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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Teaching In The Kitchen

Some of my favorite ways to spend time with my daughter is to bring her into the kitchen. I love to cook and consider it to be a dying art. In this world, of convenience and ease, I find that most people I see shopping, at the grocery store, have carts full of microwave meals and over processed items. I refuse to teach my daughter that eating junk everyday is okay and acceptable.

As a past time I often ask my daughter to help me in the kitchen. She has so much fun helping me measure ingredients, season meat, help with salad making, creating delicious baked goods...etc. I also find that these little projects help to her learn: early math skills, fine motor skills, contributing to our family and are plain ole fun. Here are some pictures of her helping to make blueberry muffins.







She really enjoys the process of helping to create in the kitchen and that's wonderful. However, I also make sure that she learns about helping to clean up as well. I find that letting her wash dishes with me is another fun activity. She feels like she's getting to do water play and I find that she may not be the best dishwasher but she really does help a lot too. It's a very good way to kill time while the food is cooking or baking as well. By the time we're done we can sit done and enjoy the fruits of our labor.
Every time I bring my daughter into the kitchen I feel better about her growing up and living on her own. At least I know that she will be able to feed herself well and be healthy in the process!