1. Finicky eaters may be more likely to eat food they've prepared.
2. The ability to cook is a skill that most children are likely to need at some time in their lives.
3. Cooking may help revive interest in school - writing the shopping list, planning the food budget, reading the recipe and using fractions to measure the ingredients!
4. Good cooking is an art, but it's also a science. Bake a cake as an edible example of leavening. Bake bread and learn about yeast.
5. History can become an interesting real-life story about people when you combine it with food. Discuss earlier days when people had to grow food themselves or barter other goods for it. Or how they cooked without modern appliances.
6. Planning and preparing meals with your child is a good way to introduce new foods and to instill good eating habits.
7. Cooking with your child gives you an opportunity to reinforce how important it is to follow directions and to be organized.
8. Your son or daughter can show imagination and express independence through cooking. Let your child artfully decorate cookies or cakes.
9. Food experiences can help develop the senses. Colors, textures, shapes, smells, tastes and sounds are all part of the pleasure of food.
10. Eye-hand coordination can be improved. Practicing eye-hand skills when measuring, pouring and stirring can make harder tasks easier to learn later.
11. Cooking gives a child a chance to feel grown up and a chance to succeed. A successful kitchen project might do wonders for the ego of a child who has had difficulty in other areas.
12. Creating a meal together can be a good way for parents on hectic schedules to spend more time with the family.