Tips on How to Teach Cooking to Kids

Are you interested in how to teach cooking to children? I've had several people contact me looking for advice about wanting to open up classes or do kids parties in their own area.

Whether it be on a professional level or a more beginning level, I've gathered my knowledge, others ideas and given you tips on teaching classes. You can use these ideas for starting classes in your community, homeschool groups, church groups, etc.

Kids Cooking Activities Teaching Materials

Make teaching easier with our activities and recipes compiled in theme sets and books with an easy to read format

Perfect for teaching!

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How to Teach Cooking - What to Cook

Perhaps the first question is, what to cook in your kids cooking classes!  Finding ideas for what to cook is the fun part, at least I think so. There are several ways you can structure your class menus.

Kids Cooking Lessons

Use our children's lessons for teaching. We have four different age groups and instructions on what to teach and what recipes to use. We also have a basic how to cook section if they are beyond the other.

Theme Classes

A weekly class can have a different theme each week. Some ideas could include:

• Breakfast recipes. You can do lots of ideas with this including pancakes, muffins, eggs, breakfast casseroles, donuts, etc.
  
• Pizza day. Kids will love creating the dough as well as putting it all together. You can also try breakfast pizza or a cookie pizza.
  
• Dessert day. A favorite of every kid!
  
• International recipes. Lots of ideas in this one!
  
• Fondue. You can do a dessert fondue or a type of cheese fondue.
  
• Seasonal and Holiday Ideas
  
• Theme menus
  
• Homemade Pasta
  
• Popsicles and Smoothies
  
• Cooking with Books
  
• Food and Science

Go ahead and brainstorm ideas such as these and you'll have ideas on how to teach cooking that will last you many classes.

Ingredient Theme Class

Choose a certain ingredient per class. Some ideas for this:

• Banana recipes
• Potato recipes
• Eggs
• Chicken recipes
• Apple Recipes
  
• See any of our food facts for more ideas.
• Browse our kids recipe index and choose a section.

Kids Cooking Activities Ebooks

I've created the Teacher Curriculum Set to use in classes whether they are for one child or for a group. The materials are perfect to help you teach kids to cook. They are also in a pdf format that makes it easy to read, print off and cook with.

Try them out- it is a complete cooking curriculum!

Tips on How to Teach Cooking Classes to Children

1. If the recipe takes you 10 minutes, it will take much longer when teaching and helping kids create the same recipe. Keep this in mind when planning.
2. Keep the kids on the task at hand. Kids can be easily distracted so don't talk too much and keep them on task.
3. Give a run down on what is expected in the kitchen and what the recipe entails before starting.
4. Let kids show a little creativity. They need to follow the recipe but also choose recipes kids can be creative.
5. Do your recipes in steps. If making dough. Prepare some ahead of time and also show them how to make it from scratch. Then pull out your all ready made dough while the one you just made is rising.
6. Have kids bring plastic containers or include this expense in the cost of your lessons. Kids can take leftovers or their creations home in these.
7. Add some food fun for fillers or add in to your curriculum. See our printables and worksheets for ideas
8. Think at a kids eye level. What is the right height for table and chairs? Also look into kids kitchen tools that are real kitchen utensils they just fit smaller hands better.
9. Eat what you created together as a group. Encourage them to at least try what was fixed.
10. You need to check health laws, insurance liability and legal steps to starting a business in your community before starting classes. In some instances, you will need to use a commercial kitchen and a business license.
11. Keep groups to 3-6 children. This tends to work best. If you have more than 6 children, get an assistant to help you.
12. Provide aprons.
13. Have a reachable sink or stool to make washing hands easy for kids.
14. Teach children to clean up as well as create recipes. Wipe up spills with paper towels, clean floor with broom if needed, etc. when done.
15. Have fun!
16. In teaching children to cook there is a fine line between instructing and hands on learning. Make sure kids understand the recipe and what they are to do but sometimes you need to step back and let them figure things out themselves. There is a great math skill to learn in the process-problem solving!

More Help and Resources for How to Teach Cooking

Include these pages in your teaching curriculum.
Kitchen Rules and Safety- the page includes downloads for Kitchen Safety chart and a Food Sanitation Chart.
How to start cooking classes
What do you learn in the kitchen?
Kids Cooking Lessons
Add lessons to your homeschooling
Teaching children or adults with disabilities
Teaching Life Skills
Getting Kids Interested in the Kitchen
Cooking Tips- tips and tricks for cooking with kids
6 Ideas to teach beyond the kitchen
10 Reasons for Kids To Learn to Cook
Getting Started Teaching Cooking

Kids Cooking Lesson Plans

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