Brain Power with Dr. Eko

EP. 23 | Empowering Children with Essential Life Skills with Katie Kimball.

• Dr. Hokehe Eko • Season 1 • Episode 23

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Discover the essential life skills that can transform your child's future as we sit down with Katie Kimball, the visionary behind Kids Cook Real Food. Katie, a beacon of inspiration for parents, unfolds her narrative from confronting the everyday challenges of healthy cooking and budgeting to pioneering a platform that empowers children with culinary prowess. Tune in for a riveting conversation about the necessity to end the cycle of culinary inadequacy and the power of involving our children in their own health and well-being through the art of cooking. We promise you'll walk away with a fresh perspective on equipping the younger generation with the competence to make a lifetime of healthier choices.

Expect to be captivated as we address the critical development of confidence and competence in kids, especially those with neurodiverse needs. Katie and I share actionable insights into raising the bar for our children's capabilities in a spectrum of activities—from whipping up a meal in the kitchen to handling finances. We'll enlighten you on recognizing the right life skills to teach, based on your child’s unique journey, and the profound impact of entrusting them with meaningful responsibilities. Our dialogue takes a deeper look into nurturing critical thinking and curiosity, as we underscore the significance of engaging with our kids' inquisitive minds through thoughtful conversation and exploration. Join us for this enlightening episode that promises to be a treasure trove for any parent dedicated to cultivating a love for learning and personal growth in their children.

P.S.: DON'T MISS OUT OUR FREEBIES AT THE END!

Connect with Katie:
Website: Kids Cook Real Food
Instagram: katiekimballkidscook
FREEBIES: https://kidscookrealfood.com/brainpower

Find the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and check out the video version on our YouTube channel!

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If you want to schedule an ADHD/Autism appointment for your child, you may contact Glow Pediatrics:

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Dr. Hokehe Eko: [00:00:00] Hello families, welcome again to another episode of Brain Power With Dr. Eko. I have a simply amazing guest for you today. Her name is Katie Kimball and she's the host of Kids Cook Real Food. I'm going to let her tell you about it because you are going to want to check out what she does.
So, without further ado, welcome again

Katie Kimball: oh, thank you, Dr. Eko. I wear a number of hats. My most important hat is that of a mom. So, my kids are 9, 12, 15, and 18, right? So, elementary, middle school, high school. And a graduate that's called phase two parenting.
Good luck when you get there. I don't have, I don't have any tips yet because we're just in the front edge of phase two. I was about to ask. I know it's totally different because, you know, your child's legitimately an adult, but they, they're only six months older than they were six months ago. You know what I mean?
Like that number doesn't mean much except legally on paper. But that's been really, that's been [00:01:00] interesting. And in my work life, I started out way back in 2009. So I'm an old grandma online entrepreneur. I started teaching families how to stay healthy without going crazy. I really have, I've, I've, I've trained as a teacher in college and I have this heart of a teacher.
So I really wanted to help moms figure out how to save their budget. How to save time, how to feed their families, nourishing foods, and also protect the environment. So all of those things felt like sometimes they were competing and conflicting and causing a lot of tension in moms that I knew. And so I started kitchen stewardship, which was a blog to just help cut through the noise and cut through the mess.
In doing that, I started to hear a new story. And a lot of moms were coming to me saying, Katie, I really want to eat healthy. Like I'm in, I want to do this, but my mom never taught me to cook. So this is an incredible uphill climb. Like forget about cooking healthy foods with vegetables. Like I don't even know how to cook.
And I [00:02:00] started to realize that, you know, If we're uncomfortable in the kitchen, our generation, we are certainly not teaching our kids, right? So we're going to go in a cycle in 20 to 30 years. And the kids are going to be going, Oh man, you know, our kids grown up. Oh man, I wish I could get healthy, but I don't know how to cook.
So that's where I founded kids cook real food. And I thought, okay, I'm a teacher. I'm a mom. Like this is what I do. Like I actually have the skillset to step in and stop that cycle where if we can teach our kids to cook, whether or not the adults know how Right. Then they can start to take ownership of their health.
So that's been my goal. My mission for the last six years is how do we get kids comfortable in the kitchen? How do we get kids to own their health and understand that food is fuel and food makes us feel differently when it's different food, that is not something we were taught in the eighties. And I work a lot too, with parents of picky eaters, just because that.
Again, came up as, as an issue that parents are very, very concerned about.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Right. Oh, my goodness. [00:03:00] You are so on the money because you're absolutely right. I love that you're attacking both problems, right? You're helping the kids, but of course, the parents are forced to learn.
If they didn't know how, because now their kid is learning how to cook. All right. And we're not going to sit back and let your kid out cook you. Right. So,

