Cooking is an in ideal example of play-based learning for children and a creative teaching and development tool for children as young as three. We prove this every week in Claire’s Cooking Club.

Hands-on cooking activities help young children develop pride and confidence in their skills and abilities. Social-Emotional development will be super-charged during Cooking Club. When you cook with your children you are encouraging self-direction and independence, using thinking skills to problem solve and prepare something yummy.

Watch a child chop crisp lettuce, squeeze a juicy lemon, spread creamy cheese, measure pasta and mix a big batch of cookie dough you’ll see firsthand the cooking skills that help develop a child’s small muscle control and hand-eye coordination. It’s impossible to separate hands-on cooking activities from physical development for young children.

Cooking inspires children’s innate curiosity, thinking, and problem solving, offering delicious opportunities to make choices and observations. Additionally, cooking offers major leaps in cognitive development with authentic opportunities for children to understand measuring and counting. When your child organizes ingredients, follows a sequence and shares with their friends, deep growth and self-confidence happens, not just in the kitchen, in every aspect of their life.

Cooking Club is a great opportunity for language development. Take advantage of opportunities for children to learn food groups and articulate questions inspired by their new discoveries. Grocery shopping may be a chore for grown-ups but children see it as a treasure hunt, an opportunity filled with new discoveries. Ask a child to explain how something tastes, how it feels, how it smells. You’ll love their honest responses.