Monday, June 4, 2007

Cooking With Gas Part Deux

cont.

The math is obvious but it's helpful. It's reinforcement. Give them a one cup measuring cup. You need three cups of flour. Then you ask how many scoops they need? Same with the teaspoons and table spoons. Cooking is great for fractions too. You constantly see fractions in recipes. You can also work your way up, to halving a recipe. Division. Get it?

Cooking is a good way to work on reading skills. My six year old scans the recipe for his "everyday words." These are the words given to my son on a list to practice, as a part of his class curriculum. My 8 year old can actually read the recipe as we go along. Again, everyone wins.

Add the science factor, and you have a slam dunk win for all. No, we are not talking melting pen caps with a Bunsen burner just yet. But you can fascinate a six year old by whipping egg whites into a meringue, or rolling out pizza dough into a calzone. Rock candy. That's always a good one. Melting sugar in boiling what and letting it crystallize? Perfect. And the kids get to eat it too.

Self reliance. The kids get to learn a life skill that they can actually use later in life. Again. Start small. Let them make their own pizzas. Still to tough? Make it bagel pizza's in the toaster oven. Caz made a chocolate pudding pie in about 15 mins. The boys love making pancakes with me and Demi. They probably like Demi's version better actually, since she tends to use chocolate chips and/or M &M's.

It's also a good time to introduce them to a male right of passage: The Grill. Grill some individual pizzas. Let the kids make some burger patties. Of course you have to worry about the safety factor. My kids were (I was going to say "grilled" but the pun seemed to over the top) schooled on the etiquette around the grill early on.

Improvisation. Let them create their own concoctions. Sure you have to eats some cold "soup" once in while (I don't know how Demi choked down the cucumber, apple, banana, milk, and syrup "soup" the boys made. 1,000Bonus Chin points awarded to her for that.), but it is worth it in the long run. I got a sausage, bacon, ham, pepperoni, and three cheese omelet (a heart attack special0 in bed one Father's Day from the boys. A meat lover's special. How can you go wrong with that?

Take the time gentlemen. It's worth it's weight in steak

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