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It is worth mentioning at the outset that young children learn most effectively by observing and discussing together the world and their childhood experiences. This is why doing household chores, especially cooking together, is a great opportunity to learn new skills.
Remember that children enjoy solving complex problems with parental guidance. In addition, they want to feel like adults for a while and perform serious, but feasible tasks for them. They acquire new abilities at their own pace. And at home, if necessary, the parent can quickly help the child and explain the situation. It is extremely important to make the child feel that after each failure he can try again. Persistence in achieving a goal is a quality that needs to be developed.
Cooking: how to introduce a child to it
- First, show how you yourself do something specific: beat eggs, tear lettuce leaves, etc.
- Then describe how the child should do it on their own.
- Let your child do it on their own
- If necessary, help him and invite him to try again.
How to get interested in cooking and food
It is a good idea to talk about it while eating. The following issues can be raised:
- Where and how food is produced
- Which food is healthy and which is not. And why.
- How the food that the child eats was prepared.
It is also important to offer the child new tastes, to interest him in them. For example, you can describe how you feel. By encouraging young children to try new foods, you can provide them with a variety of nutrients and thus support health and immunity.
It’s worth noting that toddlers usually like to take part in meal planning and meal preparation. For us adults, these activities may seem uninteresting and unattractive, but they open up new opportunities for children in their development.
What can children do?
- Help you create a shopping list (using pictures).
- Choose what to cook for dinner, lunch or breakfast.
- Advise which foods are best for preparing food (after learning which foods are healthy and which are not).
- Weigh the ingredients while cooking.
- Mix ingredients.
- Help set the table.
With the help of adults, children can:
- Roll out the dough
- Butter buns or slices of bread
- Crack an egg and learn how to separate the egg white from the yolk.
- Mix flour with baking powder
- Sift flour
- Decorate baked goods
- Cut cookies using shapes
- Grate carrots or cheese (carefully)
- Slice the fruit with a mild knife
Shopping!
Shopping together in a store can be a great opportunity to learn new information such as the names of ingredients, their origins and how much each item costs.
Let the kids find specific items on the shelves in the store, it can be a lot of fun and adventure for them.
When they return from their purchases, the children can help organize all the purchases. And when it’s time to cook, they’ll know where to find sugar or flour.
And do not underestimate the importance of such actions, this style of learning through observation and imitation of adults is an excellent source of real experience for children of great educational value.
Meal time is time spent together.
Meal times can be great times to hang out with. Everyone eats and shares their impressions of the food as well as their impressions of the day. It is also a great opportunity to learn how to behave in the company and understand others and their needs. Recall that children learn behavior through social interactions.
Let your little one be a cook
Children love to pretend. By playing the role of a chef with a real apron and chef’s hat, at least for a while, you can keep your child positive about food and food. Having cooked a meal in the company of adults, the little ones will appreciate the food and the time spent together more.
You can record your activities in the kitchen with a camera or photograph them, as well as the results. You can even create our very own “Big Cooking Book” with magazine clippings and photos taken together. And we strongly recommend that you do it!
Let us remind you that earlier we told you about what you cannot save on in your child’s nutrition, and our friends – the site archidea.com.ua – advised how to choose the right furniture for a child’s room.