Katie Kimball: so I figured out my sneaky system. Don't tell anybody.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: That's so wonderful. And I have the, pleasure of being part of your life skills camp this year.
And that's what we're going to talk about today. How can we build life skills? How can we teach life skills to our children who are neurodiverse, who have ADHD, who have autism, who have other, other neurological disorders? How can we teach them life skills? And that's something you're really passionate about.
And I'm so thankful I get to be a part of it, but please tell us more about the skills camp and how we can build life skills for our kids.

Katie Kimball: For sure. It feels like when I tell my story, it's like I never sit still in one place with one topic. And yeah, [00:04:00] teaching kids to cook just sort of naturally got bigger because our parents in our classes were saying, you know, I'm, I'm here because I want my kids to have life skills.
And I thought, well, I'm. I'm only helping with the cooking. What are the other life skills? You know, how do I pull in other people? So this, this year, 2024 will be our third season of Life Skills Now Summer Camp. It's completely virtual, completely online, and it's completely free to register. And it's been resonating, right?
Like I thought, maybe parents want this. I think they do. They do. Lots of parents are seeing this as a gap in their children's education. We're, we're really not getting it from schools anymore. And I don't blame schools at all. Like schools have so much to do right now in their curriculum. They do not have time to teach, you know, how to change a tire on your bike or how to dust your coffee table, right?
Like they just don't. And I think a lot of parents feel ill equipped. As well, right? Like, we, we might know how to dust a coffee table, [00:05:00] but I think people get I don't know. They just get worked up. They get nervous about teaching their kids, or they feel like they don't have time to slow down that that is a very.
Oh, yeah, it's faster and easier to do it myself. So, it's really, really difficult for us to pull back out of the day to day, you know, drudgery and see, okay, we've got this 18 year parenting game. We can't parent for today or next week. How do we parent for the long term so that we launch a kid into the world who knows how to, you know, feed himself and dust her own coffee table and check the oil on their car, you know?
So it's, it's just very difficult, I think, for us to get into that groove. Of passing on the skills that we have and some skills that we don't have, right. Some skills that we did not learn from our parents. So what I love to do is just bring together all these experts like you, you know, I bring together MDs and nutritionists and, and auto mechanics and people who work at banks and restaurant chefs, you know, just massively [00:06:00] diverse field of expertise.
And I say, well, what do you think as an expert, right? What do you think kids should know before they leave elementary school? Right in your field, right? What do you think? Teens need to know before they, you know, strap on that label of adulthood. Ha ha ha. And and we've had so many diverse classes the last couple of seasons.
I mean, it's just amazing. What parents love is that we get kids on the. Computer very quickly or on the screen very quickly, and then they go off into the world and they do something. They do things with their hands. So that's where I really want to talk to parents whose kids, maybe their brains work a little differently, right?
Maybe your kid likes to be active. We find that a lot in the neurodivergent community. They need to work with their hands. You know what? Give them a, you know, a knife and a cucumber, let's give them a dipstick and, and let them like get into their car. We have this incredible three part series coming up this year on bike maintenance.
Can you imagine little eight and 10 year old boys and girls [00:07:00] like, yeah, I know how to change my bike tire. I'm hot stuff. You know?
Yeah. I don't know. My bike tire literally is currently flat, so I need to have my kids change it because they learned and I did not. So that's kind of ironic. I forgot about that. Yeah. Absolutely. So how cool is it? How much confidence does it give kids? Dr. Echo when they learn something that not only they know is a real life skill they're going to use all the way into adulthood, but maybe that their parents don't know.
So when it comes to life skills, there's the practical. Yeah. We want our kids to have these. And then there's the intangibles and confidence. Yeah. is I think the biggest one. If your kid is struggling with confidence, teach them something they can be competent at. And then they, you know, doing things well is how we build confidence.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Right. Absolutely. you're absolutely right. And that brings up a question for me. How do you figure out how far and what to teach your kid, especially [00:08:00] if your kid is neurodiverse, right? So parents may feel like, Oh my kid, I shouldn't do this or I shouldn't do that.
How best do parents determine what to do with their kids?

