Sangita stared at her mom
wide-eyed. She looked at her mom making dahl, roti and cutting the
salad. She asked her mom if she could help, but her mom refused. Sangita
insisted and insisted and her mom finally allowed Sangita to help. As it
turned out to her mom's surprise, Sangita was quite the little helper.
Letting your children cook with you can open a whole new world for them!
Cooking helps children
develop skills such as counting, decision-making, measuring and creativity.
It also helps your child develop qualities such as patience and open-mindedness.
These skills and qualities will not only assist them in school, but will
help them throughout their lives. Believe it or not allowing your child
to cook will help your child be a less fussy eater.
Let's start at the very
beginning...
The tools that you should
introduce to your little beginner chef are the microwave, toaster oven,
waffle maker, blender and many aprons. These little chefs probably are
keen on helping you make salads and soups; things that may seem simple
to them, but are quite complicated. They might also want to cut things.
Guess what? Let them cut! Butter knives can cut boiled eggs, bananas,
mushrooms and olives. You should have a special butter knife just for
your children's use. This will help to arouse their interest in cooking
even more. Beginning chefs will even love to spread butter and jam on bread.
These little cooking exercises will make them feel very proud of their
cooking abilities.
For our semi-advanced chefs,
the tools you should introduce them to are a microwave, electric frying
pan, waffle maker, bread maker and the stove. Your semi-advanced chefs
will love to experiment, but make sure they taste everything they make.
This will ensure that they realize what dishes they have cooked taste good
and which do not. Also let your children make something on the stove once
a week, such as boiling pasta or making a cheese sandwich. And as always
be careful and be fully alert when your child is cooking on the stove.
It is very important that
your children go shopping with you for food. This is a great way to
introduce them to buying food and how much to buy of a certain product.
It will also introduce them to new food and arouse their interest in trying
them.
Cooking with your children
will be a lot of fun. You should be open-minded, patient and make it an
enjoyable experience for you and your children. Of course, remember to
ensure yours and your children's safety. Little children are very impressionable
so give them a good taste of what cooking is all about! |