Cooking Up Something Good?

Now that school’s back in session, meal prep and cooking is just as important as ever. Whether you’re looking up some new ideas for packed lunches or cooking up tasty, nutritious meals on the weekly menu, cooking and meal prep is a great time to bond and learn with your little one.

Going way back to our February 2021 post, “The Space Where Learning Happens,” Ann Withers of the Child Development Council points out that parents can create learning moments by practicing different ways of speaking with their children. 

To help children learn we need to give them information instead of commands…Instead of “Eat your peas,” you can say. “I made fish, peas and rice for dinner. What would you like?” In the “thinking space” your child can listen to their body, think about past experiences with those foods, make a choice, evaluate their choice, decide (learn) that peas taste good today, or maybe that they taste yucky!. You can reinforce that learning with statements like “I like these peas because the taste reminds me of summer. It looks like you liked them too.” (Or, “it looks like you didn’t want them today.”) Your information statements leave lots of “space” for thinking and learning. 

–Ann Withers in our February 23, 2021 Hello Cortland blog post.

The kitchen makes for a great classroom in other ways too. Consider giving your child fun, easy roles to help out. Stirring ingredients together, adding different ingredients into the bowl, and even reading along to the recipe or cookbook is a great way to keep up the learning spirit. 

According to KidsHealth, cooking with your young child has many benefits, including:

  • Building important skills by introducing new words and simple math by counting

  • Expanding your child’s favorite foods by exploring different options

  • Listening, smelling, and watching during the cooking process to explore their senses

  • Increasing confidence by completing tasks and being a good helper\

Whether it’s a weeknight meal or Sunday dinner, time spent preparing and making food is a fun and fulfilling experience to share with your learning child.

School Age, PreschoolersMatt Whitman