Learning at the Holidays

Preparation + Your Child = Meaningful Learning Opportunities

Get out your recipe or cookbook for your favorite baked good. Following the recipe gives your child a real life reason for reading as well as a new why. When we read a recipe, we read for instructions. If you're at my house, the conclusion of this story is something tasty! Have your child follow along with their finger as you read the ingredients and instructions. This helps to practice the early reading skill we early childhood teachers refer to as the return and sweep, a print concept that builds a foundation for later reading. Following along lets children know that we read left to right and top to bottom.

Reading a recipe also introduces lots of vocabulary. Ingredients to look at, touch, and taste are connected to new words. Actions such as whip, fold, and pour allow your child to hear and act out new words as you work together to combine the ingredients. 

In addition to reading words, a recipe allows for reading numbers too. A cookbook gives lots of meaningful opportunities to talk about and show fractions. Most children know what a half is when asked, but following a recipe lets you talk about 1/4, 1/3 and the teeny tiny 1/8 measurement. Let your child scoop, measure, look and feel the differences a fraction can make. Talk about bigger and smaller; comparing the sizes as you mix them in. Challenge children to  estimate and you will have them contrasting as well as comparing!

Finally, we get to the good part; baking. Call attention to the mix before you put it in the oven. You can even take a picture of it with your cell phone. Spend some time together watching the oven as the chemical reaction takes place. Teach about safety while taking the baked goody out of the hot oven.

Once safely placed on the counter to cool, ask questions as you patiently wait for the first bite!

What do you notice about the cake?

What is different?

Why do you think it changed?

How did the change happen?


Be prepared to be amazed at the answers that these open-ended questions can elicit and be ready to laugh too. After all, holiday learning is about spending time and laughing  together. 

Healthy Holidays!

No matter which holiday you celebrate, there is a common theme around food. Whenever we come together, people include food as a part of our celebration. As a teacher and a mother of young boys, I always became concerned about offering a healthy diet during the holidays. Should I limit the indulgent foods that the holidays center around? Cakes, cookies, and pies are full of empty calories and the sugar seems to energize them at nap time! Most importantly, I worry that eating all of the food that signifies a celebration will actually cause health concerns later in  life.

 As a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, I am privy to research regarding the health of young children.  According to the NAEYC:

Calories are not bad, but necessary, in the right amounts. Children have specific caloric needs that depend on their age, size and activity level. The word “calories” is just a measure of the energy a food contains. However, foods that offer only calories and have no other nutritional value are best avoided since they run the risk of filling a child up with “empty” calories before all of her nutritional needs have been met.

This news is good and bad. Good, in that the sugary stuff that I am talking about usually isn't introduced until after we all have a chance to fill up on our "good food".  Bad, in that no matter how much "good food" I put on their plate, my boys always seemed to find room for plenty of deserts. It took me a few years to catch on; but once I did, I became an expert chef regarding sneaking nutritious foods into indulgent, celebratory, holiday foods. In fact, I am patting myself on the back just thinking about it! As I am congratulating myself, I am also thinking about the resources that helped me to become an expert Sneaky Chef, and I want to share them with you:

Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food 
 by Jessica Seinfeld

The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals
 by Missy Chase Lapine

Healthy Recipes for Picky Eaters: Create Tasty Meals Your Kids Will Love to Eat
by Martha Stephenson

For those of you like me who hate to wait for the mailman, visit Pinterest and type "Healthy Kid Recipes" in the search. In seconds you will be inundated with recipes from sneaky moms around the world--pictures included! A word of warning:  get comfortable and schedule lots of time beforehand.


Holidays are also about spending time with those you love; which brings me to another sneaky tip! Over the years I found that if I included my boys in the preparation of food, they were more likely to eat it. In addition to quality time spent, cooking with young children presents lots of opportunities for  meaningful learning...

Stay tuned!

To read more, visit the NAEYC  website:


http://families.naeyc.org/families-today/what-kinds-foods-should-we-limit