And if you are wondering what are the benefits of playing with these types of educational toys, you may want to refer to the rest of this article…
Visual Recognition Of Shapes, Patterns And Colors
Playing with toy food can help your child to get a better understanding of similarities and differences in shapes, colors and patterns. This helps your child sort according to toy food type, texture and size. What you take for granted as your ability to differentiate between and sort colors, shapes and patterns with a quick glance actually got its start when you were just a child. Promote toy food and play kitchen interaction to give your child a head-start in these important developmental areas.
Self-Confidence In Their Imagination
When your little chef-to-be places toy french fries on his toy peanut butter and jelly sandwich, his creative imagination on a new recipe is unleashed. Cooking in real life and toy cooking playtime rewards experimentation. This is driven by your children’s imagination when you applaud their efforts. Their self-confidence is boosted when they realize they can imaginatively combine and create any toy food creations they can dream up.
Teamwork, Teamwork, Teamwork
As you have probably discovered yourself on several occasions, cooking a good meal for the whole family involves teamwork. It is no great secret that working effectively with others toward a common goal is an important skill consistently used by successful and happy adults. And when your child teams up with other children or helpful adults in the toy kitchen, teamwork becomes second nature.
Preparation And Cleanup Teach Responsibility
Responsibility can benefit your child in a limitless number of areas. When your child is very young, they may not understand that the food they eat has to be prepared, and that cleanup has to take place afterwards. When playing with toy food and cooking in the playtime kitchen, your child quickly understands that proper preparation before and cleanup after are integral parts of the food making process.
Delegation And Follow-up
Playtime cooks need to be as effective with delegation and follow-up as do their real-world counterparts. Sometimes creating toy food masterpieces requires taking charge and directing the efforts of other children. And delegation is worthless without effective follow-up. These two skills are paramount as an adult, and get a developmental boost from toy food and playtime kitchen activities.
Time to pop on those little aprons and whip up some yummy imaginary goodness! Discover even more benefits of pretend play in our article about the importance of imaginative play and learn how to set up the perfect home corner for the kids!
