You may have seen that recently on our Facebook page we posted an article discussing how to teach kids about math, reading, and other school subjects by cooking together. That got me thinking about all the times I've cooked with my one-year-old, and how much fun we've had. At first I thought she was still too young to cook with me at only one year old, but with a little creativity I discovered some great jobs for her! All it takes are some basic gross motor skills on her part, and a little creativity on yours, and you can get your young toddler into the kitchen to learn, have some fun, and have some special time together!
The Salad Spinner
What young toddler doesn't love pushing buttons? Well, if you have an OXO Salad Spinner or similar model, your toddler is probably already a pro at drying off the lettuce for your dinner salad. She'll also love tearing the lettuce into bite-sized pieces with her hands, and being responsible for the very important job of transporting greens from the cutting board to the spinner, and from the spinner to the serving dish.
Pouring Ingredients
Maybe she's not quite coordinated enough to pour things on her own, but just getting her hands on a bottle of sauce or a cup of sugar to help you pour will be exciting.
Stirring
If your young toddler can hold a spoon, she can stir! Put anything that needs stirring into a non-breakable dish for her to work with. You may also want to hold the dish, place the dish on the floor, or simply have a set of backup ingredients in case the contents of the dish end up on the floor. Heavy bowls with non-skid placemats underneath also do a great job of helping things stay in place. Sure, you'll probably have to finish the job, but your toddler will love it while it lasts!
Instant Pudding
Instant pudding is a great recipe to make with young toddlers. It's quick, simple, and doesn't require any cooking. And, your toddler can help with every step of the process. It's great to "cook" as a special dessert for a family member, or to celebrate one of your toddler's achievements.
Taste-Testing
You can show your young toddler you value her thoughts and opinions by having her taste-test the ingredients in the dinner. Let her taste the various ingredients you'll be putting into the food, both raw (when safe) and cooked. This is a sneaky way to get your young toddler to try some new foods she probably wouldn't touch if presented at the dinner table!
Cleaning
Most toddlers love cleaning up. Give them a wipe to clean up spills, or put them at the sink with a brush to wash veggies such as potatoes and carrots. (Sure, you'll probably have to wash them again, but it's worth the thrill.) Check out this toddler-sized veggie brush, perfect for small hands.
Slicing
Yes, your young toddler can actually help you slice! For example, this banana slicer is perfect for little hands. Depending on her kitchen skills, you can also give your young toddler a plastic chef's knife to cut soft fruits and veggies.
Mashing
Whether your toddler is mashing with her hands or a toddler-sized utensil, this job is sure to be a hit. Your toddler can mash avocados for guacamole, potatoes or cauliflower for a side dish, or cheese or berries for a dessert.
Arranging
Time to serve? Have your young toddler arrange bread in a basket, or put a roll on each plate before it goes to the table. Or maybe she can arrange veggies or crackers on a serving platter. She'll get a kick out of all the help she's giving.
Dishes
Finally, help with the dishes! Have your toddler hand you utensils and non-breakable dishes from the dishwasher for you to put away. Sure, it'll take twice as long, but it's guaranteed to be at least eight times the fun.
Of course, remember to be safe when cooking with your kids. Most young toddlers shouldn't be working with hot ingredients, or at or near the stove. It's also important to be mindful of placing knives and other dangerous objects out of reach. Cutting out of reach is also recommended because little hands can wander! In other words, be sure your common sense always goes with you into the kitchen.
Once you do get your young toddler in the kitchen, you'll both find great benefits from it. There are infinite opportunities for her to learn, and even more opportunities for the two of you to bond. Participating with you may even help your toddler's self-esteem.
So, what are your favorite ways to get your young toddler involved with dinnertime?
Showing posts with label parenting tips and tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parenting tips and tricks. Show all posts
Friday, July 27, 2012
Friday, August 5, 2011
Fill Your Freezer Without Filling Your Day
Today we're taking a break from our usual Simple Saturday post for a special feature!
As you may know by now, our blog is centered around a group of moms who get together once a month to make-ahead freezer meals for our families. We've showed you how we organize our make-ahead parties, and also how to deal with food allergies when making-ahead for a group. But, make-ahead cooking can take a lot of time and planning. So today, we're excited to be a guest author over at Life As Mom, explaining how to Fill Your Freezer Without Filling Your Day!
