In Nile River Montessori our children have different occasion to prepare food here we show you some of them.
1- La Casetta Classeroom from walking till 3 years old.
Baking:
Making bread, biscuit or Pizza: children love working with the dough, it is a great stimulator for the hands' development as well!
Mouloukhia picking: Mouloukhia is off season but your child will enjoy working with parsley, mint, or coriander.. it will provide them with the vocabulary and they will appreciate the rich diversity of smells, textures and shapes.
Preparing Omelette:
The child can break the egg, wisk it in a bowl and put it in a pan. The adult take the pan and place it on the stove. We show the activity to the child first and then we assist them to make sure they can do it right. We support them only when needed and by repeating the exact same activity with the same steps, the child is able to do all by themselve. The role of the adult then become only to place the pan on the stove and give it back to the child when its cooked and cools down.
Banana Peeling and slicing: another activity that support the development of the fine motor skills. Make sure the knife is blent ( we use butter spreader, so knife is not sharp). it also gives fullfillement of the child as they prepare their own food. Self satisfaction and self confidence are two characteristic are built from early childhood.
Sifting Flour: the child fills the flour then sift it. The child experience how the flour falls through the tiny openings. This can give many idea to parents on giving task in the luck preparation. they will really boost their self esteem on contributing on feeding the whole family.
Peeling tangerine: Need to make a hole in the top of the clementine before we give it to the child to peel it. we need to also make sure that the skin loose and will allow the child to peel at ease, specially with this young age.
Boiled Egg Peeling and slicing:
the child peel the boiled egg, through the peels in compost bin, and then put the egg in the slicer to come in small rings. The child then will transfer with a fork the slices in a plate slice by slice.
Peeling Feva Bean: It can also be peas.. your child will enjoy peeling them and you will appreciate the help.
2- Food Preparation in La Casa Classroom:
In La Casa, children are between 3-6 and would have a more developed hand movement, that is why the food preparation activities could be more advanced and stimulating from them.
Mouloukhiya Cutting: Cultural related activities are very important in this age, as they are discovering their own culture. The elder children can do the washing, the picking and the cutting of the Mouloukhia, they cook it with the teacher in the kitchen.
Mahshy or Stuffed wine leaves:
We prepare the mix then we show our child how to stuff the leave wine and how to put it in the pot after that.
Stuffed pepper: The child can cut and clean the paper before they stuff it. they can really enjoy preparing a sophisticated dish like this one.
Peeling then Crushing garlic with pestle and mortar: develops patience, concentration and precision.
Making Foul Medamess: The child can wash the bean then with the help of a spoon put it in the Meammess pot maker by transferring with a spoon, one by one. then the child pour water from a jug and we put it in the stove to cook.
3- How to introduce and activity to your child:
Our teacher is making a presentation for the first time. You can notice that she is showing the activity and giving the chance to the child to participate. the presentation include how the child will clean up after the activity. As you can see the teacher after peeling she showed how to clean the peel and how to throw it in compost bin.The video doesn't show the rest, but the adult should give all the details and make sure to be close by the child when first introduced the activity and until we make sure they are able to do it. Sometime, if the activity is challenging, we can think of how to make it easier or change it. We don't expect for a child to do it all the first time. they will get there by practice, consistency, time and your our support. the smaller children need more orientation to put things back. but by time and practice they all reach there.
4- Some Benefits of food preparation:
From 0-6 children have one major mission: to understand the world and find their place on it. for this they want to join the same activities that we adult do in order to be part of the group and participating with it. Food preparation, among other practical life activities that we will discuss later, satisfies this need of contributing to the community and doing a purposeful activity. Below are other benefits of food preparation:
1- children need to build their physical independence: they need to be able to do things by their own.
2- Children are learning sensorially: they discover tastes, textures, smells.., they are collecting and consolidating these impressions about the world so let's give them the chance to stimulate their senses.
3- It support build the concentration, children are Intrested about food preparation so they focus and build their ability to concentrate ( not too challenging activities depending on the age).
4- it provide a sense of fullfillement, the activity make sense, they prepare food and they eat it. Better they contribute in preparing the lunch to feed the whole family. thus it build self confidence!
5- Please remember that our children have different ages and are all in different phase of development; you child might know some activities and you can introduce others. We follow the pace of the child and try to give an activity that matches their age. We can observe and see.