A Trip To The Store

I have been watching Jamie Oliver's show on the Food Network in which he is working with a school district in West Virginia to provide healthier school lunches. In the course of his educating the children on better food choices, he spent time in a kindergarten class. He brought in foods such as celery, eggplant, tomatoes, and potatoes to see if the children could identify each one. You guessed it. They could not. Why is that? One reason is that no one had talked to these children about these foods. Perhaps there was not money in the family budget for fresh vegetables. Or maybe processed foods have taken over our society to the point where families don't cook fresh vegetables anymore. Or maybe these kiddos just needed a little instruction.

Once Jamie had attempted this lesson with the class, the teacher decided to teach the children about vegetables. Within two weeks, when Jamie went back to the same class, all of the children could identify all of the vegetables. It was a beautiful thing to see.

To help your child identify fruits and/or vegetables and to develop vocabulary, do the following: when you are in the grocery store, have your child name each item you are adding to the cart. To help with letter and sound recognition, a pre-cursor to reading, sound out the first sound in the word and name that letter sound. Or you can say, "Let's find a vegetable that begins with B". Pick up broccoli." Yes, broccoli. Broccoli begins with B."

Even your older children will benefit from this exercise. You can greatly expand their vocabulary by choosing vegetables or fruits like artichokes, cauliflower, pomegranate, or mango to talk about. All children love to learn new words, especially if they are big words that are fun to say. Who knows, your child may even ask to sample some of the food you talk about.

What's Cooking?

All children have a natural curiosity with food and cooking. Think about it. Food is something that starts out one way and after cooking, looks totally different. That is very scientific and very appealing to a child.

There was a time, prior to state accountability and assessment testing, when kindergarten children had cooking as a part of the weekly curriculum. That is no longer the case. Cooking has been relegated to the Pre-Kindergarten curriculum (if you're lucky) or has been removed from the curriculum completely. Therefore, you must have it as a part of your curriculum at home.

Even if you are a working Mom (and all Moms are working Moms!), you can engage in simple cooking activities with your child. I'm not talking about anything dangerous involving sharp knives (although this must be taught too as your child matures); I am talking about simple activities such as helping you measure, helping you stir, and helping you serve. Yes, this does take extra time and there will be somewhat of a mess. But you can begin with something simple like "Ants on a Log", celery stuffed with peanut butter with raisins on top; or Rice Krispies Treats---food items that require no cooking.

Later, you can advance to a simple cookie recipe that requires baking and you can discuss oven temperature, creaming the butter (creaming? What is that?), and using the mixer. You will build your child's vocabulary with each new activity. You will be teaching measurement and precision. You will be teaching your child hand/eye coordination as you teach stirring and spreading techniques. Even a child as young as two or three can learn to stir and follow directions.

It doesn't have to be complicated. You will be a rock star to your child if you have him or her help you with cooking. Little children are naturally interested in this activity. If you begin when your child is young (as with everything I have discussed in this blog), your child's interest in cooking will only grow and mature as he or she grows and matures. Just think, you may have your own personal chef in the house by the time your child is twelve.