Eight Ways to Promote School Readiness When Cooking With Your Child

Cooking

Cooking, another daily task for your family that can be a valuable opportunity for educating your child. Although the kitchen is potentially a dangerous place for younger children, it is also an environment that fosters motor and academic skills.

Here are some ways you can use this task to bond with and inform your child on important lessons:

1. Have your child assign lids to various sizes of pots and pans, allowing them to discover the right fit.

2. Give your child a wooden spoon to play “the drums” on pots and pans, adding some fun into the cooking experience.

3. Use cookie cutters to teach your child shapes and object names.

4. Ask your child to take out a certain number of eggs from the carton and count with them as they go.

5. Engage in one-to-one correspondence in counting by having your child pour a certain number of tablespoons into the mixing bowl.

6. Have your child roll out dough and experience the different shapes that can be made.

7. Compare more to less by having your child hold one cup of sugar and one pound of sugar and tell you which is heavier.

8. Expand your child’s vocabulary with cooking words such as “mixer” or “blender”, stating each one aloud when it comes to use.