Need ideas for fun activities during the holiday break? How about cooking. Cooking with kids can be both delicious and educational. Kids can explore new foods, learn about nutrition, and develop math and reading skills as they measure and read directions.
Kids will make good choices, taking fruits and vegetables over less nutritious foods, when given a chance. Encourage healthy eating by creating a supportive environment, where parents and other caregivers model healthy eating. Involving children in shopping, cooking family meals and even gardening are other important steps in getting kids interested in fruits and vegetables.
Invite your child to help to plan a meal or pick a recipe, make a list of ingredients, find them in your kitchen, and/or shop for them. This way, children can learn how to organize and follow through, as well as think ahead. Give your kids a sense of control and accomplishment by letting them make choices whenever possible.
Shopping
- When at the store, talk about the names, shapes, colors, and sizes of fruits and vegetables.
Preschool
- Have them help put items in bags.
- Count the items as they are put in the bag.
- Spell the names of fruits and vegetables.
Grade school
- Talk about how fruits and vegetables are grown and where they are grown.
- Talk about fruits and vegetables eaten in other cultures, and try new ones.
Cooking
All ages can learn the importance of good hand washing and sanitation techniques. Use “kid-size” tools—if the counter is too high, use a sturdy step stool or have children sit at the kitchen table.
- Give them play foods or pots, pans, bowls and spoons to help “cook.”
Preschool
- Have them help measure ingredients
- Have them help combine and stir ingredients
Grade school
- Make simple, no-bake recipes.
- Ask your child to read each instruction aloud as you prepare the food. Kids will get a sense of turn-taking and sequencing from following directions in order.
- Your child can count and help measure to build math skills. When cooking with more than one kid, ask each child to count “stirs” as he or she whips the batter.
You may want to let each child participate in each step of the recipe. This may take longer, but cooking with kids is as much about “process” as it is about product.
Gardening
- Plant seeds in containers—you don’t need a formal garden to grow your own!
Introduce new foods.
- Kids often will try unfamiliar foods, including vegetables and fruits, when they transform them into personal “creations” like a funny face pizza or a fruit kabob.
- Turn a sandwich into a special snack!
- Cutting sandwiches with cookie cutters makes them special. Decorating with vegetables and fruits will transform a simple sandwich into a sandwich face.
Make set-up and clean-up part of the routine.
source: http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/?page_id=83
