I never need an excuse to bake or be creative in the kitchen, and I love it when my kids join in the fun. Not only does cooking together offer the opportunity to bond with children, but it helps them to expand their palettes, and it’s an excellent learning opportunity.
How to reinforce reading while cooking
Have a few child-friendly cookbooks on hand and easily accessible to your children. Encourage your kids to help you create your meal menus by paging through and reading their cookbooks. A few of our favorite books include
- The Cookbook for Kids (Williams-Sonoma): Great Recipes for Kids Who Love to Cook
- Fix-It and Forget-It Kids’ Cookbook: 50 Favorite Recipes to Make in a Slow Cooker
Ask your child to read you the next steps of the recipe, even if she is only recognizing a few of the words in the recipe. Often, there are picture cues that will help a child to identify the words and terms. Additionally, by reading a recipe, she’ll see the words that work. If she can’t yet read, always read the recipe out loud, showing her the words you’re reading.
Bake in letters using cookie cutters to form letters in cookies, personal pizzas, and pancakes. We have this Wilton 2304-1050 101-Piece Cookie Cutter Set, which we also use for Play-Doh, tracing, and just general playtime.
Make pretzels and form letters and shapes.
Label everything in your kitchen and ask your child for the foods you need. The more your child interacts with words the more he or she will see them.
Play with your food. After you cook, don’t clean up! Play with the leftover dusts of flour, cinnomon, and mixes on your counter tops and create letters and words in them with your child.
How do you share cooking and reading in your kitchen?
