The Very Best Classroom {#CarNatPar}

Welcome to the November Carnival of Natural Parenting: Kids in the Kitchen
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how kids get involved in cooking and feeding. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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I truly believe in unschooling.When I unschooled my oldest, we lived in California and I had to create a private school under the state's law. That meant a name for my "school". I chose "Learning is Life" because, well, learning is best done by merely living. We did something in the kitchen every day. Whether it was a science experiment with vinegar and baking soda or measuring the ingredients for play dough, my son was learning a ton of things. Once he chose to go to "real" school, though, his interest in all things kitchen-related waned until it was nonexistent. I just let it go and stopped trying to get him to try this experiment or bake that recipe with me. I was sad, but I understood.

Licking the beaters from his first cake-baking experience.

Then came Little Guy. He's a lot like me. He learns the same way and has the same type of intelligences as me. He was in the kitchen "helping" me (really doing stuff) when he was 18 months old. At first, we just had to keep going over the rules: No touching Mama's knife, Stir slowly - always!, Ask before you taste, No going by the stove or oven without Mama, Never touch the knobs on the stove. Because the kitchen can be a dangerous place, breaking the rules meant he'd get two warnings and on the third offense, he was done helping. He loved being in there with me, so he learned very quickly that those rules were never going to change and stopped trying to push his limits.

"Don't bother me right now - I'm trying to stir!"

Now, I really feel that little ones need to learn how to do things when they're interested and not when they're "old enough." So, as soon as I had confidence in Little Guy's understanding of The Rules, I let him begin helping with the more dangerous tasks - the big ones being stirring a pot on the stove and cutting vegetables. He was barely two years old when I taught him how to cook on the stove. He loves stirring and couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him do the one thing he was very good at (and proud of!) So, he learned about the hot fire under the pot. He learned about steam. He learned how to stir without splashing hot liquids.

Little hands knead bread perfectly.

 As he became more verbal, he asked questions that knocked my socks off. "Why did the dough get big?" (After we let our pizza dough rise.) "Why did it get like boogers?" (We were making gravy and he wanted to know how it thickened.) "What made it turn brown?" (When we pulled muffins from the oven.) All very good questions that I tried to give very simple answers to. "The yeast is like little guys. They ate the sugar and had to burp. See all of the burp bubbles in this dough that weren't there before?" "The flour we put into the juice from the meat sucked up some of the water (or is it oil?) and got fat. This made it thicken into gravy." And, "Remember the butter and eggs we put into the batter? They have something called proteins. When proteins get very hot, like in our oven, they turn brown. If we kept letting them cook, they would burn and turn black." Now, I know my answers aren't 100% accurate, but I was talking to a 2-year-old. He just wanted an answer, not a lecture. As he gets older, his questions will become more defines and I'll expand more.

How many spoons of peanut butter do we need?

In addition to learning science, he's learning math. We measure things all of the time. I always ask him to help me find measurements on the side of our measuring cup. He only recognizes whole numbers right now, so I ask him to find "1,2" if I want 1/2, for instance. We also do a lot of counting when we add ingredients - whether it's three cups, two eggs, or "one big spoon and one little spoon" of vanilla. We count pieces of carrot as we put them into the pot. We talk about time and watch our kitchen timer count down the minutes until our macaroni and cheese will be ready to take out of the oven.

Then there's reading. Little Guy is very interested in deciphering this reading thing. Just like his big brother, he doesn't like having everyone around him know how to communicate in a secret way that he doesn't understand. So, he knows many of his letters and the sounds they make already. When we cook together, I always take all of the ingredients we'll need out of the cupboards and set them on the counter where we'll be working. I make a point to read the recipe aloud while my finger runs below the words I'm reading. I'll read, "One teaspoon of nutmeg." Then it's his job to find the nutmeg on the counter. "Let's see, what letter does nnnn-nutmeg start with?" He'll get it right or wrong, doesn't matter. I'll either correct him or agree. The next step is, "Do you remember what an 'N' looks like? Can you find which one starts with 'N' for 'nutmeg'?" He usually gets it right! As he gets more comfortable with the alphabet and phonics (on his own!), I'll start asking about ending sounds, then middle sounds. Eventually, he'll be reading the recipe and I'll be searching for the ingredients!

