Cooking With Your Kids Helps Develop Motor Skills for Preschoolers
By Laura Bankston
Editor's note: If this recipe inspires you to try some cooking
with your kids, why not have a browse around our
family recipe section for inspiration?
Did you know that cooking with your kids is a natural way for them to
develop motor skills? If you've never looked at cooking that way before,
think again. There's a reason why kids have a universal love for cooking
- just like for stacking blocks and banging!
Cooking is especially good for preschoolers and here's how:
1. Two year olds are developing large muscles in their arms: They will
enjoy stirring and stirring and stirring :-). My two year old is always
asking to stir; and her subconscious knows why! At two years old, a
child naturally imitates circular strokes as part of their normal
physical development. So, let them stir at every opportunity.
Here are some ways to encourage arm muscle development through cooking:
Stirring: flour, eggs, pancake batter, gelatin making, etc.
Scrubbing potatoes and vegetables
Cleaning the cutting board: Give them a washcloth and some lukewarm
water with the cutting board in the sink. They'll have a blast rubbing
the wet washcloth up and down the cutting board to clean it.
Pouring from large measuring cups into a bowl
2. Two year olds are developing the ability to turn pages: Another motor
skill developed during the preschool age is the ability to turn pages.
So - just pondering here - is it the story they love so much or just
turning the pages of the book? Well, actually both. They need the motor
development of turning the pages; and the pictures and vocabulary
improve their intellectual development.
3. Two year olds love "patting" and "pressing": From being fascinated
with "patty-cake" chants at an early age, preschoolers still love to pat
and press.
I'm sure you'll recognise your preschooler doing this at the park:
scooping up rocks or sand, piling them up, and patting the top into
different shapes.
Well, here's some suggestions to bring the "patting" inside:
Packing down brown sugar in the measuring cup
Gently pressing a fork on top of peanut butter cookie dough on the
cookie sheet
Patting to level off the top of a cup of sugar
Patting and pressing on pizza dough
Pressing down with a cookie cutter on rolled sugar cookie dough
4. Two year olds love to dip - and this develops arm muscles skills too.
It takes a lot of coordination to dip, getting the food in the
dip, then moving the arm and somehow getting it into your mouth. If it
wasn't difficult, they wouldn't get food all over their face!
So, unless your two year old always has a clean face when he or she is
done eating, here are some dipping opportunities:
Carrots in salad dressing
French fries in catsup
Dipping a spoon in the emptied batter bowl to clean out the goodies :-)
Dipping fruit in a fruit dip or chocolate (like frozen bananas or
strawberries)
Dipping chicken or fish in a batter for you to cook
Dipping the bread in French toast mix
So, instead of "shooing" your preschoolers and two year olds out of the
kitchen, let them dive in with these simple tasks that not only give
them great pleasure, but help them develop their age appropriate motor
skills.
About The Author
Laura Bankston is author of Internationally selling Cooking with Kids
Curriculum: “Homeschool Cooking in a Box” and the “Homeschool Cookbook”.
She currently home schools her three children, maintains home school
support websites, and manages their family-owned service business. For
information on her curriculum and free home school support services,
please visit
http://www.homeschoolcookbook.com
laura@homeschoolcookbook.com
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/
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