Games & Toys
Cooking, Kitchen and Teaching Kids
Kitchen and cooking are excellent for teaching kids. Yes, teaching kids to cook definitely, helps them to learn how to cook and equip them when they are older. But also as important is the non cooking related things that they learn, absorb and understand through the cooking process.
Children, when around adults that care and cherish them, learn lots. There is a lot of positive energy generated. They are happy. And children are like sponges â there will absorb anything that they are taught. An activity which is made fun and interesting will hold their attention and that activity helps them to generate their creativity while creating the opportunity for them to expand their knowledge on so many things.
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Here are some simple kitchen aactivities for different age groups to help us:
 TWO-YEAR-OLDS
Two Year Olds can be extremely active. At this age they are inquisitive and love to explore. They start to feel the power in their legs and hands. They touch anything and if they could, they would go anywhere. And they have short attention spans!
The kitchen activities can include:
 Clean vegetables with brushes.
Clean tables.
Tear, break, and snap foods.
 THREE-YEAR-OLDS
Three year olds are becoming more independent, a little more adventurous. Kitchen activities can help stimulate and develop their motor skills and muscles. And yes, their brain is growing extremely fast and they learn quick at this stage.
 Kitchen activities can include:
 aWrap foil around food.
 Wrap dough around meat or vegetable fillings
Press dough into baking pan.
 Pour from small plastic pitchers. (Practice at the sink)
Mix ingredients with hands or a wooden spoon (make sure that the container is twice the size of the amount of the mixture)
Shake small jars of food.
Spread foods using dull table knives or small spatulas.
 FOUR-YEAR-OLDS
 Your four year old could cook if just let them! Four year olds have firm grasp of the use of their fingers and they have developed good motor coordination.
These activities in the kitchen will help them develop strong muscles and help them with developing their motor skills â activities are now more detailed:
 Use fingers to peel eggs, oranges, corn, etc.
 Roll and flatten food.
 Mash foods.
FIVE-YEAR-OLDS
Five year olds are ready to learn the real stuff. Teach them to use their hands and fingers properly and at the same time you can start introducing more serious subjects such as numbers, measuring, handling kitchen items and such.
 These are some kitchen activities:
 Read to them from the recipe and help them measure ingredients.
 Cut soft foods.
Teach knife safety: “Always supervise this activity”
Use a chopping board, a knife that fits their hands, and a plastic serrated knife for soft foods. Show how to hold a knife and cut safely. Teach them to keep the knife edge away. Show them what could happen if the knife cut their fingers.
Turn a grinder.
Grate food.
 Beat cake dough or an egg with an egg beater.
 Cooking is a wonderful activity that we can do in our  homes to build our kids’ self esteem and confidence. Teaching kids while cooking is perhaps the best kept secret!
 The beauty is that they are with us while we work in the kitchen â they are part of the âhome processes.  Add a little decision making to some of the activities and walla, a great kid with bursting energy, enthusiasm and most important, you have created a most happy child.
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Harv Kay, the founder of http://1teachingkids.blogspot.com has found cooking an incredible method to teach her 8 and 4 year old all kinds of things. Her 8 year old started in the kitchen when he was barely 2 and continues to pick up various skills.
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