Modular outdoor kitchen: Kids love to learn new things, especially when it helps them to become more independent. Most children and teens want to be independent, often before they’re ready.
The more skills you can teach them early on, the better. One of the best is how to cook.
Most kids can learn to cook simple meals at an early age, such as scrambled eggs and buttered toast. As they get older, though, they ought to learn more advanced cooking skills.
You may teach your kids to cook indoors like most people, but they might just enjoy themselves more if you teach them to cook outside. Granted, you might require a modular outdoor kitchen with at least a flat-top grill and a sink to make it work.
However, when your kids learn to cook outdoors, it can also be a great way to bond with them. If you’ve been thinking about teaching your children to cook, consider teaching them outside for the following four reasons.
1. You can bond over a meal you cook together
Teaching your kids to cook outdoors is an excellent way to bond with them while you’re working on the meal together. There’s something magical about cooking a meal with someone and sharing it outside.
When they’ve been taught to cook outdoors, your kids will have pleasant memories of learning how to flame-broil a steak, grill a potato, or sauté onions in butter.
While you prepare an outdoor meal together, you may also take the opportunity to teach your kids how to set the table properly, and clean up when you’re done eating. A cooking lesson is an excellent learning opportunity.
Out of all the ways you can possibly bond with your kids, cooking and eating together outdoors will likely become one of your most treasured memories.
2. You can teach them to cook over a campfire
Although it’s an excellent idea to teach your kids how to cook on a proper stove or barbecue, it’s also a vital life skill for them to learn how to cook over an open flame.
Cooking outside gives you the chance to teach your kids how to cook over a campfire, which will prove to be an invaluable skill later in life. You’ll have to cook outdoors regularly for it to become ingrained in their memory and skill set, but it’ll be fun along the way.
Teach your kids how to do more than just roast marshmallows on a stick. Show them how to create a small, safely contained fire and cook with cast iron or camping pots and pans.
In addition to using relevant tools, like a tripod for a cauldron, teach your kids some bushcraft, like how to create the same setup using nothing but sticks. Of course you hope they’ll never find themselves in a situation where their survival depends on such skills, but this exercise will equip them with essential skills for their future camping adventures.
3. Being outdoors is an amazing experience
Being outdoors usually feels pretty wonderful. Whether there’s a cool or warm breeze, going outside typically makes you feel fresh and energized.
What better place to teach your kids how to cook than in this kind of environment? Any time your kids learn how to do something in surroundings that make them feel good, they’ll be more likely to retain what you’re teaching them.
Going outside to learn tends to be one of the most enriching aspects of a child’s life. Studies have shown that outdoor education increases academic performance, improves child development, and positively impacts health.
Kids become more creative, confident, and curious when they get the opportunity to learn outdoors. This makes sense when you recognize that classrooms are often stuffy, uncomfortable, and too warm or too cold.
Nobody wants to be cooped up in a building all day long, but that has been the standard condition for schooling across decades, even centuries. Offering kids the chance to learn outdoors, no matter what they study, will give them the freedom to breathe and feel better emotionally and physically.
4. They’ll associate cooking with good feelings
Perhaps one of the best reasons to teach your kids to cook outdoors is that they’ll learn to associate cooking with feeling good. When you’re outside, there are numerous factors that automatically make you feel good. For instance, fresh air, the scent of the grass or trees, and the freedom to walk around contribute to this good feeling. When you teach your kids to cook in a good-feeling environment, they’re more likely to form positive memories compared to cooking in a boring, cramped kitchen.
There’s yet another benefit to teaching your kids to cook in a way that they’ll enjoy and associate with positivity. Children and teens who learn to cook are more likely to continue doing it throughout their lives.
This is valuable because you wouldn’t want your kids to live on junk food and pizza delivery when they grow up. If your kids feel good about cooking, they’ll carry that association with them into adulthood and be eager to cook for their family or significant other.
Do everything outdoors whenever possible
Cooking is just one crucial skill you can teach your kids outdoors. To give them a strong advantage in life, look for opportunities to teach them other worthwhile lessons and skills in an outdoor setting.
