I’m showing you how to incorporate subjects into a fun homeschool cooking unit study. Also, grab more ideas on my best homeschool unit studies page.
I’m sharing fabulous resources so that you can create an exciting and learning filled study which teaches life skills, math, science, social studies, history, language arts skills and so much more.
First, look at this book from my favorite series by Julia Rothman Food Anatomy as the main spine.
In Food Anatomy you get gorgeous illustrations and learn about the history of food.
And more specific food groups like fruits and veggies, grains, meats, as well as herbs, dairy, etc.
There is a little bit of basic food vocabulary and a lot of learning about foods and preparation techniques all around the world.
Homeschool Cooking Unit Study Resources
If you want something that is a little more open and go for daily assignments that can still be used with the resources, additional books, videos, and activities below you may want to grab Cooking Curriculum for the Whole Family.
But you can use Food Anatomy and work your way through it to study cooking methods, utensils, cuisines, and various ingredients.
Then add field trips, cookbooks, movies, books, and more to round out your study.
Cover all the subjects and then some while you make memories together as a family and develop lifelong real-life skills that will follow your children throughout their whole life.
More Homeschool Cooking Unit Study Activities
- 10 Cooking Class Ideas For Kids | Learn How To Make Pasta
- How to Help Kids Go Beyond the Basics of Homeschool Cooking & Resources
- How to Make Easy Herb and Olive Oil Garden Bread With Kids
- Easy and Quick Breakfasts Kids Will Eat (Grab the Egg McMuffin Recipe)
- Make Peanut Butter Cookies and Learn George Washington Carver Fun Peanut Quick Unit Study & Notebooking Pages
- Hands-on History: Make Maple Snow Candy – Pioneer Activit
- Homeschool Organization: Are you Collecting Cookbooks OR Recipes?
- How to Make Celtic Cakes -Recipe for Hands-on History
- Lewis and Clark:Cooking on the Trail
- World War II Hands-On History – Make Ration Cakes
- French Revolution Unit Study – Pain Au Chocolat Easy Recipe
- 5 Gift Ideas for the Homeschool Mom Who Needs a Cooking Reboot
Tips for Using Math To Learn How to Cook
Let’s start with math.
Some of the math kids get from cooking is obvious but you can bring it from basic math to more in-depth for older kids with a few simple steps.
- They will learn fractions by measuring of course but take it a step further and halve or double the recipe to increase their fraction skills.
- Need to make a cup? Have your child use ¼. ½, or ⅓ to make it rather than using the 1 cup measuring cup for additional practice.
- Use a kitchen scale to weigh wet and dry ingredients as well as compare uncooked and cooked meats.
- Practice converting ounces to cups and vice versa.
- Create a budget for a meal or the whole week and have your child use flyers to plan and shop from.
- Make pizza from scratch and use it to practice fractions but cutting it into 8 equal slices.
- Use small foods as manipulatives like grapes, blueberries, olives to practice multiplication or division.
Next, look at some ideas for language arts.
Cooking and Learning Language Arts
- Develop reading skills by having your child read the recipes aloud.
- To practice handwriting skills let your child write the grocery list or menu as you dictate it to them.
Kitchen Terminology for Kids
Introduce a variety of kitchen terminology as vocabulary and spelling words.
- cuisine
- dice
- marinate
- knead
- simmer,
- delectable.
You can find a nice variety of words with the definitions in Food Anatomy.
- Read a biography/autobiography on a famous chef like –Who Was Julia Child?
- Have your child write a review like a food critic after a meal or trip to a favorite restaurant with pen and paper or using a word program.
14 Learning How To Cook Books and Games
Add some of these books and games to your homeschool cooking unit study to learn life skills and have fun with the entire family.
Get your recommended daily allowance of facts and fun with Food Anatomy, the third book in Julia Rothman’s best-selling Anatomy series. She starts with an illustrated history of food and ends with a global tour of street eats. Along the way, Rothman serves up a hilarious primer on short-order egg lingo and a mouthwatering menu of how people around the planet serve fried potatoes — and what we dip them in. Award-winning food journalist Rachel Wharton lends her expertise to this light-hearted exploration of everything food that bursts with little-known facts and delightful drawings. Everyday diners and seasoned foodies alike are sure to eat it up.
your homeschool curriculum needs life skills and your life needs kids who help out.
Connect with your kids in the kitchen, build life skills, and put peace into your homeschool day.
Born in California in 1912, Julia Child enlisted in the Army and met her future husband, Paul, during World War II. She discovered her love of French food while stationed in Paris and enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu cooking school after her service. Child knew that Americans would love French food as much as she did, so she wrote Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 1961. The book was a success and the public wanted more. America fell in love with Julia Child. Her TV show, The French Chef, premiered in 1963 and brought the bubbling and lovable chef into millions of homes. Find out more about this beloved chef, author, and TV personality in Who Was Julia Child?