What are YOUR tips and tricks for making make-ahead cooking an efficient way to care for your family?
As you may know by now, our blog is centered around a group of moms who get together once a month to make-ahead freezer meals for our families. We've showed you how we organize our make-ahead parties, and also how to deal with food allergies when making-ahead for a group. But, make-ahead cooking can take a lot of time and planning. So today, we're excited to be a guest author over at Life As Mom, explaining how to Fill Your Freezer Without Filling Your Day!
What are YOUR tips and tricks for making make-ahead cooking an efficient way to care for your family?
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Top Five Tips for a Nutritious Make-Ahead Lunch
Today we're honored to host guest author Stacy Cacciatore from the healthy eating blog Five a Day the Fun Way. Stacy started Five a Day the Fun Way to provide parents with realistic recipes, tips, activities, and ideas to make eating healthy fun for the entire family.
As an overweight child, anorexic teen, and obese adult, Stacy struggled with her weight for her entire life. After hitting an all-time high of 220 pounds, she decided something needed to change. She immersed herself in education about health, nutrition and wellness, resulting in losing 80 pounds, 11 sizes, and half her body fat. As a mom, she wants to ensure her children don’t experience the same struggles with weight and food. She writes Five a Day the Fun Way to share her experiences, research, struggles, and successes in getting her entire family to eat healthier.
Check out Stacy's blog and website for more information about Stacy, her writing, and other projects. You can contact her at stacy@stacycacciatore.com.
Whether you are trying to pack a healthy lunch for your child for summer camp, school, or even for yourself for work, it’s not easy to bring a lunch that is healthy, quick, affordable, delicious, and can withstand making ahead.
As a busy mom, I struggle with balancing convenience, time, and nutrition. It seems that I can typically achieve one or two of these criteria, but not all three. Last week I found myself succumbing to the allure and convenience of the Lunchable. I dreaded my decision when I read that Lunchables are full of nitrates, high fructose corn syrup, and refined flour.
I immediately decided to set out to find healthy lunch ideas that I could make ahead on Sunday night for the entire week.
Given that I had recently had lunch with my son at his school and saw how the kids trade lunch items like silly bandz, I wanted to make a lunch that was not only nutritious, but that my kids would be excited to eat (and not trade in for chips.)
Here are my top five tips for making a healthy lunch that your kids will actually eat:
As an overweight child, anorexic teen, and obese adult, Stacy struggled with her weight for her entire life. After hitting an all-time high of 220 pounds, she decided something needed to change. She immersed herself in education about health, nutrition and wellness, resulting in losing 80 pounds, 11 sizes, and half her body fat. As a mom, she wants to ensure her children don’t experience the same struggles with weight and food. She writes Five a Day the Fun Way to share her experiences, research, struggles, and successes in getting her entire family to eat healthier.
Check out Stacy's blog and website for more information about Stacy, her writing, and other projects. You can contact her at stacy@stacycacciatore.com.
As a busy mom, I struggle with balancing convenience, time, and nutrition. It seems that I can typically achieve one or two of these criteria, but not all three. Last week I found myself succumbing to the allure and convenience of the Lunchable. I dreaded my decision when I read that Lunchables are full of nitrates, high fructose corn syrup, and refined flour.
I immediately decided to set out to find healthy lunch ideas that I could make ahead on Sunday night for the entire week.
Given that I had recently had lunch with my son at his school and saw how the kids trade lunch items like silly bandz, I wanted to make a lunch that was not only nutritious, but that my kids would be excited to eat (and not trade in for chips.)
Here are my top five tips for making a healthy lunch that your kids will actually eat:
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Test Environments for Parents
Today's post is a wonderful guest piece authored by - gasp! - a Dada rather than a Mama. Richard Anderson is the husband of Eastside Make-Ahead Mama Devon Thurtle Anderson and father to our beautiful baby daughter, Morgan. Richard is also an IT professional with a blog that aims to decipher the complex issues around enterprise storage systems, technology, and trends in the industry. (It's okay if your eyes glazed over for a minute there; that's a common occurrence in our house.) Believe it or not, sometimes enterprise storage systems can teach us a thing or two about raising our kids, and we're pleased to share what Richard has to say on the subject.
