My kids and their cousins (4 total) attended a cooking camp at Flour Power this week. When I asked them what they overall thought of the camp they said it was "OK". Here is the feedback from what was good and what needed improvement:
Good:
* The theme of the week was "Baking the World a Better Place". The dishes that they made sounded interesting and the kids said they liked how they tasted overall. There were a few of the dishes that they said were delicious.
* The kids said the eating the food was the most fun part of the camp - which is good because it tells me that the food was tasty
* Loved that, since it was a cooking camp, that we didn't have to bring our own drinks or snacks
* They were very careful with a peanut allergy that my son has, and in fact the camp does not allow nuts at all
* Hygiene was highly promoted - kids had to constantly wash their hands
* It was fine that they didn't get to take food home (since they don't have that type of license). That was stated clearly up front, and I just wanted them to learn how to cook.
Needs improvement:
* While the kids enjoyed eating what they made, they said the cooking portion of the camp was mostly listening to instructions and not cooking itself. They said they would get a turn to stir the pot or grate some cheese, but that they did not get to work near the stove or prepare a major portion of the meal. While I know that stoves and ovens can be dangerous around kids without supervision, it is perfectly fine for 10 and 11 year olds to learn how to turn on a burner and work at the stove with supervision. Maybe for the younger (9 and less) in the group they don't work on the stove, I understand more, but if it is a cooking camp, the kids should not only just cut a few things or grate some cheese, but rather have control of a recipe from start to finish (with supervision of course).
* They had a lot of play time scheduled, when the camp was a cooking camp, so it would have been nice to have a larger ratio of time of cooking vs. playing board games
* My kids didn't really love the board games they had there so one day they brought in a puzzle to work on. That was fine by the staff there. The kids said they played with the puzzle that day, no problem, and enjoyed it and brought it home at the end of the day. The next day they brought in a Family Friendly card game (Exploding Kittens), and the instructor told us (while my kid was in the back room) to take it back home since it may be "too violent" for some kids and it spreads the Virus. It is not a violent game, and I'm not sure how a card game spreads the Virus anymore than their own games that they have in-house or the puzzle the kids worked on (a 1,000 piece puzzle). The kids had to wash their hands constantly anyways, and they did not have to wear masks (unless parents wanted their kids to, which was fine). The risk of the spread of the Virus is so much higher, though, from being around a asymptomatic person than playing a card game or doing a 1,000 piece puzzle.
I'm not sure if we would attend this camp again. read more