Free Cooking Games for Kids

Free Cooking Games for Kids Online

The Internet offers many different free cooking games for kids. It can be time consuming to sort through the games and find the best ones. Here are just a few of the sites offering engaging games that can be played online:

• Oyunlar 1 Games—A wide variety of games that allow your child (or you!) to cook online. These games are not only fun but can help with valuable skills such as memory enhancement or basic math and measuring skills. This site has many games, but the best ones include Bunnies Kingdom Cooking, Ratatouille (based on the Disney movie), Food Memory, Hamburger, Disney Restaurant and Café. This site alone will keep your child busy for many hours.

• CD Kitchen—This site will build logic and reasoning skills through the use of food puzzles. Free cooking games for kids on this site include Cooking Jigsaw, Food Photo Hunt, Virtual Fortune Cookie and a Scrambled Word exercise.

• Cool Kids Cooking (CKC)—Geared more toward preschool or lower elementary aged kids, this site offers games such as Fruit Memory, Cheese Hunt (complete with a cute cartoon mouse who is on the hunt for cheese) and Fruit Drop.

• Restaurant Empire—If you're looking for a game for older children, this one is a lot of fun and can teach important business owner concepts. The player starts with only a little cash and builds a restaurant from scratch, hiring all employees and making all decisions. Free download or you can buy the full version if you become truly addicted.

• EGameFlash—Tons of cooking games for all age levels. Check out Fast Food Fiasco, Cakes, Perfect Pizza, Fast Food Cooking, Chocolate Factory, Unfabulous Burger Bustle and many more.

• Kaboose—Online cooking games as well as many other free online games. Be sure to check out the exciting cooking game called Chef Toss, where players get to practice their grill flipping skills.

Real Time Games

Online games are a great way to pass the time, but children also need hands on, real-time play to grow their quickly developing minds. There are many cooking games you can create with items you have on hand or inexpensive items you can buy from the dollar store or a local retailer. Here are some ideas:

• Host an Iron Chef cookoff. Gather two or more kids and come up with some easy kids' recipes or just let them create their own invention. This game is easy to play, because you simply use items on hand. Let neighborhood parents or Mom and Dad play the judges and choose a winner.

• Café. This game can be played with two or more players. Let the child create a menu with prices and take turns playing waitress, customer, cashier and chef. You can use real or play food to serve. Use plates and cups on hand. This game teaches many skills, including math, memory, writing and even good customer service skills.

Final Thoughts

Cooking is an essential skill that both men and women need, so the sooner you can get your child involved in the kitchen the better. Online games can spark an interest in cooking and books like Kitchen Math can offer opportunities for additional learning while cooking. Measuring can create interesting discussions on fractions such as that four one fourths equal one whole. There are also games such as Cooking Mama which are available for gaming systems such as the Wii and Nintendo DS and PC games such as Disney Kitchen. Although these cost a minor investment, they too can spark more interest in cooking while building valuable skills.