I have been so slow about getting this review posted it’s ridiculous.  This product is a little bit of a challenge compared to some others — but it’s so worth it!  (I’m an affiliate, by the way.)

Kids Cook Real Food is an e-course designed to teach kids to…what else?..cook real food.  (Sorry for being Captain Obvious there.)  This is a pretty significant thing.  I don’t just mean teaching kids to cook is significant (although that’s true).  Have you seen the cooking books, kits, etc. for kids?  It’s really hard to find one that doesn’t rely on processed ingredients.  When we’re trying to teach our children about the importance of whole foods, it can undermine that to teach them to cook with packaged, processed products!

So what took me so long?  Well, to be honest, it was initially technical difficulties.  I have four kids watching this course, so I really wanted to get it up onto a good-sized screen, and it took me a while to figure out how to watch the videos on our television.  (This is not a KCRF problem.  This is an I-don’t-understand-the-technology-setup-in-my-house problem.)

We finally got that sorted out, but we’re still a bit slow moving through the modules because they require a lot of “doing” on Mom’s part, and that isn’t always easy.  That can’t really be helped, though, with cooking skills.  You can’t just let a four-year-old watch a video and then set him loose with a knife!

So how does this work?

Kids Cook Real Food — How it Works

Each module begins with a video (or more; I’ll get into that detail in a moment).  In this video, Katie Kimball teaches the children the appropriate skill(s), first by instructing them — and her on-site students — verbally, then by helping guide her in-person students through the process.  She’s accompanied by children of varying ages and skill levels.  This is helpful for the kids to watch, and for Mom to see, too.  The kids get to see children similar to themselves working on the skills being taught, and see how everyone does some things really well and needs more help with others.  Mom gets to see what types of guidance the children are likely to need in the kitchen.

After watching the video together, you and your children head to your own kitchen together, to practice the skill.  The included printable cards remind the children of the things they’ve learned, and selected recipes put each skill to use.

Kids Cook Real Food — Levels

The Kids Cook Real Food course is available with several levels.  There’s a beginner, an intermediate, and an advanced level, and there’s an “all-kid” lesson for each module, as well.  So if you have children in all of the levels, there are actually four videos for each unit/chapter/module (whatever you prefer to call them; officially they’re called “classes”).  If you only have children at one level, you can buy just one level.  Our kids range from 15 years to 6 months right now, so we have the whole spectrum covered!  (The baby isn’t cooking yet, though. 😉 )

As you can probably imagine, it takes a bit of planning to get everyone coordinated if you’re doing all of the levels at once, which is another reason it’s taking us forever to get through them.  It’s worth the effort, though.  These are super-important skills for the kids to learn (and I would certainly have overlooked some key skills had I attempted to just teach everything on my own), and Katie has an amazing knack for working with kids; my children love these lessons, and remember her special kid-friendly phrases months after we’ve watched a given lesson.

The different levels let everyone work together.  In the lesson pictured above, Caleb (4) and Livia (6) peeled veggies, and then Sophia (10) and Ariel (15) cut them.  (Ariel preferred to stay out of camera view.)  The three younger ones also all worked together to make a dressing/dip to dip some of their cut veggies in.

We don’t have a lot of pictures from this particular day, but there was a lot of veggie prep going on here.  Sophia and Ariel were set to cutting onions.  Sophia disappeared for a while and we couldn’t figure out where she’d gone…then she reappeared with these goggles she’d had to “hack” a strap for!  I was reminded of Benny and Joon.  

As a bit of a side note, we discovered during the early lessons that our peelers are getting a bit old and dull, and also that their shape was hard for the little ones to manage while holding the vegetables in the direction Mrs. Kimball teaches.  So we ordered this set of Y-peelers.  Ariel and I don’t much like them (we prefer the other style of peeler), but they’re a lot easier for the littles to use, and the set of three gives us enough for several children to peel at the same time.

And another random tip: if your knives need sharpening, get this done before you start lessons with the kids.

What We Think

Although it’s taking us for.e.ver. to get all the way through this course, it’s well worth it.  The kids enjoy it and find Katie’s lessons memorable.  Even if there are weeks or months between lessons, they give us a common vocabulary to use when practicing kitchen skills in between (either at home or at Grandma’s).  And we’re slowly-but-surely building up a repertoire of foundational kitchen skills that will serve them well for a lifetime.  If there’s anything worth investing in, this is!

Update: Kids Cook Solo!

If your kids are 8 or older, you can now bypass (almost) all of those scheduling-Mom’s-time issues that have been the one sticking point.  How?  There’s a new Kids Cook Solo option!  It doesn’t contain the full spectrum of skills of the main KCRF course (for instance, it skips the sharp knives), but the tradeoff is that there’s very little adult oversight needed.  You can check out a free lesson here.