Learning at home... with pizza!

Lately, I have been pondering on how to cultivate more learning opportunities at home. As I prepare for "official" home schooling next I have noticed almost every task or activity at home could be a teaching moment. Actually, one of my major desires in homeschooling is to use everyday tasks and activities as the basis of Taydem and Creighton's learning. At 5 and 2 they can learn so much from imagining, creating and exploring within daily life.

There is so much to learn in the kitchen. Not only math and science but following a recipe, patience, creativity, disappointment (when your cookies burn), timing, etc. I love to have Taydem (5) preparing in the kitchen with me. We have a lot of fun! It is a time when we can connect one-on-one and I can reinforce the importance of real whole food nutrition. Our favorite thing to do is pretend we are on a cooking show demonstrating to the world what we are making. We have watched enough Rachel Ray to get the major components of the show, step by step directions, recaps, memories of the food, going to commercials (and yes we do the commercials also!!!), plus we always explain the health benefits of the food. I just as questions and Taydem leads the "show". I cherish this time with him and he always amazes me with what he knows and how verbal he is.

When kids help prepare snacks or meals they feel more of a connection to the food and are more likely to eat and encourage others at the table to eat their amazing creation!

In the kitchen he also teaches me patience (he is a lot slower that I am), that there is no "right" way (the veggies really don't have to be EVENLY distributed), and spills on the floor are really no big deal.

Recently we made pizza together! Alex was gone on a Saturday night so the three of us set out to create a delicious dinner!

I mixed the dough (tortilla recipe..it makes an awesome pizza crust) and Taydem helped me roll it out!

I toasted the dough in a skillet on the stove top about 30 seconds on each side. Then the boys topped it with salsa, spinach, red peppers and cheese!
Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

Cut and add a spinach salad!

Pizza can be a nutritious, tasty, fun, learning experience.

Other ways to cultivate learning and include the kids in the kitchen:
1. Setting the table. I start by setting one place with the plate, cup, silverware and napkin and Taydem would just follow the example. By given verbal cues to where things belong in relation to the plate is also a great way to teach right, left, above, below and diagonal directions. Keep the dishes low enough so they are easy for the child to access.
2. Loading the dishwasher. I feel this teaches responsibility and accountability as a part of the family.
3. Washing dishes. Creighton loves to pull a chair up and help me as I wash dishes. Not only does he do a good job washing dishes, he does a great job washing his cloths, the chair, and the floor.
4. Cooking and Baking. Talk about the step by step process and how important the order is to the results. Use glass measuring cups and talk about the different amounts or units.

Tell your little chefs how vital their help is to the family dinner and ask them how it makes them feel to know they created this meal. This will help show them that starting and completing a project giving their best effort can be very fulfilling and yummy!