Katie Kimball: That is a great question. And first I think that it's probably slightly more than you think. Like that's the short answer is raise the bar. Because here's the thing. I mean, if you're doing something like cleaning a bathroom. You know, maybe you're mixing up some granola bars, maybe something without knives, right?
You're teaching them how to spend, save, and give when they get their allowance. Like these are not life and death situations, right? So, so should you teach your kid how to do something? Well, what's the risk? Hardly anything. They can screw it up. They can screw it up. They could screw it up for the next three years and it's no big deal.
That's just validated learning, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so we can look at our kid and say, well, what's their age? You know, what's their maturity level? What's [00:09:00] their interest level? Are they at least hopefully a little bit interested? But that's why I try to have really engaging, fun camp leaders. And it's watching a video and kids love to watch videos, right?
So that's helpful. We'll, we'll get them engaged. Right. And you give it a try. Right? Our preschool kids, I always talk about small motor skills. So if you can do something that's small motor skill and repetitive with your kids who are five and under, they are going to love it. It's going to feel like play.
For them, right? So we teach pouring and like the dusting is perfect for kids that age, you know, a little bit bigger. Well, okay. What can they do now? They can start to do things that take maybe a little more maturity, maybe a little more impulse control. So your, your average. Seven to 10 year old. We're going to put them at the stove, a kid who's struggling with impulse control, maybe not, maybe they'll wait a little bit, but they can still do other things in the kitchen.
And here's what I've yes. Mixing up, measuring, mixing. There's lots of stuff that's super safe in the kitchen, [00:10:00] but I do find what's really interesting is that even with kids who struggle with impulse control, I find when they're doing something that legitimately has danger. And you treat it with gravitas, right?
Like, I am going to teach you how to use the stove. This is serious. This could burn you. And what I do when we teach how to use the stove, we practice with the stove off so everything's cold. And we kind of play a game like what's hot, what would be hot and not hot? And so they can touch different parts and go, Oh, like this will be hot when it's on.
And this will, and they just really get to know, get to know it without any risk. But when you give kids like something that's risky, they tend to focus more. They take it really seriously because they love, they, they love being given that, you know, authority and that trust.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Right.

Katie Kimball: So that's kind of cool.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Wow.

Katie Kimball: Yeah. Just trying things is awesome. Incredible way to go. And when they feel more confidence, then they'll want to do more as well.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Yes, you're absolutely right. And I feel like. [00:11:00] That would work when parents themselves become more confident and feel like, yes, I am the best parent for this child. Right.
And I'm not going to put them in a dangerous situation. And we're going to walk through this and imagine the bonding that happens when that happens. Right. When you and your child are working together. Yes. Talk about that. So, because I know that's a big one.

