Cooking with Preschool Children

As children grow up they have a desire to learn new things. This is a natural instinct in each child and it becomes essential for the mother to help develop this learning skill of the child. Children learn many things as they grow. They start to learn to crawl, then sit and then walk. Once they are able to walk, the parents buy them a tricycle by means of which they can be independent for at least some time and enjoy the surroundings.

At the preschool age a child is glued to the mother as she is the one who is spending all her time with him, teaching new things and she acts as the role model of the child. To accelerate the learning process, many methods are adopted by parents. One of them could be involving the child in the cooking process which consumes quite some time of the mother and generally children are circling around her in the kitchen space.

Cooking with preschooler kid can be a real fun for mother. Even, when the child is involved with the mother in the kitchen, this could be used as a great learning and fun experience for the child. This occasion will be helpful to improve learning skills and eating habits. Some of the benefits in general will be:

• Help improve motor skill.

• Enable the child to learn about and be conscious of the nutritive value of different foods. Generally preschool kids are choosy about food. They do not like to eat many items of food. Involving them in cooking a particular item of food will help develop an interest about cooking and they will be curious about the taste of what they have cooked. Starting with tasting you will notice that the child has started liking the particular item. Alongside tell the child about nutritive values of item being cooked. This will be a valuable learning experience.

• He will develop a sense of cooperation by helping the mother and answering to her requests.

• He will be able to develop sensory exploration of objects. When some dish is ready you can give a spoon for tasting and ask the child to let you know if salt or sugar is adequate.

• The child will learn the concept of measurement. Ask the child to add a fixed number of cups of water in the pan for cooking. Let him count and do the work, correcting him if he is not filling the cups properly. At the time when there is no work to do, you can keep the child occupied by asking him to count the number of eggs or potatoes lying in the kitchen. This will help improve maths skill.

• You can also ask the child to separate bigger potatoes from the smaller ones. This way he will be able to concentrate on finding and sorting potatoes of different sizes, thus improving reasoning capability.

• The best advantage the child will have working with the mom is a boost in confidence level. The child will be able to handle different gadgets better as compared to other children. When they will discuss such a topic amongst themselves or with siblings, the child will feed confident and will develop the habit of confidence.

You can start with some easy jobs which the child will do as if he is playing and enjoying. You can give him work of tearing salad leaves or stirring some cold liquid while you add ingredients provided it is not dangerous. Generally the child will not like to be involved in one activity for say more than 10 minutes. After that he will try to run away. Plan the activity accordingly.

The child is bound to create a mess so do not be afraid of it or scold the child for it. Keep a close supervision on all his activities. Do not let him touch sharp objects like knives or electric appliances. Keep directions to do a particular work as simple as possible and understandable. Give one instruction at a time. Teach the child about cleanliness. He should be asked to wash hands before touching any cooking object. All this will help healthy development of the child.