Break out your best aprons and spatulas: The Science Chef: 100 Fun Food Experiments and Recipes for Kids, 2nd Edition teaches children the basics of science through a variety of fun experiments, activities, and recipes. Each chapter explores a different science topic by giving you an experiment or activity you can do right in your kitchen, followed by easy-to-make recipes using ingredients from the experiment. Altogether there are over 100 experiments, activities, and recipes for you to try. From learning why an onion makes you cry to how to bake the perfect cupcake, you'll bring the fundamentals of science to life in a new, magical way.
Creativity, hard work, and lots of fun—that’s what it takes to cook like a master. Beloved television competition show MasterChef Junior fosters all of this within each of its pint-size home cooks, and what they whip up is truly impressive. This book aims to give any aspiring young chef the tools he or she needs to hone essential cooking skills, with 100 recipes inspired by dishes that the contestants served in the first five seasons, as well as timeless techniques, tips, and advice. With this book, anyone can become an excellent cook.
Bring Masterchef Into Your Kitchen: Turn Mealtime Into Game Time With This Exciting New Culinary Board Game. Teach Kids Valuable Cooking Skills Through A Series Of Fun Challenges With Delicious Results. Find Out If Your Family Has What It Takes To Become The Ultimate Masterchef
EASY TO PLAY: Players must use critical thinking to collect the ingredients for their guacamole recipes.
FAMILY FUN: This lively family card game is perfect for kids to spice up their day or for contemplative adults.
FIND THE BIGGEST FOODIE: Test your knowledge on topics ranging from culinary science to celebrity chefs, exotic cuisine to cooking and baking skills.
Your Kids: Cooking! is a fun and engaging hands-on cooking program that prepares kids for a lifetime of healthy eating by teaching them how to turn fresh, wholesome ingredients into healthy and delicious meals. Much more than a just a cookbook, YKC is a multimedia cooking program that teaches kids how to cook in a structured, fun, and engaging way.
Sometimes you just need to break it up with a fun family game, but to stay on theme let's go with the quick play card game - Check the Oven.
Another one that our family enjoys for fun that is food-themed is Throw Throw Burrito, you will end up in stitches with this one.
Teenagers like what they like, and they will only eat what they like. But instead of causing mealtime strife, now they can learn to cook those foods themselves. With over 75 delicious recipes for meals at all times of the day—breakfast, snacks, sides, dinners, and dessert, too—Teens Cook is a guide to everything teenagers (and tweens) need to learn about conquering the kitchen without accidentally setting the house on fire. Written by teens and for teens in easy-to-follow instructions, authors Megan and Jill Carle give young readers advice on how to maneuver their kitchen in a language they’ll understand (and actually listen to). The Carle sisters pass on their knowledge of how to decipher culinary vocabulary, understand kitchen chemistry (why stuff goes right and wrong when cooking), adapt recipes to certain dietary restrictions (like vegetarianism), and avoid all sorts of possible kitchen disasters.
WHERE'S MOM NOW THAT I NEED HER?: Surviving Away from Home is the ultimate guide to living away from home! It is filled with real world information and basic survival tips on topics such as:
- Cooking for BEGINNERS with Recipes for Quick, Easy Meals
- Nutrition
- Grocery Shopping
- Laundry and Clothing Care
- First Aid
- And lots more
During their last few years at home, it is a great time to put together a book of family recipes. This Happy Planner Recipe Book is a great place to preserve recipes while they work on penmanship and attention to
detail. It has a kitchen conversion list and then is broken down into 8 categories.
Science and Cooking
- Recreate some of the experiments in Science Chef Food Experiments to include more science beyond the chemistry of cooking and baking.
- Study part of the periodic table by learning about the elements and their abbreviations that are either found in foods or materials used to make them like these cards from our periodic elements game. Try to find objects in the kitchen to match the elements.
- Experiment with adding different amounts of ingredients like sugars, leavening agents, and various types of oils, etc to investigate the various cause and effects.
How to Learn Geography and History of Food
- Learn about the place where your food comes from, find the country on a map for various cuisines, research a bit about the culture.
- Find out about the history of various foods and food related items. Did pizza originate in Italy? Where were chopsticks first used?
- Study foods popular throughout various time periods like Colonial Syllabub, Sebutu Rolls from Ancient Mesopotamia, or Daniel Boone’s Johnny Cakes.
More Best Homeschool Unit Studies
- Solar System Unit Study and Hands-on Planets Activity
- Charlotte’s Web Homeschool Unit Study and Fun Hands-on Ideas
- Homeschool Unit Study Ideas | Lewis and Clark Exploration Lapbook
- Mushroom Unit Study and Kids Learning Activities
- Little House on The Prairie Unit Study and Fun Punched Tin Lantern
Home Economic and Life Skills
- Teach your child what different tools, pots, and pans are used for.
- Visit restaurants with different cuisines as a yummy field trip, tasting and learning different seasonings and styles is a big part of cooking skills.
- Practice fine motor and visual discrimination skills with preschoolers by tracing some basic kitchen object shapes onto paper and having them match the outline with the object.
Learn how to cut difficult fruits like mango or make noodles from scratch within the book Food Anatomy.
