THANKSGIVING IN THE YEAR OF COVID-10
Many of us have seen in the news that we are all being asked to replan our Thanksgiving 2020 because of COVID. We all have grown up being together with family and friends on Thanksgiving which creates those important memories for our children and loved ones. Since we cannot be together why not create a new experience for your children! Why not ask your children to help cook Thanksgiving Dinner!
There's no doubt that cooking with kinds takes more time and organization than cooking alone but when you consider the benefits you can see that the overall effort makes the experience more worthwhile.
10 Reasons to Cook with Kids
1. Literacy
Cooking experiences provide a natural way for children to learn vocabulary - as you talk together about the ingredients you are using cooking processes and changes observed, they are being introduced to new words and their meanings. Reading the recipe aloud to your child and referring back to it as. your cook teaches you child about one of the important purposes of literacy - to provide instruction or information.
2. Food Knowledge
Cooking together provides an opportunity to talk informally with your child about the types and origins of food, food production and nutrition. Being involved in food preparation, talking about and handling food can encourage a child to be more adventurous when it comes to trying new foods.
3. Brian Development
Sensory experiences are wonderful for brain development and cooking with your child engages all of their senses - seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting!
4. Motor Skills
Stirring, whisking, chopping, peeling, beating, kneading, and tenderizing, provides the opportunity to development physical skills - both fine (finger, hands and co-ordination) and gross (arm and body) motor skills.
5. Mathematical Concepts
Cooking experiences provides a hands-on , contextual way to introduce mathematical concepts to children especially with abstract concepts such as those related to measurements, number and sequencing.
6. Self Esteem
Children feel a real sense of achievement when they have the opportunity to serve food they have helped to prepare to family and friends.
7. Family Traditions
Food plays an important part in a family's unique culture. For most families, food plays an important role in both everyday life and special celebration, and it is the joy of sense of belonging that stems from the repetition of these traditions that stays with children into adulthood.
8. Delveloping Life Skills
Cooking is a life skill and involving children in the kitchen regularly from a young age is a step towards developing future independence.
9. Keeping Communication Open
Making a regular date to work side by side in the kitchen with your child is one way of maintaining regular time to talk together. This time has the potential to become more and more important as they grow and develop, and as the pressures and influences of schooling, peers and life in general become more prominent in their lives.
10. IT'S FUN!
Don't let the "Year of COVID" get in the way of creating new and exciting traditions for you and your family. Make it a Thanksgiving that the whole family will remember for years to come.
There's no doubt that cooking with kinds takes more time and organization than cooking alone but when you consider the benefits you can see that the overall effort makes the experience more worthwhile.
10 Reasons to Cook with Kids
1. Literacy
Cooking experiences provide a natural way for children to learn vocabulary - as you talk together about the ingredients you are using cooking processes and changes observed, they are being introduced to new words and their meanings. Reading the recipe aloud to your child and referring back to it as. your cook teaches you child about one of the important purposes of literacy - to provide instruction or information.
2. Food Knowledge
Cooking together provides an opportunity to talk informally with your child about the types and origins of food, food production and nutrition. Being involved in food preparation, talking about and handling food can encourage a child to be more adventurous when it comes to trying new foods.
3. Brian Development
Sensory experiences are wonderful for brain development and cooking with your child engages all of their senses - seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting!
4. Motor Skills
Stirring, whisking, chopping, peeling, beating, kneading, and tenderizing, provides the opportunity to development physical skills - both fine (finger, hands and co-ordination) and gross (arm and body) motor skills.
5. Mathematical Concepts
Cooking experiences provides a hands-on , contextual way to introduce mathematical concepts to children especially with abstract concepts such as those related to measurements, number and sequencing.
6. Self Esteem
Children feel a real sense of achievement when they have the opportunity to serve food they have helped to prepare to family and friends.
7. Family Traditions
Food plays an important part in a family's unique culture. For most families, food plays an important role in both everyday life and special celebration, and it is the joy of sense of belonging that stems from the repetition of these traditions that stays with children into adulthood.
8. Delveloping Life Skills
Cooking is a life skill and involving children in the kitchen regularly from a young age is a step towards developing future independence.
9. Keeping Communication Open
Making a regular date to work side by side in the kitchen with your child is one way of maintaining regular time to talk together. This time has the potential to become more and more important as they grow and develop, and as the pressures and influences of schooling, peers and life in general become more prominent in their lives.
10. IT'S FUN!
Don't let the "Year of COVID" get in the way of creating new and exciting traditions for you and your family. Make it a Thanksgiving that the whole family will remember for years to come.
