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With so many places still shut down, parents are having to spend more and more time finding ways to keep their kids occupied while trying to get some work done. I’m sure it’s stressful for a lot of families to balance doing their own jobs from home, taking care of the home, making sure the kids are getting their homework done, making sure the kids are practicing things they’ve learned, helping kids with homework, and keeping kids from killing each other. Sheesh. That makes me exhausted just typing it.
And I’m sure a lot of parents are exhausted, too. I can’t imagine trying to juggle work and kids and the kids’ homework and keeping the household running all day every day. Electronics seem to be the go-to for many of my friends when the kids are done with homework and are bored. If you’re a parent who wants to balance learning and screen time, Culinary Schools is a good option. This site has a wide range of educational games that kids will love. They’ll learn about cooking, how to follow recipes, the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods, and how farms work as well as developing logic skills, strengthening their memory, following instructions, and how to balance multiple tasks at a time. It’s a website that parents can feel good about letting their kids use.
What I like about this site is that there are a variety of games that vary in both style and what is taught. I think it’s great that the site is so focused on helping kids become familiar with food, farming, cooking, the culinary arts, the restaurant business and hospitality-related careers.
COOKING & KITCHEN WORK
This section has two games: The Boiled Eggs and Sweety Cooking Chocolate Cake. Boiling Eggs starts out simple with one pot that needs heat maintained by clicking a button, but each level gets progressively harder as more pots are added. This game teaches kids how to multitask in a fun and unique way. Sweety Cooking Chocolate Cake is more of an instructional tutorial that walks kids through how to gather items for a recipe and then follow the directions to create the recipe. Both games are fairly simple and good for young children.
FOOD EDUCATION GAMES
There are four games in this section that go over edible vs inedible, healthy vs unhealthy, and quantities. Can I Eat It? is geared towards kids 6 and under. As the name indicates, it teaches which items can be eaten and which shouldn’t be put in their mouths. Tasty Kingdom and Fitness Food Run teaches how healthy and unhealthy foods affect our bodies. Tasty Kingdom is a good fit for 7 and under while Fitness Food Run is good for 7-10.
SERVING EATERS
This section contains eight games which are geared towards helping kids learn attention to detail, process repetition, and simulate what it would be like to make orders or work in a restaurant. Seven of the games have kids make meals to a customer’s specification while one game has kids take on every role in a restaurant to help kids understand some of what goes into each role. Most of these games are geared towards kids 10 and under, but there are a couple that pre-teens would enjoy once they get past the easier beginner levels.
FARMS, ANIMALS & FARMING
This section contains five games that have an animals and farming theme. Two games are getting three matching items in a row (think Candy Crush or Bejeweled), one is putting a puzzle together, one is sorting eggs, and one is a more complicated game where the kids drive a tractor without letting a pig fall off the trailer. The first four games are geared towards ages 10 and under while the last game would be good for ages 10-14.
OTHER FUN FOOD-THEMED GAMES
There are 18 games in this section. Some of these games could have been put in one of the above-mentioned sections, but that’s okay. There are matching games, catching falling items games, three-in-a-row games, sorting games, memory games, logic games, speed games, and a few others. These games have a wide age range, though not all games indicate which ages would be best-suited.
Pros
- Great variety in style
- Variety in what is taught/practiced
- Visuals that are appealing to kids
- Age range for each game indicated on most games
- All games have instructions for how to play
- Skill level for the games ranges from very young learners to more advanced learners
Cons
- The timers tend to go a little fast in some games
- Not all the games provide options to turn the sound off
- A few of the games load quite slowly
- Not all games indicate age range
Overall, I feel like the pros very much outweigh the cons. There are several fun games on the site that will help kids learn important things without realizing it. Hooray for fun with education!
