7 Academic Skills You Can Easily Teach While You Cook Dinner

by | May 5, 2020 | Gross Motor, Handwriting, Occupational Therapy, Parenting, Uncategorized

child pouring spices while doing meal preparation. Her mother's hand is over hers to help.
  Most of us have found ourselves taking on a few more roles over the past month. If you are like me you are cooking at home a lot more. And also working from home. And oh yeah, also trying to keep your child educated (and entertained). We get it.

 Being a pediatric occupational therapist, and lover of all time-saving hacks, I have had to get creative with how I can wear all the hats I am having to wear (while also still being able to see straight). Cooking is a great way to get the kids involved in meeting some of their developmental and academic goals while you can also put some food on the table. If your child is too young to be a part of real meal prep, set up a station of pretend food for them to pretend play while you cook! Here are 7 skill sets you can work on with your child from your own kitchen!

PS  Be sure to read all the way to the end for information about our giveaway, which ends on 05/12/2020

Written by: Brittni Winslow, MS OTR/L, Practice Owner and Executive Director of Emerge Pediatric Therapy

girl and boy in a kitchen, holding up slices of red bell pepper
1. Math

    • Count the ingredients
    • Identify numbers and fractions on measuring tools
    • Teach and compute simple math concepts 
      1. How many ⅓ cups will we need to get to 1 cup?
      2. We put in 1 scoop of flour but we need 4. How many more scoops do we need?
2. Reading

    • Read the recipe 
    • Read, or listen to, the recipe and answer comprehension questions 
    • Letter or sight word hunt throughout the recipe
boy and girl piping icing onto cookies
young girl and mother take a dish out of the oven
3. Sequencing

    • Lay out 2-4 steps of the recipe and have the child sequence them into working order
4. Bilateral coordination

    • Use the  “helper hand” (i.e. non-dominant hand) to stabilize the food/container while using the “worker hand” snips, cuts, chop, or stir
young girl and young boy making a salad
one girl and two boys eating at table together
5. Motor Coordination

    • Scoop ingredients and pour into containers 
    • Carry ingredients from one place to another
6. Writing 

    • Have the child write any words they know from the recipe
    • Copy the recipe onto DIY recipe cards and mail to a friend or family member
    • Make place cards for members of the family by writing their names on paper 
    • Write out a menu for dinner to share 
child writing at a table

7. Executive Function 

    • Ask questions around the process of the recipe that gets the child thinking critically. For example, what do you think would happen if we cooked this for 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes?

Interested in a fun way to get started that really gets the kids excited about learning? My kids love their monthly Raddish Box from Raddish Kids! Right now we are doing a GIVEAWAY for a 6 month subscription to Raddish Kids (valued at $132). There are multiple ways to enter the giveaway- so head over to our Facebook or Instagram (@emergepediatrictherapy) to find out! We will stop taking entries on May 12th at 5:00 PM and we will randomly choose one winner and announce it on our Facebook and Instagram! Happy cooking!

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