Kitchen Kids: Creativity and Learning ~ Part 1

The Summer season is an awesome to spend some time in the kitchen with your children! Your family can experience many fun activities unique to summertime that don’t usually happen at other, busier times of the year.  This post is separated into two parts.
Check out these ideas:

1-MATH COUNTS in the kitchen! Most children in elementary, middle and even high school have school-created math learning objectives during the summer. (Your child may have brought some guidelines home or their school may provide them online. Even if they don’t, you can find many math-related family activities on the internet.) Loads of opportunities exist in the kitchen/cooking zone to use and create with mathematics! From baking measurements to comparing ingredient prices in the supermarket, math is everywhere in meal and food preparation.

2-ORGANIC OPPORTUNITIES abound  in your cucina, your garden, your local farmer’s market or produce stand and even in the grocery these days! Summer is the perfect time to get to know your fruits and veggies, up close and personal. You will be able to stress the benefits of eating organically or naturally. Last summer, my kids and I frequented a produce stand close to our home and they are STILL talking about how awesome it was – fun to visit and delicious to eat nature’s bounty when we got home! They have even said that first lunch from the stand was the yummiest food they’d ever had! Yay!

3-EDIBLE ART is so much fun to design, make and then eat! Summer is a great time to let your children (and yourself) get creative and artistic with food! If weather permits, you can enjoy a fun cookie decorating session outside on the picnic table (or inside, of course, if it’s too hot). Or encourage your kids to make art objects from cut fruit – you help with the cutting, and make sure their hands are extra-clean. Food creativity like this really jazzes up a light summer lunch or supper!
We’ll have more ideas next time!
(~to be continued~)
Hugs & Yums, Laurie