Benefits of Cooking Activities in Children
Coming home from the supermarket that afternoon, Rayendra (4) immediately took an apron, put it on, and asked Mom to cook. “Ah, how excited, Mama’s little chef!” said Ratri, his mother, from Tomang, Jakarta. It’s been two months, since
diligently watching a program about a little chef on TV, Rayendra suddenly likes to ‘cook’.
Not really cooking, really, but he became diligent in helping mom or her nanny cook in the kitchen. Is it true that cooking has many benefits for children? How can you provide the right kind of support if your child suddenly becomes a cooking hobby like Rayendra?
Cooking has many benefits for children, Ma. Through cooking, children have various learning experiences. Don’t believe it? The following include:
– Children learn many things. Cooking is a simple (and fun) way for children to learn to read, count, and science. Here, children will learn to read recipes, calculate the measurements, and the food ingredients that will be processed.
In addition, children will learn about nutrition and healthy food.
– Strengthens bonding (attachment) and encourages intense communication during cooking together.
– The child is excited to eat because he helps prepare it, and the family also enjoys healthy food which is cooked happily.
– Builds self-confidence. When everyone eats heartily and Papa and Mama praise the delicious food served, the children will be proud too. You can encourage by saying, “This black pepper chicken is delicious, yes, Pa!” It could be that your little one will say excitedly, “Yes, please, Ma … Right, I cooked!”
– Encourage the ability to work together in teams. When cooking, do the division of tasks and assign responsibility to him to do certain tasks. For example, a child smearing tomato sauce on pizza dough. After that, he decorates the pizza with tomatoes, sausages, cheese, etc. This will make him feel very important. After everything was done, he learned that the job will finish faster and the results will be much more satisfying when done together.
– Develop motor skills and hone sensory sensitivity, namely sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. All of them work together to produce delicious and attractive food flavors, so that they are able to arouse the appetite of the whole family.
“I always remind Syifa (4.5), when cooking, one important thing to pay attention to is cleanliness. Starting from hands, vegetables, fruit,
to the places used to put food. If there are ingredients
food that fell on the floor? Can not be used again! ” – Elsa, Pondok Bambu, Jakarta
