How Cooking With Kids Increases Literacy

“…no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.”

~ Julia Child

Cooking with kids is one of my favorite ways to increase literacy.

When I taught in the classroom, I always incorporated cooking with kids into our lessons. (As a mom, I do the same.) We made homemade butter. We read Johnny Appleseed and all kinds of apple books. Then, we made homemade applesauce. I found cooking with kids to be one of the easiest ways to motivate them to read. They don’t even realize they are reading when you read a recipe together and prepare something yummy.

To top it off, cooking with kids helps raise reading comprehension because they are learning how to apply the sequence of events that they read. Learning to understand steps in a process, sequence of events, is a vital comprehension skill.

I was fortunate to write an article for Totally The Bomb, a popular and great blog. Here is a glimpse of what I wrote:

Cooking together is a delicious and fun learning experience for you and your children. Cooking with your kids makes them smarter, because they explore new foods, learn about nutrition, and develop math and reading skills as they measure and read directions. (Click here to continue reading: How Cooking With Kids Makes Them Smarter.) In this article, I include how cooking with kids increases literacy.

If you liked this article, you will probably like the following:

How Gardening With Kids Increases Literacy

How Getting Your Child A Pet Increases Literacy

Do you cook with your kids?

Let’s make a positive difference~ one word at a time.

♥Pamela

Please share this article with others that you think would benefit from these tips. Also, please ask any questions that you may have about teaching children reading or writing. Leave your questions in the comments. I’ll answer.

To learn more about Literate For Life, see the welcome post.

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Photo Credit: flickr.com, http://totallythebomb.com/

Posted

July 17, 2015

Family, Food

Pamela Hall

Tags:

cooking, literacy, reading

Comments

12 responses to “How Cooking With Kids Increases Literacy”

Ricki Ginsberg

July 17, 2015

I loved this post! My son is 19 months old, and we’ve just started cooking together. He doesn’t quite understand what we are doing yet, but he has fun! I am a huge advocate for reading at a young age. We read dozens of books each day. Thank you for this lovely site you’ve created!

Reply
1. Pamela Hall
  
  July 18, 2015
  
  Ricki,
  Thank you. I’m so glad you enjoyed this post. Keep cooking. 🙂
  Together, we make a positive difference ~ one word at a time. 🙂
  Pamela
  
  Reply
Catherine

July 17, 2015

There is so much learning in baking and cooking and it’s such a fun activity. Not only does cooking help to develop literacy skills like reading, understanding directions and sequencing but numeracy skills like weighing and measuring are also developed. I’m a huge fan of kids cooking 🙂

Hopping over from the kid lit blog hop

Reply
1. Pamela Hall
  
  July 18, 2015
  
  Catherine,
  You are so right. I taught my children all about measurement and fractions through cooking.
  Together, we make a positive difference ~ one word at a time. 🙂
  Pamela
  
  Reply
Alison

July 20, 2015

Love this! It is so fun to teach through every day experiences!

Reply
1. Pamela Hall
  
  July 22, 2015
  
  Alison,
  Thank you. It sure is. 🙂
  Together, we make a positive difference ~ one word at a time. 🙂
  Pamela
  
  Reply
susen @Dabbling Momma

July 22, 2015

Really enjoyed this post – one of the things I love doing with my kids is cooking with them!

Reply
1. Pamela Hall
  
  July 22, 2015
  
  Susen,
  Thank you. It is so great that you cook with your kids. Not only do they have fun, they learn literacy and so, so much more as well as creating lasting memories with you. Way to go! 🙂
  Together, we make a positive difference ~ one word at a time. 🙂
  Pamela
  
  Reply
Rachel G

July 28, 2015

Awesome! I’m about to start a job taking care of two preschool aged girls–And I’ll definitely plan on getting them involved in the kitchen when I can!

Reply
1. Pamela Hall
  
  July 30, 2015
  
  Rachel,
  Oh, you are going to love building memories in the kitchen with your kids. They will love it too. 🙂 Plus, they will learn so much.
  Together, we make a positive difference ~ one word at a time. 🙂
  Pamela
  
  Reply
Pragmaticmom

July 28, 2015

Cooking is such fun with kids if you have the patience in the beginning I found. It also pays dividents in both literacy and in getting kids independent! My middle child likes to bake and cook but I should have done more cooking projects with my other two! Thanks for sharing this great post at the Kid Lit Blog Hop!

Reply
1. Pamela Hall
  
  July 30, 2015
  
  Pragmatic Mom (Mia),
  Yes, it sure is fun to do with kids. It keeps them occupied in a constructive, educational way. 🙂
  Thanks for taking the time to comment.
  Together, we make a positive difference ~ one word at a time. 🙂
  Pamela
  
  Reply