Cooking With Kids - What You Should Know

At what age should kids be allowed to participate in the kitchen? If the thought of letting your kids loose in the kitchen conjures up visuals of sticky spaghetti mashed into the floor and accompanying sauce spray patterned on the wall, let me give you some advice. It's not all 'mess and clean-up'.

In the (sometimes) mad rush to get meals on the table on a regular basis, we can sometimes forget what a fun activity cooking can be. It's pleasures are certainly not lost on children though, who embrace the process of creating something special with a simple list of healthy ingredients that they can enjoy eating as a finale.

From a very early age, children pretend to cook – they make mud pies in the sandpit, hold elaborate tea parties in the bath. They enjoy the process of choosing a recipe, planning the process, assembling the ingredients (creativity), measuring with cups and spoons (maths), and chopping and peeling tasks that require and develop their concentration skills. Guiding and assisting your children in the kitchen will help develop and reinforce these learning skills. Kids love projects that have a beginning (preparation), a middle (messy, creative fun), and an end (eating and enjoying what they've made).

Learning to cook is not only fun for children but a skill that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Involving your children in cooking teaches them important life skills and if you guide them in choosing the ingredients wisely, can give them the appreciation of good nutritional food rather than fast unhealthy takeaway food.

Helping your child to feel confident with cooking has many benefits:

. Contributing to the household duties helps them to feel important.
. Learning to work together as a team to get the job done.
. Learning to plan and make responsible choices.
. Developing and practicing their creativity and imagination.

A cooking party is a perfect way to celebrate the birthday of a young eager-to-learn child. Not only does a cooking party provide an invaluable hands-on activity to entertain them and their guests, but it concludes with a meal for them all to enjoy. Even fussy eaters will be thrilled to eat something they have made with their own hands. There's something about creating a meal themselves which makes them more likely to eat whatever they had a hand in making.

It may take longer to prepare the meal but the moments with your children will be priceless.

Tips:

. Always make sure children are supervised in the kitchen.
. Never leave children unattended in the kitchen.
. Keep it fun and age-appropriate.
. Let your child get involved in choosing a recipe everyone will enjoy.
. Have patience. Don't worry about flour on the floor or spilled milk.
. Choose recipes that don't involve sharp knives or the oven.
. Choose easy recipes - dips, pizzas, meatballs, icing cupcakes.
. Make sure the children tie their hair back and wash their hands.

Here's an easy child’s recipe for starters:

VEGIE DIP

Ingredients:
1 tspoon Salad Dressing
1 pkt Cream Cheese
Celery
Broccoli
Carrots

Direction:
Combine (to taste required) salad dressing with cream cheese
and place in a small bowl. Cut and wash celery, broccoli and
carrots. Arrange cut pieces of vegetables around the bowl of
dip. (The vegies are for dunking into the dip).

Enjoy!

Related resource: Cooking With Your Children Can Teach Them Confident

About the Author: Mary-Lou Halvorson is a mother of two children and creator of http://www.groovy-kids-parties.com. Mary-Lou offers many ideas for Kids Birthday Parties including kids novelty birthday cakes with photos and instructions. Check out http://www.groovy-kids-parties.com/cooking-party.html for more information.

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Nurturing Your Child’s Greatest Asset

Do you remember when we were young, the sky wasn't the limit? I would like to share a quotation by George Bernard Shaw (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950), "You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'" Our imagination is only hampered by the limitations we created in our minds. If we put our imaginations to good use, our possibilities are limitless!

Imagination is one of the greatest traits human beings possess. From creative minds come works of art and advances in technology and science. In fact, imagination touches every aspect of our lives whether we realize it or not. But much like other characteristics of the human mind, imagination must be nurtured and practiced before its full potential can be reached.

Nurturing imagination takes place early in one's life, especially in children around the age of four or five. Can you think back to your own childhood and remember playing “cops and robbers” or “house?” When you took part in these pretend games and reenactments, you were allowing your mind’s creativity to expand and flourish.

Pretend play in children is a beneficial way to help a child learn to expand their understanding of who they are and what they like. It also helps them better grasp the knowledge of the world around them. Pretend play even helps children with communication skills, either with adults or with their own peers.

