Learning to cook helps children grow into healthy adults.
Learning how to cook helps children grow into healthy adults. During early childhood cognitive development occurs quickly. In psychologist Piaget’s stage preoperational intelligence, symbolic thought, imagination, and perceptions are all still forming. Children don’t begin to reason or use logic but they build the world through their bodies and emotions. With each year, a child’s motor skills develop more and more. The environment and culture a child is brought up in helps to determine how healthy their minds and bodies will be.
Many various ethnic backgrounds encourage or discourage over-eating which correlates with childhood diabetes and obesity. When we encourage children to eat healthy we are allowing the future generation to live a longer life span. Although children in early childhood need less calories because they lose baby weight they still need to stay away from processed foods.
Learn how to share a love of food with kids
Nutrition is crucial throughout early and middle childhood. Children can become more involved in learning about healthy foods. The vitamins necessary in early childhood enable growth into the middle childhood years from 6-11. No matter what income level families come from there is always a way to eat healthy for less money. Overweight children have a harder time growing into healthy adults but nothing is impossible with good diet and exercise.
As the mentor of your child, establishing healthy food patterns is learned socially. With guided participation a child can overcome obstacles and challenges better later on in life by being involved with the preparation, clean-up, and cooking of meals. They are always learning through observation and language. Children safe recipes will not only make the bond between caregiver and child stronger but will also make their cognitive development stronger. Childhood habits shape and protect children's health later on since it's influenced by the people around them.
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Tips & Safety
The right amount of calories doesn’t guarantee that children are getting satisfactory fiber, calcium, zinc, iron, and other vitamins. The amount of sugar in foods targeted toward children also leads to future health problems. The benefits of eating and learning to cook healthy foods are directly linked with living a longer and healthier life.
During early childhood the “just right” phenomenon can be utilized in the kitchen. Healthy food routines can be made much like the routine of brushing teeth and reading books before bedtime. It’s determined by experiments involving conservation that children between the ages of 2-6 will not be able to measure out food so you will have to be patient and teach them during their middle childhood years. This doesn’t mean discourage younger children to measure out the sugar for cookies but it does mean that a special plate just for them will be comforting at that age.
Healthy foods should be added on the plate before the child receives it since appearance of the food is important in early childhood. If a child doesn’t want something on their plate it’s important to take it off outside of the child’s sight since irreversibility creates issues of not being able to reverse or re-create something. Now that we live in a period of time where childhood obesity is increasing at a higher rate we must create healthier habits for children. This doesn’t have to be horrible, it can be amazing and fun for both parent and child. Here are some safety tips for having kids in the kitchen that can help children grow strong and live long:
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Washing, carrying (non-breakable), and tearing are all helpful in muscle building for children ages two and up.
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Pouring, shaking, mixing, kneading, and serving foods are activities kids three and up are capable of.
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Peeling, mashing, wiping, clearing, and setting all teach children four and up how to control their hand and finger muscles.
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