Katie Kimball: For sure. When we talk about cooking, obviously like that's my main lane is cooking.
You're working together side by side with your kids and you're both working on the same meal. Right. There's a common goal. There's that sense of teamwork and camaraderie. It absolutely bonds people together. Also think about too, when you're working with your hands, this is when our mouths can have conversation.
Yeah. Right. So whether that's cleaning a bathroom, whether that's working with finances, you know, there are lots of hands on things. We teach gardening at our Life Skills Now camp. Anytime you're working with your hands, now we can hear their stories [00:12:00] that are more likely to open up that story part of their brain and share with us.
So the connection that's formed when kids and parents are learning from each other or working with each other, it really can't be discounted. And I think what we live in this world that we're so disconnected.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: We're

Katie Kimball: so, you know, we're having to tell parents, why are we having to tell parents, by the way, parents, you should not have your face in the screen when you're, when you're with your children.
I I traveled last week and I happened to, I was looking around in airports and on airplanes and I get it, especially on the plane. Like maybe you hand your kid a screen, right? Because this is, this is a tough situation. They don't want to be buckled in. I would see in airports, you know, mom's on the screen.
And the three year old is on the screen or the five year old is on the screen. And I just thought, Oh mama, like, or in restaurants even. And I just think you have such an opportunity in this moment where you're both in the same space. You're stuck. They can't run off and play with a friend. It's such an opportunity to connect and you're missing it.
And [00:13:00] so this, you know, and so we, we, as adults were like, yeah, but I don't have time. Right. I don't have time. Well, you know what? Guess what? You've got to dust that coffee table and clean that bathroom. Anyway. You've got to make dinner anyway, so it means it all it means is you're going to stretch your chore time a little bit, 5 to 10 minutes for a couple training sessions.
Right? And then. You start to save time or you have that productive, your, your time with your kids is both productive and connective. So it's really checking all the boxes. It's, it's everything we want. We want to be connected with our kids, but we're thinking my to do list is way too long. Teaching your kids to share that responsibility does it all.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Yes, absolutely. Oh my goodness. It does it all. That's for sure. And I told, I empowered my kids to, when they are talking to me and I'm on my faces in my phone that they can tell me, mommy, you're on your phone. They give me reminders to put down my phone and look them in the [00:14:00] eye and listen to what they are saying.
Because we have a whole generation growing up that doesn't know how to do that. And I, I'm sure that's one of the life skills. I think I saw something about answering the phone and yeah,

Katie Kimball: yeah, I was just going to say it. Communication is in itself a life skill. So I know this year in season three, we're doing some videos on like how to get what you want politely, the art of negotiation, how to communicate the kind of the etiquette form.
Last year, we actually had a workshop from Andrea Davis of Better Screen Time called how to get your parents off their phones. She and I decided that together. I'm like, Oh, the kids are going to love that. And, you know, something really surprising happened. Because what Andrea was doing is teaching her family tech plan, which is basically how the whole family decides together how they'll use tech, but she never.
Explicitly answered the question. How do you get your parents off their phones? So what did these critical thinking kids do? They started leaving [00:15:00] reviews saying, I don't know if this title is right. I was so proud of them. They were very polite about it. I, Facebook. Let me just say that. Right. And so they started leaving these reviews and Andrea is uber professional.
She said, you know what? I'm going to film a part two. So, we added this little bit very intentionally answering that question and appended her workshop and then made sure that everyone who, you know, who had watched it got a chance to watch it again. So that's, I mean, that's us modeling. Right? Yes. Kids, if you see something wrong in the world, can you politely correct it?
Say something. That is a skill. That's a great skill.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Great skill. That's a life saving skill.

Katie Kimball: It is. And then to see that the adult said, you know what? You're right. Our product is subpar at this point. We're going to improve it because of your feedback. So I thought that like for the kids who could see that happening during our free camp week last year.
We're, we're like, this is what we do. We teach life skills. Like we actually [00:16:00] implement them, you know, inside workshops and in our business. So it was really, really neat to watch that process play out.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: That's wonderful. And, and I know critical thinking, you brought that up. The critical thinking kids did that.
And I'm sure that's another life skill you teach. Right. And so why tell us more about, tell parents more about why that's so important. The critical thinking piece.

