks Of Breakfast & Lunch Menus That Are Kid-Tested & Mom Approved, With Categorized Grocery Shopping Lists Accompanying Each Menu. Perfect For Homeschool Families, Stay At Home Moms, And Daycare Providers













This site http://astore.amazon.com/http1teachinb-20
has some great books and ideas in one page. The prices are also reasonable and constantly with ideal promotions. The books are about recipes but what is more interesting is that there are selected books about cooking and kids.

I do hope enjoy these resources. Do let me know if there are other useful resources for other mums and dads. Glad to post it on the blog

Label your Kitchen and Your House – Learning Words at Home

You know what they say – learning often requires frequent affirmation and repetition.
I found a wonderful secret. We visited our friend during Christmas and her house was plastered with words. She has a 2 year old and she was constantly looking at words because everything in the house from the chair to the stairs and things in the garage and kitchen were labeled!


What better way to teach words and spelling to our little ones or even the slightly bigger ones. It provided us with a reminder on spelling too. As adults we often rely on the computer to correct our spelling.

Labeling stuff in the kitchen is a brilliant way to teach kids about things in the kitchen. You can go one step further by identifying and labeling kitchen things that are dangerous.



This is an easy way to teach kids words especially while cooking. To save time you don’t need to refer to books on teaching kids reading and spelling too much because the words are all around you. And it practically costs nothing – except for the paper (card board) and pen that you are using.

Labeling stuff can take a bit of effort but it is worth it because it saves us a lot of time afterward.

A Way with Words – Teach Words While Shopping and Cooking for Dinner

Kids learn words all the time and often it is hard to get them to say it right. It takes a lot of patience especially with smaller kids. My husband and I are constantly looking for ways to teach them proper grammar, saying and speaking right and politely - when they answer the phone, when they greet their friends and family, when they speak to us and others. We even have mini toastmaster’s sessions in our hall, just to teach them a bit of public speaking and putting words together correctly and clearly.

Books also provide a good guide to teaching kids words. We found some great books , not too expensive (less than USD15 some as low as just below USD4.00) just to get them to read and say the words as they read. It also helps with the teaching.

One method that we found was an absolute delight was through the whole cooking process – shopping and cooking. It also helps with managing our time. Between working, caring for the kids and household work, it can be a challenge finding time to teach them anything!

Decide on a menu for the meal or just a list of things you need to get from the market or supermarket.

For example
First Make a list – get your children to sit with and decide what you need to buy:
1. Loaf of Bread
2. Butter
3. Chicken Meat
4. Vegetables – carrots and cabbage
5. Bunch of flowers
6. Small vase
7. Dishwasher
8. Stationery for school
9. Tin opener

2. Start simply – don’t need to complicate it:

“Let's write a list of things we need from the market”
For younger kids, say the alphabet and show them what you have written. They would automatically start recognizing words.

Continue the process purposefully.

‘Do we need this or do we need that.’
The most important of all is to ensure that your kids are involved in the shopping process. Make sure that they hold the list – it works wonders to ensure that they are focused, them and a sense of accomplishment.

Remind them what a great job they did by complementing their efforts and responsibility in getting the shopping done and that you had not forgotten anything.