How To Use eat2explore Cooking Adventures In Your Homeschool

Homeschool Learning While Cooking!

The eat2explore adventure boxes are the perfect addition to your homeschool! Not only will your kids learn about foods from around the world, but you will also be able to refer to your boxes again and again in a variety of ways. 

Check out our new additions to find the latest exciting options for your homeschool adventures.

Imagine being able to combine history, geography, social studies, math, and more as you and your children create delicious, healthy meals right in your kitchen.

By including cooking in your homeschool schedule, you give your kids a headstart on skills they will use for a lifetime. In addition, the country information included with each box will springboard your lesson plans into new territory each month.

Where will this month’s eat2explore adventure take you?  You can immerse your homeschoolers in a world of cultural experiences as your family enjoys exotic ingredients and recipes from around the globe.

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!

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!

 

Planning

Planning your monthly adventure is an adventure in itself. Make it a treat to look forward to!

Since you know what country you’ll be exploring each month, you can plan your history, geography, and social studies lessons around the region to build up anticipation and get your kids thinking about what they’ll experience.

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

Next, head out to shop for the fresh ingredients using the included shopping list.

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!

Cooking

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!

Choose your adventure today!