Some ideas to begin: • Wash your hands before you start • Prepare fruit and vegies, e.g. wash and tear lettuce, scrub and peel vegies • Chop soft food, such as bananas • Pour liquids into dry ingredients • Beat eggs • Measure and tip ingredients into bowls • Mix, stir, knead • Grease the tin • Carry unbreakable dishes to the table • Serve foods • Wipe down bench when finished

While you are working together:

• Plan what you are going to make, what food you have in the cupboard or garden and who will be sharing the meal with you

• Make healthy choices

• Talk about the processes such as measuring, chopping or mixing

• Encourage and praise your child’s efforts – it doesn’t have to be perfect

• Be patient and have fun

Did you know:

Cooking together can be a positive and lasting memory for both you and your child.

What your child is learning:

• About working together and sharing

• To follow instructions

• About nutrition and how to keep themselves healthy

• Self-help skills for eating and food preparation

• How sharing food brings people together

• Mathematical concepts such as measuring, capacity, volume, size, temperature and time

• About waiting and anticipating

• Vocabulary such as ‘more’, ‘enough’, ‘soon’, ‘now’, ‘later’