Kids cooking and eating takes into account many sensory experiences that tend to remain in memory. These sensory experiences include taste, smell, touch, sound, and sight. All of the senses are utilized when eating, including experience and memory. These combine to give children the sense of food being “yucky” or “mmm, mmm, good”.
You as a parent or caregiver can encourage and reinforce many of their sensory reactions by saying, “This apple sounds crunchy”,”Doesn’t the cinnamon smell spicy?” “This juice tastes very cold”. Help them use descriptive words such as wet, dry, crunchy, mushy, chewy, hot, cold, lumpy. You can ask: Can you taste the sugar? Isn’t this really hard and lumpy? You can also provide opportunities for them to be aware of the use of their senses.
In my free report, Kids Cooking Activities using the Five Senses: Taste, Smell, Sight, Hearing, and Touch you’ll have access to helpful activities that teach children how these senses affect their reaction to food. You’ll have experiments to conduct with children and many discoveries to make.
Go to www.healthykidseatingtips.com and click on the Free Report. There you’ll see me cooking with children. Then just add your name and email for the Free Report. You’ll have access to hands-on activities that will help children discover more about the world of food.
To your good health and that of your children,
Lee Jackson
Food and Nutrition Studies
