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When our kids are little, they tend to enjoy helping us in the kitchen. They want to help add the ingredients, stir, and of course, taste test. Kids begin learning some skills and are eager to try. However, as our kids approach the teen years, many lose interest at a time it is most important for them to learn. We need to focus on what are important cooking skills for our teens.
So how do we keep our tweens and teens engaged in cooking?
Well, if possible, start young and keep them engaged. I’ll admit, my kids loved cooking and baking. My daughter was 11 years old and cooking casseroles while my son would whip up some cupcakes or cookies.
Now?
Occasionally, my son will make some cookies. My daughter does make her own lunches, pasta or quesadillas, but for the most part they aren’t as eager about cooking with mom.
Well, I decided to change that. I wish I hadn’t dropped the ball, and I’d kept them hooked (especially my son). But there is nothing I can do about that now but move forward and get back to teaching those cooking skills in my teens and tween.
Cooking Skills for Teens (and tweens)
If you haven’t done much cooking with your kids, you may want to start HERE. I have a checklist and some basic skills kids should learn. It will help guide you along the way.
STEP 1: Meal Planning for Teens
Whether your teens have some basic skills or not, a good way to get your kids started with cooking is with meal planning. After all, you can’t cook if you don’t know what you are cooking or if you have the ingredients.
Meal planning is a skill I have yet to master or at least stick with. If we teach this skill early on, all the better. Kids need to sit down with us and plan out the meals for the week. Get their input on what they’d like to have around for breakfast and lunch. Figure out the meals they’ll want for dinner.
Now, teens need to learn to look for the ingredients you will need to buy in order to make the meals you’d like to have. If you are on a tight budget, you may teach your kids to look at the food you have in the house and see what meals you can make with what you all ready have on hand.
The important thing is that kids are looking at what ingredients you need to make a meal.
Why?
Because we may take for granted kids 1) know what the various ingredients look like and 2) know how to check they have the ingredients they need for a meal.
Have you ever been trying a new recipe and thought, “What is THAT? Where do I get it?” Well, imagine if you aren’t familiar with cooking. Our teens may not know what some of these ingredients look like.
Meal planning teaching teaches teens how to make a grocery list and begin to understand what the various ingredients look like.
STEP 2: Helping with Meals
Once your kids have helped to plan some meals, it is time to have them begin learning (and applying) some cooking skills. For instance, if your son really wanted to have lasagna for dinner, have him help you make it. He can help layer the ingredients in the pan. Walk him through how to do this.
By having your kids help you out with a meal, you can teach them how to cook without it seeming like a cooking lesson. It can be fun and low-key.
Instead of saying, “See how I beat these ingredients together?” You can say, “Hey, we need to beat these ingredients. I started it, but can you finish it? Just continue it this way.” Your kiddo is copying what you were doing and learning how to accomplish it on their own.
Try cooking and baking a variety of things with your teens. When you do so, your kids learn a variety of cooking skills. They’ll learn what it means to whisk, saute, cream, and brown. Kids will become comfortable and familiar with how to make many dishes and treats.
Again, if you need help with some key cooking and baking skills to teach, click HERE.
{Related: Basic Cooking Skills You Need to Teach Your Kids}
STEP 3: Teens Use Their Cooking Skills
As time goes on and helping out with meals (desserts, too) becomes natural, begin having your teen apply their cooking skills by taking over a meal each week. Maybe the meal your child suggests becomes the meal they prepare for the family.
Another approach would be to make your teen (or tween) responsible for planning Friday night dinners. They need to plan the meal, make a list of ingredients needed, and cook it. They can enlist family to help THEM with the meal.
By following these three steps, teens are learning valuable cooking skills. They learn how to come up with a meal, grocery list, and make a meal. All are important skills when it comes to cooking.
If you make meal planning and cooking a family thing, teens become used to working in the kitchen and will be more confident when they are own their own later in life.
Also, when kids are used to being in the kitchen and preparing meals, they KNOW how to cook. They don’t just learn a few lessons and slink back off in their room, never to remember what they just learned. They truly become cooks.
Cooking is a life skill so many kids lack or lack confidence in. With these three steps, you can help your teen how the cooking skills they need later on in life. They will thank you for it.
Need some easy recipes to start with? Give these a try:
- Fantastic Soft Baked Pretzels– The Secret Life of Homeschoolers
- Yogurt Making– The Secret Life of Homeschoolers
- 25 Simple Recipes Teens Can Cook – Raising Teens Today
- 13 Super Easy Meals Teens Can Make Themselves– Martha Stewart
- My Teaching Library Home Economics Collection– My Teaching Library
Happy Homeschooling!
