Cooking & eating is such a vibrant sensorial experience, what a wonderful way to connect and show them these good things about the holidays. They say our strongest memories are often tied up with things we smell or taste.
Divide up the cooking between what you can cook with them, and what needs to be done with your full focus or only with your child watching from a safe distance.
How to Prepare:
1. Ensure your child can see what you're doing. Use a toddler-safe step stool or their highchair.
2. Lay out ingredients and tools, considering what's within reach. Set up cutting and hot stove areas away from assembly zones.
3. Review the recipe, identifying steps for child participation: stirring, sorting, tearing, washing vegetables. Look for opportunities to squish or squeeze - kids love that!
4. Explore ingredients: What can they smell? What can they taste? Cooking can be an incredible opportunity to expand the senses - jump in and do it with them! It will turn you into a more conscious cook while you're at it.
The Invitation:
Observe your child's interest level. If they're engrossed in another activity, let them be. Be prepared for potential disinterest - sometimes children prefer watching to participating.
Start Cooking:
1. Plan for turn-taking or parallel activities based on the cooking task.
2. Chopping? Offer them the extras or bits you won’t use to explore, maybe in their own bowl.
3. Mixing? Perfect time to teach stirring!
4. Stove-top cooking? Set them up at a safe distance, explaining your actions. This narration builds vocabulary.
Just remember, give yourself plenty of lead time to cook, it will inevitably take longer to complete the dish in order to bring your child into the process with you. If you put yourself under too tight of a time limit, you’re more likely to be impatient.
Celebrate and enjoy the finished food! Consider letting them serve up the food they helped make for themselves and the others around the table and enjoy the hospitality.
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