Families participates in numerous activities outside and inside of the home together to create memories. One weekly activity my family participates in almost every night is cooking family dinners together. This weekly ritual speeds up the time it takes for the family to prepare meals, but it also allows my family to maximize the amount of time we spend together. Here are some reasons why families should cook their meals together and why children should learn to cook at a young age.

Through learning to cook as children, you gain the opportunity to learn important life skills. When making a recipes from scratch, kids learn about the importance of organization, mathematics, time management, safety, and communication in everyday life. As young children read and follow the directions on a recipe, they also learn new vocabulary and improve their literacy skills. The changing of state, color, and temperature of food as it cooks also displays various scientific principles to the young mind.

Learning to cook helps people to be more resourceful and can save them money overall. Through learning to cook, individuals learn to use various leftover ingredients, and combine them to create new recipes that can be enjoyed or shared with friends and family members throughout generations. In addition to the knowledge acquired, the overall cost of a home cooked meal can cost substantially less than a meal prepared at a restaurant.

Cooking is both a skill and an art that helps people deal with loss, depression, anxiety, mental issues, and high stress levels; it helps to boost people’s self-confidence and self-esteem. The skill of cooking helps to teach a person self-reliance, and how to manage both their personal life and their work. When baking or cooking, people of all ages are able to make art through an edible medium.

Cooking as a family helps people to form long-lasting bonds with their friends and family members as they work together to create a meal. As children develop, having family bonds with their parents can help to improve their academic performance, and prevent the chance of a child participating in reckless or hazardous activities later in life. Teens who have strong bonds with their parents were found to be less likely to engage in violent activities or drug use.

Cooking can help to promote healthier life-long eating habits, and a more adventurous eating pallet in individuals from youth. While cooking, individuals are able to modify a recipe to be healthier by omitting certain allergens, proteins, fats, or starches. When people cook together each participant knows where each ingredient is from, and can control how fresh each ingredient is that they decide to cook with. Children who learn to cook at a young age have also been found to have a more adventurous appetites, consisting of more fruits and vegetables.

May this list help to spur your desire to cook, and help your family to create a new nightly routine.

Sources:

Gallagher Stephanie. “Top Ten Reasons to Get Kids Cooking.” about.com. About.com. Nov. 25, 2014. Web 15 Jan. 2016

Hamm Trent. “Don’t Eat Out as Often (188/365).” TheSimpleDollar.com. TheSimpleDollar.com July 31, 2015. Web 15 Jan. 2016

Jones Orion. “Learning to Cook Treats Depression, Other social Disorders. “Bigthink.com. the Big Think Inc. n.p. Web 15 Jan. 2016

n.a. “A Wise Investment: Benefits from Families Spending Time Together.”  Familyfacts.org. the Heritage Foundation. n.p. Web 15 Jan. 2016