So I’ve been a father for about 6 months now, and over that time I’ve found that the life of a parent is essentially a series of experiments with real life consequences. Every day I wonder whether I’m doing the right thing for my daughter, and when I have to make a decision about pretty much anything related to her, I must weigh the possible consequences of each option.
Case in point, I was feeding
my daughter last night at 1:00 a.m., and my mind started wandering, as it usually does--this time about my daughter’s handedness. My wife and I believe she is left-handed, partly because we both are, and partly because she seems to favor her left hand, but it’s really too early to tell. Very early on, we found that she sleeps best at night when she’s swaddled nice and tight
, but after a couple of months she stopped sleeping easily unless we kept just her left arm free, another check in the left-handed box. I now leave her left arm free every time I swaddle her, without exception, which leads me to the concern I suddenly felt last night --
Does keeping my daughter's right arm tight in the swaddle stifle the development of that arm? Could she possibly be right-handed but we are only allowing the left arm to develop? Should I leave her right arm out next time? What is the consequence of continuing with the status quo? She sleeps well with the status quo, which means I sleep well. What is the consequence of switching arms? Would she have trouble sleeping and thus keep me up all night if I switch her arm? Or would she still sleep well and prove over time that she’s actually right-handed? Should I feed her apples
or the chicken dinner
? How do you handcuff a one-armed man?
The challenge here is that I don’t have a test-lab (aka: test baby) to experiment with different swaddling techniques or foods in order to answer these questions. As parents, we (the proverbial "we") are constantly experimenting with real-live children and hoping we don’t screw up. What's worse is that humans are all unique, so even your first child doesn't necessarily teach you everything you need to know for your second.
Out in the business world, there are test environments for all sorts of systems, software, electronics, cars, etc. where experiments are tested and proven first, then put in place in production environments. The consequence for screwing up most of these systems? Somebody, somewhere, may not be able to buy an iPhone
that day. The consequence for messing up in parenting? Ruining our children, ruining our own lives, or both. Sometimes when I have a stressful day at work, coming home to take care of my daughter puts things into perspective.
Richard's blog, The Storagesavvy Blog, can be found at www.storagesavvy.com.
So I’ve been a father for about 6 months now, and over that time I’ve found that the life of a parent is essentially a series of experiments with real life consequences. Every day I wonder whether I’m doing the right thing for my daughter, and when I have to make a decision about pretty much anything related to her, I must weigh the possible consequences of each option.
 |
| Morgan, a busy six-month-old, who may or may not be left-handed. |
my daughter last night at 1:00 a.m., and my mind started wandering, as it usually does--this time about my daughter’s handedness. My wife and I believe she is left-handed, partly because we both are, and partly because she seems to favor her left hand, but it’s really too early to tell. Very early on, we found that she sleeps best at night when she’s swaddled nice and tight, but after a couple of months she stopped sleeping easily unless we kept just her left arm free, another check in the left-handed box. I now leave her left arm free every time I swaddle her, without exception, which leads me to the concern I suddenly felt last night --Does keeping my daughter's right arm tight in the swaddle stifle the development of that arm? Could she possibly be right-handed but we are only allowing the left arm to develop? Should I leave her right arm out next time? What is the consequence of continuing with the status quo? She sleeps well with the status quo, which means I sleep well. What is the consequence of switching arms? Would she have trouble sleeping and thus keep me up all night if I switch her arm? Or would she still sleep well and prove over time that she’s actually right-handed? Should I feed her apples
or the chicken dinner? How do you handcuff a one-armed man?The challenge here is that I don’t have a test-lab (aka: test baby) to experiment with different swaddling techniques or foods in order to answer these questions. As parents, we (the proverbial "we") are constantly experimenting with real-live children and hoping we don’t screw up. What's worse is that humans are all unique, so even your first child doesn't necessarily teach you everything you need to know for your second.
Out in the business world, there are test environments for all sorts of systems, software, electronics, cars, etc. where experiments are tested and proven first, then put in place in production environments. The consequence for screwing up most of these systems? Somebody, somewhere, may not be able to buy an iPhone
that day. The consequence for messing up in parenting? Ruining our children, ruining our own lives, or both. Sometimes when I have a stressful day at work, coming home to take care of my daughter puts things into perspective.Richard's blog, The Storagesavvy Blog, can be found at www.storagesavvy.com.
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