Who loves cooking? Yes? No? Whether you enjoy cooking or not, these years at home are the perfect time to prepare your children, girls AND boys for when they leave home.
However, not only is cooking great fon independence, but awesome for learning! According to this article: http://ezinearticles.com/?Kids-in-the-Kitchen---Educational-Cooking&id=978404, cooking is a tool for learning about senses, measurements, and safety.
My chidlren love to tinker around in the kitchen and they tend to be like their dad and experiment with recipes. Me, I tend to follow the recipe and maybe make a tiny change here and there, but I get too nervous to experiment. So I LOVE that they are willing to try new things even if it turns out that they don't like it!
Four out of Five days a week, they make lunch for the family. They take turns figuring out the menu for that meal and then preparing it. They love it and often beg for it! The older two I can now leave completly on their own to cook, the younger two still obviously need supervision.
This year, I am trying something new and I am really excited about it! We are going to sit down on Friday, our down day, and they will figure out what they want to do on their day for lunch. Then we will go through the pantry and make sure we have the ingredients, if we don't have it, it will go on the shopping list. I have alot of children's cookbooks that I will pull out so that they can go through and see if something catches their fancy.
By doing this, I am hoping to accomplish:
1) Planning ahead.
2) Following through. Which can be hard, especially if you realize that you really don't want to fix what you planned to fix for that day!
3) Experimentation. A couple of my kids don't really like to try new things..however, I have noticed that if they have a hand in fixing it, their desire to try it goes up!
4) Reading Skills.
5) Following directions.
6) Safety in the kitchen.
7) Learning measurements.
And there are probably other things they will learn along the way. Especially the younger ones who are still learning how to cook.
I realize, that it is alot easier for us moms to just do things ourselves cause there is less mess etc...but remember our Letter A, Allow Messes! Kids learn by making messes AND cleaning them up! Cooking can be messy, but if you are there to take the time to train them how to clean up as they go along, how to measure properly, use knives safely, follow directions etc...you will find that the pay off in the long run will be WELL worth the effort. And maybe, just maybe you will find yourself having to fight to cook a meal yourself because of all the little chefs in your family!
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Heidi