Teaching Kids Kitchen Stewardship

I love having a menu planning business but I’ll occasionally have someone teasingly ask us if we will also come into their house and cook the meals as well.  Our answer to that is, “No, you need to grow you some teenagers and let them do it.”  All joking aside though, how DO you teach kids to cook and is there more to it than just teaching them basic cooking skills?

Yes, teaching your kids to cook is very important.  As I write this I have an 11 year old son in the kitchen making Toffee cookies from scratch and my 10 year old fixed oatmeal and bacon for the family for breakfast this morning.  What a blessing for them to know how to do this and what a blessing for a busy mom, not to mention their future wives.  But what about beyond basic cooking?  What about teaching kids kitchen stewardship? and what does that even look like?

It’s teaching kids that God really does care how much we spend on groceries.  It’s teaching kids that God really does care what we put in our bodies.  It’s learning to plan a menu and a shopping list and to do the actual shopping.  There are so many more ways that kitchen stewardship can be taught.

How do we actually teach kitchen stewardship?  By example, by talking with our children about the importance of stewardship in the kitchen and what it means.   We homeschool parents have the advantage of having our children home with us all day so we have more opportunities to cook with our children and teach stewardship skills.  If you are struggling with how to actually teach your children to cook and how to incorporate teaching kitchen stewardship, then you might want to consider an actual curriculum that will help you with that challenge.

Cooking with Kids: 12 Week Curriculum Course is designed for homeschool families to help teach cooking skills AND stewardship skills.  It provides you with weekly devotionals as well as ways to prepare your children’s hearts while nourishing their bodies. It’s designed for the whole family in mind and the devotionals and discussion questions are meant for whole family participation.  Having raised, or in the process of raising 6 children, I’ve used many different ways to teach my kids to cook and to teach kitchen stewardship.  I can truly say that I wish I’d had something like this curriculum available to me years ago.

cooking with kids

The pride and confidence our children acquire when learning cooking/kitchen skills is invaluable.  Now as I’m writing, my 11 year old hands me a warm toffee cookie with a big grin on his face.  He’s so proud of himself.  Yes, I ate the cookie.  Don’t judge.

So, whatever method you use to teach your kids to cook, I invite you to make sure you are also teaching the importance of kitchen stewardship.  Enjoy!