Cooking can be one of the most educationally rich activities you can do with your children. When cooking with children there are many different curricular subjects being discussed in one single cooking experience. Reading a recipe, organizing the ingredients, mixing the project and cooking to completion are all active aspects of learning that fall into curricular classifications from the classroom.
Children must recognize and understand math for measuring the different ingredients, science as the combining of many single ingredients will result in a single product, agriculture to comprehend where the different ingredients originate and social studies as each different cultural food source is a representation of the society from which it originated. Many times the combining of different food coloring to foods can produce wonderful experiments in food art.
Creative Learning In The Kitchen Verses Classroom Structured Studies
Children dont realize that different foods originate in different countries when they are eating, but if dietary history is presented as foods are being prepared, it is amazing the amount of information that will be retained during such a short lesson. Children learn best when bits and pieces of information are presented to them in a fun and stimulating environment. Many children learn best through movement, so the actions cooking which include the gathering, mixing and preparing of foods provides enough physical stimulation to encourage the mental retention of facts and related ideas.
Many parents dont realize that children learn much more outside of the classroom than they ever learn inside it. Granted, the classroom is a formal place that focuses on providing valuable facts and information in a structured setting. The students are then tested to determine the total amount of mental growth, knowledge comprehended and educational development that has occurred during their attendance. Upon the results of the testing, the teacher then evaluates what was successfully retained and what needs to be revisited and then realigns and represents the missing concepts. I am a teacher; I understand the values of a classroom and the structured learning process.
Yet, I am also a mother and I understand the reality of what takes place outside of the classroom as well. By taking the opportunity to cook with your children whenever your schedule permits, you will encourage their appreciation for cooking and their understanding of real life applications for math, science, agriculture, social studies and art. If you doubt these ideas, just remember how your child originally learned language and the art of comunication; within the classroom of your own home.
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