Learning to cook can positively affect a child’s confidence, improve family unity, and increase parents’ options when assigning chores. Foster your child’s foodsmithing skills with today’s Groupon: for $22, you get a 1.5-hour kids' cooking class (ages 7+) or a two-hour cake decorating class (ages 9+) at Chefs 2b in Humble (a $45 value), which was voted Best Kids' Party Place in Houston by Nickelodeon Parents' Picks awards in 2010.

Within the kitchens at Chefs 2b, culinarily-curious kids learn to use their own hands to whip up delicious repasts and then pick up and taste the flambéed fruits of their labor beneath the watchful eyes of certified chefs. Variety abounds in the 1.5-hour-long cooking classes, where cheflets may bone up on cuisine from other countries, learn basic techniques, or reflect on the importance of keeping the lid on the blender. Classes are equal parts art and science, and kids learn how, like scouting for boy bands, a combination of disparate ingredients can come together to create something wholesome and harmonious.

Alternately, in the two-hour cake decorating class, children learn techniques to cast boring baked batter into technicolor. Past themes include “Jungle Fever,” where petite pastry makers transform cupcakes into hippos, or “Fore!” where kids learn to cook and then dodge golf-course cupcakes. Most classes are offered in the evening, during the school year; classes during the summer are held at a variety of times. The schedule changes based on demand, so call ahead for the latest offerings.