Little Wonders Parent-Child Center – Cooking with and for Kids

Little Wonders Parent-Child Center – Cooking with and for Kids includes cooking projects with children, from choosing simple, child-friendly recipes to letting children put in and mix ingredients. The program includes setting up a convenient work space for cooking, using a stool or learning tower so children can reach the counter, assembling ingredients before cooking, and washing hands before starting. Children name each ingredient as it is used, feel and smell ingredients, taste various ingredients except raw eggs, fish, poultry, or meat, help put food into the oven, onto the stove top, or into the refrigerator, and clean up after cooking. Families also create a child’s own cookbook by drawing food pictures for the cover, cutting food pictures out of magazines and gluing them to a cover, and taking a picture with the child and one of her creations to put into the cookbook.

• Ages: 0–10 years old
• Schedule: Parents attend 2-hour-long classes, once a week, with their children for most classes; classes meet for 1.5 to two hours once or twice per week.

Little Wonders is a play-based, cooperative, parent-child center and parent education center where parents are always on-site and there are no drop-off days. Parent education occurs during class, and the program offers in-person parent education classes for families with children from birth to 36 months and virtual classes for families with children up to 5th grade. Classes are grouped by age as of September 1, including Baby Play / Parent Support, Ones, Twos, a Caregiver Class, and a Mixed Ages Evening Class, along with virtual parent support classes for Preschool Support (3–5 years) and Elementary Support (5–10 years). The program offers virtual parent support classes, private consultation, and preview classes for interested families, including free preview classes.

Little Wonders has a light co-op requirement, with some classes having no co-op requirement, and standard co-op jobs typically involve a 15- to 20-hour time commitment. Baby Play classes have approximately a 5-hour co-op time commitment, and Summer and virtual Preschool/Elementary Support classes do not have a job requirement, with a limited number of Full Buyouts and some Partial Buyout options for co-op jobs. Little Wonders’ program encourages natural connections to a wider parent community, providing opportunities to form lasting relationships with other parents and develop a sense of community and belonging. The leadership team includes Teacher Suzanne, an educator, and Teacher Maggie, the director. The mission of Little Wonders is to support parents as they develop their own parenting style and promote the social-emotional development of their child through play. One parent shared, “I can’t say enough about how the program has helped us become better parents.” — Jean K.

For cooking activities, the program suggests setting up a convenient work space, putting down a white sheet on the floor if it will be messy, using a cookbook or recipe, assembling ingredients before calling the child, ensuring the child washes hands before cooking, never letting the child taste raw eggs, fish, poultry, or meat, and cleaning up after finishing. Suggested equipment for families includes divided plates, a divided stainless steel tray, reusable silicone mini muffin liners, and a toddler learning tower stool. Little Wonders does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, creed, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, disability, special needs, or status in administration of its employment, educational and admissions policies, or its scholarship and other school-administered programs.

Last updated March 26, 2026.