I'm not much of a cook - by any stretch of the imagination - but I do like to flex my culinary muscles in the fall and winter with lots of baking. Given that L had only just started toddling around late last fall, I didn't invite her into the kitchen too often. This year, that's all going to change. I am so excited to have my little gal by my side making all kinds of delicious treats! I had sort of been wondering what I could do to help prepare her for our big baking adventures, when I found an idea in a book of Montessori-inspired activities (my apologies for not being able to cite which one - I've been reading a host of different early childhood books lately and they were all very overdue at the library!). In this particular activity, the child practices pouring pasta from one measuring cup to another. I thought this would be a really great activity for L - fun, but also practical in terms of preparing her to hit the kitchen. Plus, I already have tons of rainbow pasta on hand, so I decided to give it a go.
L found this activity fantastically entertaining, and after only a few small spills, she got pretty good at getting all the pasta from one cup into the other and back again. This was such great fine motor practice, in addition to all of the thought she put into doing the job correctly. (And hey, what's a few spilled ingredients between friends, right?) I have complete confidence that, come autumn, we will be having many great adventures in the kitchen!
Do you do any kind of baking or cooking with your little ones?
No comments:
Post a Comment