Katie Kimball: If we can teach our kids to think, to be curious, to ask questions, they will be able to survive in any market. What's really interesting right now about trying to, you know, train. For kids for adulthood it's changing so fast.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Yes.

Katie Kimball: How do we, I mean, I have a career that when I was even graduating high school, this career did not exist. Right. Being an online course creator and online marketer did not exist. And it's almost, it's a, you know, technology is moving faster and faster. It is a guarantee that most of our kids will have jobs that don't exist yet.
So career readiness is like almost, it's almost archaic to even say that. So what do [00:17:00] we do to prepare our kids for adulthood? Teach them how to think, right? We teach them how to learn. We teach them how to interact with other humans because. God willing, that will still continue to be reality, right? I don't really look forward to it.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: No robot takeover.

Katie Kimball: So if we can teach kids and, you know, developmentally, I'm sure, you know, you know this. It's about age 11, 12, 13 or so when kids can actually think. Logically with the adult definition of it, but I think we start at age two, three, four, five, you know, emphasizing those character traits, like curiosity when the kids ask why, why, why, why ask them another question.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Right. And

Katie Kimball: allow them to dig deeper into their wives instead of like, Oh my gosh, please stop. Which. So I think I really think kids are born to be critical thinkers. They're born curious. They're born to ask questions, you know, they're born to wonder about their [00:18:00] world, which is the first step in any critical thinking process.
And we, sometimes we parent it out of them because we're tired. Like, I get it. We're tired, but we've got to be cautious not to parent that curiosity out of them.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: I'm going to say that last sentence again because it's so critical. Parents, let's be careful not to parent the curiosity out of your child.
By saying no to them, by saying go play somewhere else, by saying why do you ask me that? Didn't you ask me that the last time? Because we're going to shut down the world. They're they're asking their question asking muscle, right? Because they're going to feel like and then they're going to go to school and not ask questions and just sit there and just accept whatever they're taking.
And that's it. So it's so critical that That we take care of ourselves so that we are less tired and we have more energy and we're thinking critically ourselves to answer the questions our kids ask. And I like what you said about [00:19:00] asking them another question. So often we'll answer the question they ask and not go forward, right?
And, and that, that's something I'm going to remember to tell more parents because I think that's really important for us to keep asking them questions. Thanks. That way we teach them what we're actually interested in, what they have to say too, right?

Katie Kimball: Yes, it does. It creates communication in two ways, and it teaches them to begin to answer their own questions, right?
Maybe when they're three and four and five, they can't, but they ought to be able to be encouraged to think and to explore and to use that imagination. And it's, I mean, I know this. Yeah. Academically, intellectually, like I know I need to ask my kids more questions. Do I sometimes just answer them?
Absolutely. Cause it does take, it takes more thought , but you can train that muscle in yourself too. You can get in that habit at the very least. You can say, well, what a great question. What do you think?

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Right.

Katie Kimball: If that's your script, that's your script. You know? If you can get a little, a little deeper into it, great.
But if you only have energy for a script, that's a great question. What do you think? Just use that. Steal my words. You don't have to think about it.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: I love it. Thank you. And I find that I've tried that with my six year old and sometimes she's like, but I just want you to answer me, but I, I have to, I have to not give in to it and just.
to push her a little more and like, and I find that when I do push her, like when she comes to me with spelling words that she needs help with, and I say, what do you think? And she's like, Oh, just tell me. And I can go, what do you think? What does it sound like? Okay. Let's sound it out. So that helps that, that helps that thinking process like we're talking about so absolutely important skills for we parents to learn and the kids.
So for sure,

Katie Kimball: I know my nine year old he's he got you could feel the shift somewhere about seven and a half. I think he started asking these questions. Bigger questions. Like you could feel him shift out of sort of little [00:21:00] kid thinking into you know, not, not older kid thinking, but medium sized kid thinking.
And he started asking things like, well, what's the healthiest food in the world? And you're like, oh, that could be a book, you know? So then, and so how do you like, his brain isn't quite ready for anything other than black and white. Yeah. Like, he really just wants the answer and yet we know that in the real world it's not black and white.
Well, healthy for what? Healthy in what way? And so even though his brain isn't ready for it, I'm not just going to give him the answer.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Right.

