Helping Kids Learn STEAM Skills in the Kitchen

This week I  am sharing some highlights of a conversation I recently had with Lesya Mervena, who is the co-founder (with Olga David) of a program called I Cook After School. This is a hands-on extracurricular program for elementary school kids, where cooking and kitchen skills are used not just as a way to talk to kids about nutrition and the importance of healthy eating but also as a fun way to teach math, reading, chemistry, physics, problem-solving, and more. 

Teaching kids to cook is a very effective way to get them excited about healthy foods.

I was excited to learn about this program because it makes sense on so many levels. First, teaching kids to cook is a very effective way to get them excited about healthy foods. Second, knowing how to cook is an important life skill, and one that so many of today’s adults have never learned. And third, cooking is a super fun and effective way for kids to reinforce the subjects they're learning in school.

I Cook After School began in 2014 as an after-school cooking program for children at elementary schools in the Chicago area. By March of 2020, the program had expanded to six states. But when the global pandemic closed schools, Lesya and Olga nimbly converted their programs to virtual programs that are now available to parents and school systems nationwide. The company has two registered dietitians on staff and several of their culinary instructors are also dietitians.

Kids are more accepting of healthy food that they make

Kids actually love to cook. This has been something I've used to entertain my nieces and nephews since they were very small.  It’s how we spend time together. As they got older, the recipes got more elaborate. And a couple of them are now off cooking on their own. But I've also found that kids are much more receptive and adventurous about what they're willing to eat and what kinds of foods they might be excited about if they're actually involved in the process of preparing them.

Picky eaters are so much more open to trying new things when they actually make the dish themselves because they're so proud of what they made and they're very invested.

It can be especially useful when you have picky eaters. When a kid is fussy about the foods they eat, it's not just that they're being disobedient. Some kids really have a hard time with various aspects of taste and texture. Being in the kitchen gives them a little bit of control, and that can lower their anxiety about unfamiliar foods.

As Lesya explains, "When you have a picky eater at home, you have to work with them. You cannot just force them to eat something that you want them to eat. So in our class, we see that picky eaters...

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