Pretend play’s earlier stages occur in the infant and toddler years. Babies are learning how to develop motor skills and react to bodily sensations. Toddlers are beginning to comprehend objects and what their functions are in the world. As time progresses a child is able to build on these learning experiences and expand their play. They do this by incorporating the personal and symbolic experiences they have seen in their short lifetime into a pretend scenario.

When children take part in pretend play, they tend to recreate family-related themes. If a child is playing with peers, roles are usually assigned and conflicts may be created and resolved by the participants. Pretend play can also be a solitary experience for the child. Instead of role playing, the child uses miniature cars, people and houses to recreate situations of all kinds.

Whether a child is playing with peers or alone, the scenarios recreated often represent a child’s interpretation of the world around them. Seeing conflicts among adults or other peers can be incorporated into pretend play. A child may try to resolve the conflict and produce his or her own desired outcome.

Adults play an active role in a child’s pretend play. Being around to supervise younger children is a good idea to make sure play time is always safe. Sometimes conflicts can arise among children, and adults need to intervene and keep things under control. Adults can also provide materials children can use for pretend play, making sure they are safe and age-appropriate.

By engaging in a child’s pretend play, adults help convey to kids how important playtime is and encourage imagination. Adults can help give children ideas on how to expand on their pretend play and let them explore all sorts of fun and creative possibilities. And because play can encourage communication, adults learn a great deal about a child just by watching or interacting in their pretend play.

Pretend play is important for a child’s development, and there are countless tools and toys to help children explore their own creativity. Encourage your child to take part in pretend play and watch imaginations take flight.

About the Author, Veronica Scott: Learn more about the fascinating world of miniatures. Visit http://www.themagicaldollhouse.com today for a great selection of wooden doll houses and dollhouse accessories from top miniature companies.

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10 Ways To Make Learning More Fun For Children

Traditional ways of learning required a teacher, a chalkboard,a desk, a ruler, pencil, and a textbook. A teacher with a stern, professional posture stood before the room with barely a smile on her face as she taught her class. This was the image seen in many movies and some adults actually had her in their class many years ago. She or he may have conducted a rather boring class, spending a lot of time talking over your head or talking to the chalkboard. The teacher restricted the class to textbook studies only and quizzes and tests every week.

Every now and then it was a real treat for students to watch a movie in her class, even if it was boring and the film jumped around on the screen. As for field trips, forget about it, students were lucky if they got to have an additional recess from time to time. Then when test time came, the worksheets seemed to be as old as them. Oftentimes a student, with a raised arm, would say, “I can’t read number 15. ”Then other students would nod or murmur in agreement. It would be a long school year in Mr. or Ms. XYZ’s class.

Years ago the Internet didn’t exist so we will just excuse Ms. XYZ for not having readily accessible information that could give her the ideas to stimulate her students. She may have been too busy grading papers or tending to her own family. Whatever her excuse, she has none nowadays. There are plenty of websites, articles, and other ways to make learning fun for children. The following suggestions may help you as a parent, who would like to assist your children or the teacher, stimulate her skills while making life more interesting for her class.

1. When beginning a new subject or topic to teach, why not decorate the class related to a theme. For instance, if you will be teaching about dinosaurs, why not have posters hanging in your classroom about dinosaurs?

2. Provide something fun related to your topic that children could take home to color, solve a puzzle or show off such as stickers or a colorful book that they can keep.

3. Always have an interesting DVD ready to “kick off” a new subject.

4. Set a time during the day, maybe Friday, where the students are required to work on a project together related to the topic. Students could try to piece a puzzle together, watch a video and write or draw what they really like from it, or play a game that will help them remember what you have taught them.

5. You may want a speaker to come in and talk about the subject other than you. Find out from parents if they know someone that would be willing to come to the classroom to speak on the topic you are teaching. Have the speaker bring something with them that will help the students remember his or her visit.

6. Talk with other teachers about what you are doing and maybe they would be willing to help you. They may be interested in getting their class to participate.

7. Research your local community on events that will aid you in your teaching. There may be a “free zoo day” and you just happened to be teaching on animals.

8. Watch out for sales. Sometimes products you may need to accompany your topic can be purchased at a reasonable price.

9. Tell parents both verbally and physically how you can use their input.

10. Visit online forums, blogs or create your own social networking profile to connect with other teachers to exchange ideas.

About the Author: Nicholl McGuire, Freelance Writer and mother of four http://wanttohavechildren.blogspot.com/

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