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When you look at all the research showing that kids who get into the kitchen and eat with families have a lower risk of obesity and higher grades in school it’s enough reason to make sure your kids love cooking from day one. When you watch kids get excited about fresh foods, their taste, smell and how you turn them into a recipe they get to enjoy it’s incredibly gratifying.
Here are 3 benefits to bringing your kids in the kitchen_
1. Social time with the family_ as kids get older there’s homework, after school activities and plenty of distractions. When you plan for meals as a family and getting your kids to participate in cooking with you it can be a great time to catch up on your days and hear about moments you might have missed.
2. Educational_ cooking is much more than food. It’s about math, chemistry, working as a team and understanding how foods change depending on how they’re cooked.
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3. Fun_ when you start to look at cooking as an art project that you get to enjoy immediately and share with others it’s a whole lot more fun. By allowing kids to be active participants in the kitchen you’re giving them ownership over the food they put in their bodies, empowering them and hopefully in turn creating a lot of laughs.

I feel like it’s never too early to get kids in the kitchen and that means even when they’re toddlers. If you’re concerned about them getting hurt in any way, then starting with a toy like the LeapFrog Number Lovin’ Oven is a great start. Little chefs can enjoy hours of pretend-play fun with learning secretly baked in. Designed for ages 2 years and up, the Number Lovin’ Oven talks, sings and gets number skills cooking through 30+ songs and phrases. It helps little ones connect the numbers 1 to 5 on the slider with low, medium and high temperature settings, as well as shorter and longer cooking times.
I got to see just how much my friend Grey (in the video above) became even more interested in cooking through our fun playing with the Number Lovin’ Oven.






My kids like to help me when I’m baking by dumping in the ingredients and/or stirring the batter.
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When my son was only about 8mo old I would put him in the highchair with measuring cups and mini spatulas to play with as I cooked. As he got a little older I could give him more tasks like mixing and pouring with help. He now loves to help cook and I’m repeating the baby steps with my daughter
Supercute toys!
So fun!
My three older kids have been cooking with me since they could stand on the kitchen stool. They started with measuring, dumping, and stirring muffin batter and are now making eggs and pancakes on their own.
My kids learned to cook eggs first
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I have four kids and we have all started with stirring our scrambled eggs in the morning. My youngest just turned 2 and he likes to do it too!! We are expecting number 5 and I am sure baby will love to do that too!
Love having my daughter help me in the kitchen!
My twins learned to measure and dump ingredients for pancakes.
My 2 1/2 year old loves to whisk the eggs to help make her favorite Weelicious breakfast quesadilla.
First experience was making their own pizza
My kids first learned to make muffins