Helping my mother cook is one of my early memories from my preschool years. She was exceedingly patient! Small children are often keen to do what you are doing. Involve children in the preparation of their food, make this involvement fun and you will be fostering the development of the following positive outcomes:
- Providing them the opportunity to begin accepting responsibility for their own eating habits.
- Providing them with a wonderful sense of achievement.
- Perhaps even enticing them to try foods they have previously rejected.
Cooking activities are the perfect combination of fun and creativity and are a great way to teach children about the food they eat as well as introduce them to new foods from around the world. Children will eagerly tuck into something they have prepared themselves and take great pride in watching someone else enjoy their food.
Make sure the activities you ask of your child are age appropriate, below is a quick guide but you know your child best and what would be most suitable for them.
- 2 years Scrubbing, tearing, dipping
- 3 years Pouring, mixing, spreading, shaking
- 4 years Wiping, washing, peeling, cutting, rolling, mashing, grating
Cooking is a bit like reading and if you learn the basics first, the rest should fall into place. These are some of the most frequently used techniques, the best ones to aim to teach your child:
- Peeling vegetables with a vegetable peeler.
- Chopping onions leaving the root intact so that it doesn't fall apart.
- Mashing potatoes with a potato masher.
- Grating cheese.
- Squeezing citrus fruit.
- Cracking eggs by tapping the centre of the shell over the rim of a small bowl.
- Using a sieve.
- Whisking egg whites.
- Rubbing in butter and flour for crumble.
- Kneading dough.
- Rolling out dough using a floured rolling pin and cutting out shapes using cookie cutters.
- Greasing and lining cake tins.
- How to tell if a cake is cooked by seeing if a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Most importantly have fun and don’t worry too much about the mess!
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