From a young age, children love to learn. They love to explore, imitate and absorb everything that takes place in the world around them. I have been fascinated to study and observe my daughter, Karis. She takes great delight in helping me throughout our daily activities. My passion has always been to cultivate a love for learning in my little ones from the earliest moments. I want them to cherish the joys of exploring, imaging, creating, and delighting in God’s creation and design of how things work and function.
Lately, I have been pondering how can I really cultivate a purposeful learning environment in our home? Yes, I can include her in these activities, but how can I turn these everyday tasks and activities into learning potential. While exploring this world of a child’s brain, I have found some wonderful ideas through friends and resources that I wanted to share with you today. All these activities are appropriate for 2 1/2 – 5 year olds. I have been amazed how young they can begin to learn to help and serve. What important life skills can be learned with plenty of praise and practice. I have learned that you should never underestimate the knowledge and ability of a two year old.
Thus we begin a series of posts sharing ideas for cultivating learning in everyday activities throughout your house.
In the Kitchen
There is much opportunity to teach mathematics and scientific skills in the kitchen while teaching your little ones how to cook and bake. Arrange your kitchen in such a way that the plates, bowls, silverware are at a reachable height for the little one. This will enable them to help uploading the dishwasher and setting the table.
1. Loading the dishwasher - teach sorting of silverware and dishes into categories, matching shapes. Teach how to handle sharp objects.
2. Washing dishes - having a small stool handy will enable your child to help wash dishes. Encourage learning how to carefully handle breakable items which strengthens their concentration. Kids love using soap and wash clothes to clean dishes. Place a towel next to the sink for the child to lay their washed dishes on or guide them in loading immediately.
3. Setting the table - Karis finds great delight in setting the table and learning how to carefully handle carrying plates from the cupboard to the table. Table setting is a opportunity to teach the concepts of left and right and will also appeal to her sensitivity to order. Make a sample placemat with drawings of plate, cup, silverware for a child to use as a model.
4. Cooking & baking together - Karis can pull a chair over to the stove top or counter top and learn how to mix and stir items carefully. Measuring items is a great scientific experiment. With supervision, we stir ingredients on the stove top and observe the different results of hot versus cold, what happens to ingredients when they are heated.
Use glass measuring cups where the calibrations are viewable so a child can learn to measure ingredients themselves. At a older age, we can teach subtraction, by putting too much in and asking them to remove enough to correct it.
Talk about the step by step process of following a recipe. Having a child’s apron and hot pad helps encourage them that they can be involved and a valuable asset to our food preparations.
Michele shares some further ideas:
We have encouraged our daughter Gen (now age three) to help with our regular household tasks since she was very young. Before she was two-years-old, she began helping in the kitchen. It became a great way of teaching her concepts such as “in,” “out,” “in front of,” “behind,” “on top,” and “under.” She also practiced stacking (and making items fit), by learning to recognize size differences. (She owns a set of toy stacking cups, but “helping mama” with the measuring cups was much more fun!) As she has gotten older, we have started identifying numbers and letters. She enjoys looking on the cookbook pages to find letters and numbers that she recognizes.
What ideas can you share for including your children and purposeful learning in the kitchen?
Stay tuned as we discuss learning ideas in the laundry room, bedroom, living room and the great outdoors!
Thanks for an informative post. I’ve been looking for this kind of information for quite a while now.
Wow! All of your ideas are wonderful – and there is research behind many of your suggestions as well! I am a Kindergarten teacher and the language and social skills you are modeling for your children truly will help with reading readiness and problem solving at school (and the real world)!
We do a lot of hands on learning. My daughter is eager to learn all the things mommy does in the kitchen and she loves helping. By encouraging her it’s my hope that she will grow to love working in the home.
Lindsay, I loooove this post! I always enjoy reading your blog, but I have to say, I have been looking for ideas with my dd who is now 2 and very eager to help in everything mommy does! She’s very independent and mature for her little years! thank you for posting this, and I look forward to the future posts!
I think your suggestions are wonderful! My 7 year old daughter just made breakfast this morning with no help (scrambled eggs, toast, etc), because I started doing exactly what you mentioned when she was little! I think any and every opportunity we have as moms to include our children in our day will pay off in the end (for them and for us)!
