Parents have to teach their kids many important lessons. Someday, you’ll teach them about the birds and the bees, how to sew on a button, money management strategies like auto loan refinancing, and why it’s important to change the oil in their car regularly. Those lessons can wait until they’re a bit older, but there are plenty of skills that even young children can begin learning. One of those is how to cook.

You might have memories of standing in your grandmother’s kitchen as she rolled out homemade dough and cut out plump circles that would become delicious biscuits. This scene is rare nowadays because many parents are busy and have little time to cook. It’s likely that your cooking consists of warming up the boxes of fried chicken you picked up at the drive through on your way home. However, there’s something very special about teaching kids how to cook and bake. They’ll learn to appreciate the fruits of their own labor.

You can begin by teaching very young children how to bake cookies. There are plenty of simple recipes for making cookies from scratch. (You’re only teaching your kids how to turn on the oven if you buy the pre-made dough.) Kids can help pour in nuts or chocolate chips and stir. Clean little hands can help roll the dough into balls and place them on the cookie sheet. Your children will begin to see the value of a job well done, and they’ll learn a thing or two about patience as they wait for their cookies to bake.

Create fun memories with your kids in the kitchen by letting them choose the menu, prepare the food, and enjoy eating it. Not only is home cooked food likely to be more nutritious and less expensive than anything you can get at the drive-through, but it also creates quality family time.