Katie Kimball: I'm going to say, well, what, what do you think healthy means? You know, do we want to fuel our body? Do we want to avoid being sick? Right. And just expand that question out.
And you might, you can ask Google and Google will tell you, which is a bummer. I'm like, Oh, I hate that. They're getting like the black and white answer. Cause clearly like walnuts is what they answer. Sometimes, sometimes Google answer salmon. Oh, like we got a, so then it's a conversation. [00:22:00] Right. And it's fascinating.
It's actually really fun to dive into stuff with those like early to mid elementary age kids because their brains go bigger than ours. We have these confines of what we already know as fact or think we know as fact, but they don't, they don't have these restrictions so they can just go if you let them and walk with them.
It's beautiful.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Right. Yeah. And I think that helps us take the restrictions off of our minds because don't we need our limitations. So it's taken off, like, so stuck as parents. So thank you for bringing that that point up. So, wow. This has been really good. What's your what's one last I like to ask people to give like a brain tip because after all, we are on the brain power podcast, right?
So what's your brain tip for parents of children with neurodiverse kids or children with ADHD autism? And how can they, and one last piece of advice for how they can boost [00:23:00] life skills with their kid.

Katie Kimball: Well, it's a shame we already used the curiosity question one, because that's a great brain tip. But I think just acknowledging your kid's bio individuality is so important, right?
Like everyone's brain. works differently. And I think it's such a gift to our kids, regardless of how their brain works, to say, you know what, it seems like your brain kind of works this way. Like you like working with your hands more than your big sister. It seems like your brain really needs to repeat back to me what I say before you walk away to do two tasks.
And what a, what a gift that is to kids to think like my brain works this way and I'm going to figure out how to, you know, adapt that. To whatever situation I'm in, whether that's life skills or soft skills, like stress management or time management, you know, these can be really tricky for kids, but I think everything has a solution.
If you can work with, you know, the way your kid naturally works. And [00:24:00] that is that's so powerful for parents to understand.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Oh my goodness. Because that means you accept your kid and the kid accepts themselves. And isn't that so huge for their self esteem and self worth in the world we live in where lots of that, like we're having so many kids with anxiety.
So if you, if we, the parents can accept them and, and, and talk to them from that angle, I think it's powerful. Thank you for sharing that.

Katie Kimball: Oh, thank you so much.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: So tell us, tell all the parents listening where they can find out about the life skills course. Oh, sorry. The life skills camp that's going on this year and all, all the goodness that you have going on.

Katie Kimball: Awesome. Well, visit me for sure at kidscookrealfood. com. That's kind of the hub for everything. We've got a little freebie for your audience. If you go to kidscookrealfood.com/brainpower, you can get a couple of our past workshops from past life skills camps. I think I want to say it's one of the auto maintenance workshops and then how to make a phone call for little kids.
Like just, it's so funny how many parents, Dr. Eko, were like, Oh my gosh, I didn't even realize my kids never talked. I On the phone, like they didn't even call grandma to wish her happy birthday. So we just do like the basics. Like, how do you call to say happy birthday, grandma? Or how do you call to say, yes, I can come to your birthday party, my friend, or whatever.
These simple, simple skills.

Dr. Hokehe Eko: Thank you for the freebies. I'm sure we're going to share it everywhere and that will be so helpful to kids. And I'm going to have my kids watch it too. Yes. So thank you so much, Katie, for coming on. It's been such a pleasure talking with you and for parents listening. I hope you got as much out of this as I did, because I learned some really important gems and until the next episode, see you.