Great Read Alouds: Sweet treats & good eats

Allowing your preschooler to help you in the kitchen gives them so many learning opportunities.

• Following recipes teaches them to follow directions. What comes first? What comes next? Adding ingredients in order is important.
• They use fine motor and eye-hand coordination when mixing, squeezing and spreading.
• Your preschooler is growing their vocabulary when reading the recipe and talking about what they are doing. You can introduce them to terms like "whisk" and "fold."
• They are also learning patience waiting for their goodies to bake and then cool.

Books on cooking

Here are a few of my favorite books to inspire and foster your child's culinary creations.

Cupcake: A Journey to Special by Charise Mericle Harper - Cupcake and his friend, Candle, come up with a plan to make themselves stand out in the crowd. Pickles on your cupcakes anyone?

The Duckling Gets a Cookie by Mo Willems - Pigeon really wants a cookie and can't believe Duckling gets a cookie just by asking politely.

Food Play! by Amy Palanjian - Simple and fun recipes for preschoolers to help them learn how to prepare their own food. 

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood - Little Mouse comes up with plans to prevent the big, hungry bear from eating his red, ripe strawberry. Ask your child, "Who did we never see in the story?"

My Very First Cookbook: Joyful Recipes to Make Together by Danielle Kartes - This book has kid-friendly recipes for an introduction to cooking for beginning chefs. Kids and grown-ups can work together to make some delicious food.