One day while cleaning up the onion, potato and garlic basket in the kitchen, my little one walked in and sat on the floor, and started peeling the skin off the onions and garlic. I thought was very cute.
Nowadays, I find that my little one loves to help. She comes to the kitchen often and says, “I wanna help”. She helps me put away washed dishes from the dish-washer, spoons, forks, and cups being her favorite. She loves to remove the cutlery and dump them into the cutlery draw. She is indeed a good help. But sometimes her ‘help’ is a little unhelpful. Especially those days when I am back from work, and want to get her dinner ready.
The earlier ‘peeling’ incident gave me an idea to keep her occupied. I now seat her on her high chair, and give her a bulb of garlic. She loves to peel the skin off the garlic cloves with her little fingers and separate the cloves from the bulb. But then, she puts all the skin and the garlic cloves in the same container and says, “All done, mamma”.
This is fine by me. At least, it keeps her occupied and gives me time to prepare her dinner. I am also happy that I found a way to make her feel a part of the process, rather than send her away from the kitchen. And, by the way, I use the peeled garlic cloves to make garlic pickle!
I would like to ask other moms, when you are back from work and are busy fixing dinner, how do you keep your little one/s fruitfully occupied?
KidzSight - making the child an active participant in the process rather than excluding her from it.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Garlic and my little one
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3 comments:
Thats a good way to keep kids occupied when you are busy preparing dinner. I have noticed that my 18mth old is very eager to help me when I am unloading the dish-washer. I let her help me take out the spoons & other non-heavy dishes & ask her to put them in the right place. It makes her feel important & also teaches them to put away their toys when the playtime is over.. I give her the spare rolling pin sometimes when I am making rotis. She rolls it on the floor trying to imitate my action. This keeps her occupied while I am preparing my lunch.
Thanks Pradnya,
My daughter likes to play with play doh. I could probably give her some wheat flour dough when I am making rotis so that it can keep her occubied.
Children learn multiple things when parents accept their offer to help out in preparing dinner, or putting dishes away.
They learn about things that prepares them for an independent life ahead in the real world. Putting washed dishes away is a skill that we are called upon to use lifelong.
And, hopefully they may make the transition to doing dishes themselves some day, on their own. Sometimes, familiarity breeds initiative!
Moreover, children discover self-esteem and pride in doing things, when parents are quick to acknowledge their action.
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