Kids in the Kitchen

You can learn a lot from a pear!

Cooking with your child is a great way to expand their science, math and language skills while spending quality family time. Pears in particular have a lot to offer as they are healthy, delicious AND fun to learn about!

Here are some tips and suggestions to keep in mind as you and your child use pears in the kitchen:

  • Allow your child to help choose pears at the grocery store and ask them to guess how many days it will take for the pears to be ripe and ready to eat. They will enjoy checking the neck for ripeness each day to see if their prediction is correct!
  • Examine different varieties of pears and ask your child to use descriptive words for differences and similarities in taste, shape, smell, color, and texture.
  • Let children help choose the recipe to prepare, and use the conversation to introduce healthy eating habits!

For more information about cooking with kids including safety advice, determining which tasks are age-appropriate, how to manage the mess, and the benefits of sharing time together in the kitchen, visit these links to doctor-reviewed articles on kidshealth.org:

Cooking with Kids

Cooking with Preschoolers

Cooking with School-age Kids