Hi, I’m Monica from Marc’s Treasure Basket. I love empowering little monsters (kids) and inspiring them to become confident and creative in all aspects of life! Food and nutrition are a big part of a child’s life and what better way to get your little monsters eating good nutritious food, then giving them an education in the kitchen?
Here we help you to gain your confidence to allow your little monster a little more freedom when it comes to chopping, mixing, scooping and pouring. With a little help from Cook Smarts, you and your little monster will quickly get messy, have fun, learn and gain confidence in the kitchen.
Isn’t Pinterest great for finding inspiration? We are loving thes infographics from Cook Smarts which are all about empowering your little ones, through an education in the ktichen! I find the best way to do this, is by giving a child the time to do things for themselves.
We’ve added additional details to the infographics, sharing ways that cooking empowers your child.
IMPROVE THEIR ARITHMETIC
Cooking and baking is an amazing way to introduce volume & weight in the early years. Empower your toddlers and give them the opportunity to scoop and measure out at least one ingredient! “We need two spoonfuls of flour, can you scoop out two spoonfuls into the blow for me?” If you’re too nervouss about the correct measurements, give them their own bowl to scoop in and then you can add/take away before adding what they measured out!
Also, include your child in the “scale and adjusting ingredients”! When we add ingredients to the scale with our little monsters in the early years, we get them to count out loud or talk about what we’re adding – “Who knows what I’m adding now?” or best of all get them to use their imaginations when the Icing Sugar floats into the air – “It’s snowing”!!
When we’re looking at exacted measurements and we’ve added too much, we say out loud “We have a little too much. We need to take some away.” and then get one of the kids to take a little away with a spoon- this works with adding too! OR you can pre-measure the ingredients into small bowls and get the kids to measure out before you add them all together.
What your little monster will gain from these activities is immeasurable (Pun intended)!!!
PREPPING & CHOPPING
Prepping and chopping is an amazing way for your little monster to work on their small gross motor skills, learn about the dangers associated with sharp objects and how to use them safely, as well as interact with foods they love (and don’t love)! When little monster are able to handle & play with food, the food becomes less scary and after a while many kids will start to try new foods!
We think toddlers are GREAT at tearing things! The important lesson here, is that you can teach your toddler about being gentle and kind, to slowly rip and tear. This is something that many children will need practice with!
For many a toddler, scissors & knives do not go in the same sentence. But with supervision, we’ve taught 3-4 year olds to peel potatoes and cut up peppers and cucumbers with a kids’ knife! Your little monster can do it, all you have to do is give the time and the opportunity (and a watchful eye)!
COOKING
Stirring and Shaking are amazing opportunities for your little monster to gain control and improve on their large gross motor skills! They LOVE doing these kind of motions and defiantly enjoy getting involved!
Not only are they developing on important movement skills, but also being introduced to science – solid into liquid, wet and dry, soft and hard (and so on) – their amazement is priceless! If what your making needs a certain type of mixing that your little monster is unable to do, give them a bowl (with some ingredients in it) and a spoon and give them the opportunity to mix beside you- simple!
It’s ALL about giving your little monsters the opportunities to become confident in the kitchen! Have fun and let them explore and gain their confidence.
Once again, we would like to say thank you to CookSmarts! It’s a great resource, and we hope you enjoy our additional tips!
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I’m Monica from Marc’s Treasure Basket! I’m into all sorts of things that involve kids and creativity. I’m working on creating an amazing space that has the best of kids, learning through play, health, creativity, DIY, yarning & microfashion, where you’ll find all sorts of easy and fun activities and craft projects to do with and for your little monsters! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep updated with what’s going on in our Treasure Basket!
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