Cooking with Kids on Mardi Gras Pancake Day
In case February isn’t exciting enough with Super Bowl and Chinese New Year, now we have Mardi Gras. One of our family favorites is Mardi Gras Pancake Day.
Your family may have already enjoyed some pancakes on Saturday’s Ice Cream for Breakfast Day—another February event to add to the list—but this time the pancakes aren’t just for breakfast. They could be lunch or supper too. An easy meal and kids can help with this one.
Cooking with kids sometimes means we need extra time and patience, but there are so many great reasons. Science, math, language, and social skills are extra, invisible ingredients:
Math: Any recipe will use numbers and counting. When measuring, we are showing kids why numbers are both important and everyday.
Science: Just mixing involves chemistry. As we stir, food changes right before our eyes. Heat also involves reaction and change.
Language: There are some specific words used when cooking to add to vocabulary, but there’s also lots of practice explaining, asking and answering questions, and communicating with each other.
Thinking skills: Following steps in order is a critical thinking skill. If kids have helped in the kitchen before, they gradually figure out some patterns. In addition to these, children are also developing an awareness of time. Minutes, even seconds can make quite a difference, so we have to concentrate on what we’re doing and pay attention.
Social skills: Learn to share, take turns, and wait are pretty important. When cooking together, kids are given a chance to take care of others, instead of others always taking care of them. This is so significant and helps create interpersonal connections.
This is only a taste of strategies and skills kids develop when we involve them in cooking. Kids who are involved in cooking become more involved in making healthy choices for food and nutrition.
There are dozens and dozens of pancake recipes. Use your family’s, along with favorite toppings. When will you be eating your Mardi Gras Pancake Day treat?