Home | List of Articles | Submit an Article | Contact Us

Fun In The Kitchen - Age-Appropriate Activities Your Children Can Do

1 Year Olds

grab the rolling pin and let your toddler roll it across the floor
wooden spoons are great for increasing your 1 year olds hand coordination (and they make great sounds too!)
let your toddler play with the lids from your pots. It's like they have started their own little band!

2 Year Olds

help mom wash fruits and vegetables.
take a plastic juice container or pop container and fill it with rice or dried pasta, or even coins. Tape the top so your curious one is unable to get the lid off, and let them shake the container to make the loudest sounds. You can do several of these with varying amounts of rice, pasta, or coins and let them hear the difference.
pretend mixing - get a small wire whisk and a plastic measuring cup and let your munchkin mix just like mommy or daddy.
wipe the table - it's never to early to get help cleaning up. Have your little one wipe off the table. It may not be perfect, but it will make you both feel good knowing your child wants to help you.

3 Year Olds

help you mix batter.
pour measuring cup contents into a bowl.
knead bread dough.
practice shapes and colors - help your little one identify the shapes and colors of the ingredients you are using in your meal. This will make them feel completely involved in the meal preparation and more likely to eat the end product.

4 Year Olds

choose a food at the store - take your child when you go grocery shopping. Let them pick one food each week (one they haven't tried before) and help them experiment with that food, using it a few times during the week in different meals. Start with fruits and veggies first since those seem to disappear from a child's diet at an early age.
play the number game - make one meal a week with different numbers of foods. For example, make a lunch with a salami sandwich, carrots, and strawberries. Play a game and count...2 carrot sticks, 4 strawberries, 2 pieces of salami, 2 pieces of bread, and 1 slice of cheese.
measure - let your child help you measure the amount you need for a recipe and start explaining fractions and let them see the different size measuring cups. It's never too early to start math skills.
reading - read the recipe out loud to your child and walk through the step by step process. This really enforces the concept that in many life activities there are a series of steps to get to the end product.

5-6 Year Olds

Let them prepare simple snacks by themselves - they will love to eat the fruits of their labor!
Plan a snack schedule - get a calendar or a dry erase board and sit down with your child at the beginning of the week. Let him or her plan a daily healthy snack that he or she can make.
Set the table - it doesn't have to look like Martha Stewart's house, but it gives your child a sense of responsibility.

7-10 Year Olds

Read recipes - let your child read the entire recipe to you.
Plan meals - sit down with your child and let him or her help you set the menu for the week, look through the recipes and help you make a grocery shopping list.
Make meals - at this age, most children can make at least 1 dish to go with dinner. If you are making an easy meal, have him or her help you with the entire meal. They will be so pleased and will no doubt eat it up, knowing they helped make it.
Do dishes - ah yes, this one might be a struggle because at this age your children know that doing dishes is a chore. However, if your child has been involved with the meal planning process and making the meal, he or she may clean up the dishes without a problem.

Shelly Howard http://www.munchkinmenus.com

Permission is granted to reproduce this article electronically, provided the author’s name is in tact and all hyperlinks are active.

About The Author

Shelly Howard is the owner of MunchkinMenus (http://www.munchkinmenus.com) which is a site designed to bring the family back to dinner with quick, easy, kid-approved recipes. She is a mom herself to a 3 year old little boy and her business and articles are based on personal experience with a picky eater.

For more information, please visit http://www.munchkinmenus.com

munchkinmenus@mail2world.com

This article was posted on March 04, 2005

Related Articles:

How to Get a New Kitchen - Do you want to improve the look of your home? Have you thought of adding value to your home with a brand new kitchen? The thought of home improvements, like a new kitchen, can be lingering thoughts. Projects like these can be expensive endeavors when most of us do not have the additional funds sitting in a bank account screaming for you to spend ...

How to get your business from the kitchen table to the boardroom - Challenging Tips for Explosive Growth in Any Business or How to Get Your Business From The Kitchen Table to The Boardroom. Fact: This article will not of benefit to everyone. This article is ‘Highly targeted’. It is directed specifically to those business people who: 1. Are not satisfied with their current earnings or business ...

How to Make Cleaning a Kitchen Easy - Kitchens are the centers of our lives. We cook, converse, and even eat in our kitchens. Perhaps that is why getting motivated to clean a kitchen is 99.9% of the battle...and elbow grease is the other 0.1%. The reason for this is mostly because of all the rooms in a house, the kitchen alone has the position of having the most traffic, use, and just ...

Inexpensive Kitchen Wall Decorating Ideas - Add splash to your kitchen walls without breaking your budget with these inexpensive and unique ideas. Your walls cover a lot of space in the kitchen and you can give it a little redo on a tight budget by being a little bit creative. Whether you have a special theme in mind or just updating your look, these ideas below might be able to get you star ...

Kitchen and Bathroom Blinds - There are some important considerations when treating kitchen and bathroom windows. With the unique conditions that exist in these rooms it is important to choose blinds that suit. This article looks at some of the things to ponder when choosing bathroom and kitchen blinds. When decorating a bathroom or kitchen, most people make the error of reg ...

Kitchen Cabinets are The Soul of Your Kitchen - Kitchen cabinets reflect the heart and soul of the homeowner. The cabinets you have in your kitchen have the greatest impact on a kitchen's look. They come in many shapes and sizes as well as in a rainbow of colors. Only your imagination and your bank account limit the color and design of your cabinets. You can buy cabinets pre-made at your loca ...

For a Complete list of Articles with summaries Click Here