A Recipe for Great Success

                   

    What better way to spend some of the cold days of winter with our kids than to cook something up in the kitchen.  Baking or cooking something together not only provides a great bonding experience and teaches a very valuable life skill but helps kids develop so many other skills without too much effort.  So sit down with your child, pick a recipe together, start cooking and watch your child start learning the following skills.

• Social Skills -  When you sit down with your child to choose something to make, get them thinking about others.  Ask them what they think someone else in their lives might like.  It forces them to really think about another person’s preference.  If you give the item out as gifts, let the child bring it to the person and practice the art of gift giving.  Don’t forget to remind them to say “you’re welcome” when they get a “thank you”.  

• Following Directions -  Recipes require you to follow directions the right way.  Show kids the importance of reading the whole recipe first and then go back and follow each step one by one.  With each step ask them what they are to do.  Get those verbs out of them (e.g. mix, preheat, gather, pour).  These verbs are where the action is.  

• Speech production - If your child is working on a speech sound, then have them read the steps out loud to you (if old enough) making their sound correctly.  If the child is younger have them practice their sounds by repeating the ingredients or repeating after you give a shortened version of the direction.  For example, “stir the sugar and butter.”

• Math -  Fractions, measuring, learning about quantities, time, etc are all part of making a successful dish.  Real math work takes place when doubling a recipe.

• Executive Functioning - This is your planning, organizing, attention to detail, time management.  Start with planning what they want to make.  Have them help make a list of what they need, find what you already have, and then make another list of what needs to be bought.  Have them plan a good time to make the recipe considering when it’s needed for, how long it should take, what else is happening at the time, etc.  Let them get out all the ingredients and items needed to make the recipe and better yet after you are done, let them put everything back where it belongs.  Hold them to the task.  Make them stay on task.  If it says to beat something for two minutes, set a timer and have them complete it all the way through.  Remind them when measuring how important it is to be accurate and pay attention to how many scoops of something already went in.

• Conversation -  This is a great time to hold really nice conversations.  Children practice asking questions and listening for the response.  While the treat is baking in the oven, rather than letting them run off to play, sit down and talk about other things.  Sit and talk during the taste test.  Sitting down and sharing a snack often brings out the chattiness in someone.