As a parent, it’s only natural that you want to do the best for your children. From helping ensure they have a healthy balanced diet to learning the importance of self-hygiene, communication and more, it is the role of the parents to support their child in any way they need.
One such way you can help your child is by encouraging different learning opportunities. Your children can learn many things in various ways, not just in the classroom. In fact, some people say that the best and more important type of learning happens outside of the classroom. But whatever your opinion on education, being able to support your child’s learning journey through different mediums can help to enrich their lives no end.
One such method is via food. Food is for more than just eating; you can learn about food and from food, and incorporating this into your child’s education can be massively beneficial. Read on to learn what your child can discover via food.
Different Cultures and Experiences
Food holds different meanings in different cultures, and as such, there are many different foods your child can eat and discover that will help them learn more about the different cultures around the world. It can be something as simple as eating at a restaurant that serves a cuisine different from your own culture, be it Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and so on, or you can order different foods such as the Eat It Like range of chocolate bars and coffee based on different stories from around the world.
By expanding your children’s knowledge of the world around them through food, you can open up discussions on how people live in different countries, how they eat and the resources they have available to them, for example.
New Skills
You can help your children learn new skills with food and drinks via food prep and cooking. Of course, you can tailor this to their age and skill set, but cooking needn’t be a “teachable lesson”, but rather something you all do as a family. Cooking and preparing food and drinks is a valuable life skill, and the earlier you start encouraging your kids to help in the kitchen, the more you can help them develop their cooking skills and learn other skills too. Cooking can be instrumental in helping teach your children patience, creativity, problem-solving, time management and organisation, to name a few skills. All of which will be valuable for them as they get older.
Reading and Maths
Lastly, food can be extremely helpful in helping kids improve their language, reading, comprehension and numeracy skills. Cooking is a little bit like a science experiment, so having them help you discover new recipes or combine different foods for a meal can act like a scientific investigation of sorts; how do different liquids mix together and what happens when you put different flavours together, and how do they taste? From reading the ingredients on a packet to cooking instructions on a recipe to learning to weigh out different ingredients, food can be an excellent resource for helping your child improve these skills without them even realising they are learning.
Conclusion
Food and cooking can be extremely fun and an eye-opening experience for people of any age. But for children, it can offer you a creative way to get them to learn and to support their educational journey in different ways. The above points are just three different ways food and cooking can be a great lesson.
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