Homeschool learning does not have to stay at a desk. With a recipe in hand and a place in the kitchen, children can build skills in math, science, geography, reading, and more—while creating meaningful family memories along the way.
Cooking is one of the easiest ways to bring hands-on learning into your homeschool. Around the kitchen table, children can practice math, science, reading, geography, history, and life skills—all while helping create a meal the family can enjoy together.
With an eat2explore country box, each cooking experience becomes a journey to a new part of the world. Families discover international recipes, ingredients, and cultural information that can inspire lessons throughout the month. Instead of studying a country only through a textbook, children can see, smell, taste, and prepare foods connected to its traditions.
Check out our all countries and subscription to find the latest exciting options for your homeschool adventures.
A Kitchen Full of Learning
From the moment you open the box, you and your kids are transported to a fresh, new land with learning opportunities designed to delight.
It’s easy to incorporate all of the subjects for homeschool into your eat2explore adventure. Here are just a few ideas to get you started:
- Science of cooking and how and where the featured foods are grown.
- Historical connections to certain regions or famous people.
- Geography of the featured country and the transportation used there.
- Health and how it is important to eat certain foods to benefit our bodies.
- Reading recipe ingredient lists and directions out loud while someone else does the work.
- Writing stories about the meal and the country, describing the tastes, smells, and textures of new foods encountered.
- Math skills such as counting, using fractions, measuring, or doubling recipes for a crowd.
- Safety-related information such as proper handling of raw meats, hand washing, and caution around hot surfaces and sharp utensils.
- Music and Art of the country. It’s a perfect time to play regional music while you cook!
Give Every Child a Job
Children of all ages can participate in the food fun with eat2explore!
- Preschool age kids can gently stir a dish that isn’t hot, add ingredients to bowl and match pictures from the cards with ingredients from the box.
- Elementary age children can set the table, sort the recipe ingredients from the box, and help read the instructions.
- Middle school-age kids are ready to assume more complicated tasks like learning how to safely chop vegetables, helping to choose the fresh ingredients from the store, and coordinating the timing for cooking the main dish.
- Teens and high school kids can take over the entire meal planning session to follow the grocery lists and learn to budget. They can cook the special eat2explore meal for the month and give you a much-needed break.
- For families with children of multiple ages, this is a perfect time to encourage cooperation. Give each child jobs appropriate for their age and let the older kids help their younger siblings with more difficult tasks.
Now that you have your task lists, it’s time to plan your eat2explore adventure!
Plan the Adventure
Build excitement before cooking day. Begin by locating the country on a globe or map and asking what your children already know about it. Read through the country cards and recipes together. Encourage your children to predict how the dishes might taste, smell, or feel. This is a natural opportunity for descriptive writing.
Design lesson plans around historical dates, cultural traditions, and land formations of the featured country. Include biographies about famous people from the area.
Set aside a special day for unboxing. When your box arrives, announce it with fanfare and spend some time reading or having your homeschoolers read through each card, including recipes.
Have them imagine what the dishes will taste like. Now is a good time to practice descriptive writing! Let them use their five senses to describe the included ingredients or write a story about what they learned on the included cards.
Talk about what you already know about the country and find out what else they’d like to learn.
Shopping
When shopping for fresh ingredients, let children help compare prices, select produce, and stay within a budget. At home, gather everything in one place and review the recipe before beginning. Preparing ingredients and assigning tasks ahead of time can make the cooking session calmer and more enjoyable.
This is a great time to introduce food selection, price comparison, and staying on target with the list and budgeting.
Once you get home, have your kids put the non-perishable ingredients into a special basket just for the occasion, and the refrigerated ingredients in a box they can decorate to represent the featured country.
If you won’t be preparing the eat2explore meals that day, mark the special day or days (there are three recipes!) on the calendar and make a to-do list of assigned tasks for the meals.
As the cooking day draws near, you can spend time discussing more about the culture of the country and the meal you’ll be creating together.
Preparation
A little prep work goes a long way. On the special day, have your homeschoolers help you set out all the ingredients. Read through the chosen recipe card again and measure, cut, or peel the ingredients beforehand.
Make your cooking session stress-free by setting up the kitchen as much as possible before actually beginning. When everything is lined up and ready to go, there’s less of a chance for frustration.
Set up your video camera and capture the fun!
Keep the Learning Going
The fun continues when the cooking begins! While you're all together in the kitchen, you can talk about the culture, history, and geography of the country, highlighting the regions where the food originates. If you want to be super-creative, dress in traditional costume!
Follow up fun
The learning opportunities abound when you weave your eat2explore adventure throughout the month. Bring up your cooking adventure when reviewing the month's lessons. Make cooking more fun with collectibles like stickers, cooking tools, scratchable world map, cookbook, food passport and apron!
The hands-on activities will help your kids remember all the fun information they learned along the way.
The Numerous Benefits of Learning Through Cooking
Your homeschoolers will gain valuable knowledge and experience in the kitchen and beyond
- Cutting
- Seasoning
- Measuring
- Reading recipes
- Budgeting
- Selecting healthy foods
while learning more about the culture and traditions of countries around the world.
- Geography
- History
- People
- Travel
As their skills grow, so will their confidence, along with their excitement to know more of their world. And most of all, you're offering your entire family a learning experience they can share for years to come and planting the seeds for growing a lifelong love of cooking.
By making your eat2explore adventure a featured part of your month, your kids will be asking
“When will the next box arrive?”
“Where will we explore next time?”
“Which recipe should we make first?”
“Can we cook that recipe again?”
Dive into the international world of eat2explore to gain all these benefits and more for your homeschool.
And you'll find handy lesson plans in your Explorer Toolkit!