Top 10 Reasons to Teach Your Kids to Cook

With slight trepidation, I left my family to go to college. That's not unusual, excepting the reason for that panic. I'd spent the last few years of high school as the family cook, and I didn't feel I'd done enough to pass on my skills to younger siblings. Naïve as I was, I feared they'd starve without me. I'd attempted to teach them amidst their complaints and whining. I'd tried to be patient when they failed to follow instructions and ended in making more work for me to get dinner on the table. Too soon, I gave up insisting they help out. It was so much easier to just do it myself, get it done, and go on to practicing sports and the piano, doing homework, and cleaning the house. Still, when I left home, I felt guilty that I hadn't persisted and left them self-reliant.

Now I have children of my own. Am I going to "just do it myself" to get meals on the table, or am I going to invest the time to teach them to cook, despite mistakes or whining? Obviously, learning from the past, I don't want them going off to college and me standing there crying because they might "starve."

With this in mind, here's my list of the "Top 10 Reasons to Teach Your Kids to Cook."

10. It stimulates creativity (decorating food, making it look good, testing out new spices/herbs, etc.)
9. It improves their math skills (fractions, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction).
8. Cooking is "hands-on" science.
7. They'll learn how to follow instructions.
6. They'll see fast results of what happens when they do or don't follow instructions.
5. It helps you practice patience.
4. They'll learn a skill that will be useful their entire life.
3. You are spending quality time together while doing something you have to do anyway.
2. It improves their ability to read technically.

And the number one reason to teach your kids to cook . . .
1. Sooner than later, you'll be the one asking, "What's for dinner?"

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