Are There Any Benefits to Pretend Cooking For Kids?
I’m sure that we are all aware of the most obvious benefit like keeping your child occupied while you are doing some real cooking in your kitchen but are the their real benefits for your child’s development when it comes to pretend cooking and pretend cooking toys?
Pretend cooking is quite important for a child’s development for a number of reasons. From improving social skills and early reading development to teaching the importance and value of being able to follow directions in order to achieve a planned result, as well as pretend cooking is really useful when it comes to your child’s short-term and long-term benefits.
Your Child Benefits from Following Directions
When you are in the kitchen cooking, is your child constantly asking questions? Then you really ought to get your future little master chef his or her little play kitchen. You’ll be able to explain how following through with directions is essential for his or her favorite foods to end up tasting really yummy. And even though pretend cooking doesn’t produce any real food, many play cooking sets are created to show the advantages of following directions and recipes to the letter.
Children Learn the Importance of Reading, Counting, and Math in Cooking!
In fact, it’s one thing to tell your children that reading skills and math are needed in everyday life,however, it is much far better to show them. As an adult, you obviously are judged through your ability to communicate as well as having basic math skills means a lifetime of not getting shortchanged on your paychecks or even at the supermarket.
Pretend cooking for your child is in a playtime aids them in the early development of reading, counting, and math skills which make for an easy and smooth transition to preschool and then primary school.
Dexterity and Fine Motor Skills are Enhanced
You are more than likely not thinking consciously, but whenever you cook anything you are using fine motor skills. You have to grab, measure, sift, sort, pour, reach, place, and perform many other physical functions, even when just making a simple meal.
This is also true for your child as well. When your child is pretending to cook in a play kitchen, all their actions require a vast array of fine motor skills just like that of a grown-up when they are in the kitchen cooking.
Kids Learn the Proper Use of Utensils for Eating
Pretend cooking will usually end up with a grand old session of pretend eating! This ends up being your child’s reward scenario. Your child finds out that once they have “cooked” some wonderful yummy play food, it’s time for them to enjoy eating the fruits of all their hard work in the kitchen.
If you have made it this far it’s the ideal time to work on refining their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination by teaching them the proper way to use their eating utensils from their cooking sets for kids.
Patience and Hard Work Has Rewards
Pretend cooking allows your little ones to copy your behavior when you are cooking in the kitchen. However, when young children are hungry, they need and want to eat immediately.
One fantastic way to teach patience and of course the advantage of following along with a recipe would be to cook the very same real food that your little one is preparing in their own playtime kitchen.
After your little chef follows exact pretend cooking steps, you can reward them with an edible version of the same food he or she is making. This will help to drive home the advantages of his or her patience and hard work in their pretend kitchen.
Pretend cooking is probably one the most popular ways kids can get involved in when it comes to natural fun imaginative play – in any case, they simply love helping mom in the kitchen with the cooking.
It’s even more fun for kids once they can start making their own magic pretend cooking in their very own fun play kitchens with all their own play food.
There are so many different types of play kitchens of varied sizes and a multitude of all sorts of cooking utensils, and plastic play food for your kids to get busy with having loads of educational pretend cooking fun.
