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Kids in the Kitchen: Cooking in Your Homeschool

Kids in the Kitchen: Cooking in Your Homeschool is about much more than simple kitchen math and home economics. There are many benefits in having your kids spend time in the kitchen.

Kids in the Kitchen

 

Some of the more obvious educational benefits include kitchen math and science, weights and measurements, home economics, and life skills. Having the family gather in the kitchen to cook together also makes for great family time. The children can learn about good nutrition and balanced meals, and they seem to eat better and try new foods when they have helped prepare them.

Consider exploring geography and even history in your family kitchen!

mapping a country

In our study of Mexico, for instance, we read about the country. We looked it up on the map, created a paper flag, and discussed the major goods and services. We saw pictures of the Mayan ruins and discussed other aspects of the culture–including the food. We learned that the original enchilada, a street food from Mexico, was simply tortillas dipped in sauce and eaten without fillings.

You can read more about the history of enchiladas here. The Maya used to dip the tortillas in grease and stack them in layers with cheese and salsa. So we invented our very own “Enchilada Casserole” and headed to the kitchen to complete our school day and prepare dinner in the process!

During our kitchen time, we discuss what we’ve learned about the country as we cook foods from that country. Although we want it to be as authentic as possible – I try not to get too hung up on the little things. If I cannot find a certain ingredient or have a family member who does not like a certain kind of food, we will tweak it to fit our family’s dietary needs.

The important thing is to get a feel for that country’s food, to review what we have learned, and to enjoy our time in the kitchen together learning new skills and expanding our horizons.

What do you do to get your children involved in the kitchen? Do you incorporate time in the kitchen into your homeschool?

 

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One Comment

  1. My kids help out a lot in the kitchen, but I never thought to use geography in addition to what we normally do! What a great idea to incorporate local foods from cultures we are studying. I will definitely be doing this soon!

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