Blessings to you today,
Joy
Love your blog and thought you’d like this blog too:
http://www.71toes.blogspot.com
I have a learning tower. Though it was a spendy purchase (I looked on craigs list for about 3 months, no one sells them…which is a good thing!) I haven’t regreted it one bit. My 2 year old daughter LOVES to watch me cook (on the stove from afar) She loves to stir and smell the ingrediens. She is learning about chemistry and cause and effect. She knows many ingredients and what they are for ie “baking powder makes bubbles, fluffy!” “I stir in bubbles, make it fluffy” “Spices make it taste good!” Mommy uses knifes not me, make big owies!” “Oven HOT make owie I stand back!” “I cook with mommy, I help, yummy!” She knows her veggies (even though she doesn’t eat them often.) and different grains (that is oatmeal, that is rice…etc…) Safety common sense!
These look great! My boys will love making them. Thank you! I thought I would pass along that I made cream cheese icing with SUCANAT! I just put the cup of sucanat in the blender with about a tablespoon of rumford corn starch and added it to the rest of the ingredients as called for. It was delicious!
Rose Ann,
This is a GREAT tip, just had to say thank you! Quick question – do the amounts you mentioned go along with about 16 oz. of cream cheese or more?
Kelly
very inspiring! my daughters are 3 and 19 months. i’m experimenting with the 3yr old ‘mentoring’ the little one in small tasks. . i’m nervous about starting in the kitchen, but can definitely see the positive results in the end!
Karis is so cute!
I also love the green walls in your kitchen. 
I wrote about a zillion things my little ones do to help in the kitchen… http://www.tammysrecipes.com/node/3811
I think their top favorite is taking labels off cans! But that could be because that is more of a rare treat.
Unloading the dishwasher is now a chore, not much enjoyed. 
Stirring at the stove (with supervision) is a favorite too… last night Eliyahu (4) melted a plastic spatula onto a pan while heating corn tortillas though!
I think stirring at the stove is a BAD idea. Because while you may intend that it be supervised and plan that be supervised, if your little one is comfortable doing this, and it is not “off limits” they will inevitably try to do it when your back is turned. My now 7 year old suffered a third degree burn this way when she was 4. Please think twice about allowing your child to do something may be unsafe if they try it unsupervised.
Yes, I understand your caution, and it is totally personal preference. I have found it a very valuable exercise in teaching her. She fully understands that it can hurt to touch. I think it should depend upon the maturity of your child.
These are all great ideas! I would suggest the book called “Mommy, Teach Me” by Barbara Curtis. It includes the ideas you shared, plus more ways to allow little ones to help, and ways to practically set up your home so it’s easy for littles to help. It also discusses why it’s so important to harness their willingness to help early on. I recommmend the book-very easy reading with photos.
I love Barbara Curtis’ books! She has definitely been an inspiration as we cultivate learning opportunities for our little ones. Great suggestion, Shannon!
Blessings,
Michele
Yes, that is one of my favorite resources that I was going to recommend at the end!
You beat me too it! Thanks for sharing!
Lindsey, I wanted to “share” this on my facebook, but I don’t see the button since you’ve redecorated.
Am I missing it or could this be one of the glitches? Thanks!
When my daughter was two, it was interesting how she loved to smell every ingredient as we cooked together. As sweet as that is, I’ve struggled with having the patience to always let her help. My biggest problems have come when my two oldest children want to cook with me at the same time because sibling rivalry sure gets messy and dangerous in a kitchen.
For Mother’s Day, my husband had the older children (now 4 and 6) plan and help cook a meal for me. My husband always helps clean up but never ever cooks, so it was a great gift to hear them all working together!
My son loves to help around the house. In the kitchen I also allow him to help cook. If I am kneading dough I will give him some dough to knead as well etc. Pampered chef used to/do make safe cutters for little one and they are blunt and safe but able to cut up apples etc. So Jared can help “chop” the vegetables at the age of two. Definitely more mess but I don’t mind. He is also great at unloading the dishwasher too!
Off now to change the beds together
Cath
My son just turned two but he loves to help. I’ve started out slow by letting him but the almonds in the one cup measure until its full or letting him push the on and off button of the food processor when we are making granola bars. Now every time he sees the food processor he thinks its time to make granola bars. Its also a joy to hear him tell daddy that he helped make the food processor go round and round.