History can be learned in the kitchen! This is where my oldest had the most fun. For over a year, he was very interested in all things medieval. We used out kitchen to learn about the Middle Ages more than anywhere else in or out of the house. We learned how to dye fabric using natural dyes. We did the old "castle out of sugar cubes" thing (we got a DK book and did a realistic replica that took months!) We made grog and tasted it - didn't like it! Once a week, we made a feast, using a recipe book we found at the library. We ate turkey legs with out hands, made bread and stews from scratch. We had to go shopping for ingredients we never heard of and had to learn how to make substitutions when we found that certain things just aren't available in the stores! We learned how people got their food - whether they grew it, bought it, or just did without. We learned about the weather back then and how hard it was for people to grow food in the cloudy and cold era. I haven't done a lot of history with Little Guy just yet. Past, Present, and Future are not something his mind is ready to understand just yet. I can't wait to see which time period he becomes interested in!

Crayon recycling. Look at the concentration on Little Guy's face - this is IMPORTANT work!

And, I think, that including Art and Music in the kitchen is wonderful. Whenever we head in there to create something, I put on music. I will choose something that goes with whatever we're making (for instance, country if we're making fried chicken) or that goes with our mood (upbeat for when there's excitement, something slow and relaxing when we need to concentrate on what we're doing.) And for art, well - we make lots of projects in there. We also make our own art supplies. We do the regular stuff, like play dough and recycled crayons. We also make glue, paint, and are going to make paper from junk mail and old clothes next month!

And, finally, there are those pesky "life skills" that are learned in the kitchen. Washing dishes, making your own meal, organizing cupboards, planning ahead (grocery lists), and general hygiene are just a few of the things they learn. Then there are the ones we don't think about: Emergency medical treatments (like when we learned about how you need to put cold water or ice on Mommy's burn.) And how to take things in stride and find solutions (like when we find out we're out of butter and are half-way through making a cake!)

Now, I haven't even touched on the part where they learn about where our food comes from! I'll spare you the novel and let you go check out some other posts in this month's Carnival of Natural Parenting. But, I need to tell you that my kids know about gardening and all the science that goes with it, how to find edible plants in the wild, how herbs can be used as medicine, how agriculture works, why buying your food selectively is important to your health and the environments... There's more, but I'm sure you get the point! The majority of our talks about these things occur in the kitchen as we use a particular ingredient.


Can you think of other ways that the kitchen is conducive to learning more than how to cook? I'd love to hear your ideas - Little Guy is at the perfect point in his mind where everything is interesting to him. The more ideas you can give me, the more I'll be able to help him learn in his favorite room in the house - The "Classroom".
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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Baking & letting go — Cooking with kids can be a mess. Nadia at Red White & GREEN Mom is learning to relax, be patient, and have fun with the process.
• Family feeding in Child of Mine — Lauren at Hobo Mama reviews Ellyn Satter's suggestions for appropriate feeding and points out where her family has problems following through.
• Children with Knives! (And other Kitchen Tools) — Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy teaches her children how to safely use knives.
• "Mommy, Can I Help?" — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment writes about how she lets her kiddos help out with cooking, despite her {sometimes} lack of patience!
• Solids the Second Time Around — Sheryl at Little Snowflakes recounts her experiences introducing solids to her second child.
• The Adventure of Toddler Tastebuds — The Accidental Natural Mama shares a few things that helped her daughter develop an adventurous palate.
• A Tradition of Love — Kelly at Becoming Crunchy looks forward to sharing the kitchen traditions passed on from her mom and has already found several ways to involve baby in the kitchen.
• The Very Best Classroom — Alicia C. at McCrenshaw's Newest Thoughts reveals how her kitchen is more than a place to make food - it's a classroom!
• Raising Little Chefs — Chef Mike guest posts on Natural Parents Network about how he went from a guy who couldn't cook to a chef who wanted to teach his boys to know how the food we love is made.
• In the Kitchen with my kids — Isil at Smiling like Sunshine shares a delicious soup recipe that her kids love.
• Papa, the Pancake Artist — Papa's making an incredible breakfast over at Our Mindful Life.
• Kids won't eat salad? Try this one! — Tat at Mum in Search is sharing her children's favourite salad recipe.
• Recipe For a Great Relationship — Cooking with kids is about feeding hearts as well as bellies, writes Hannah at Wild Parenting.
• The Ritual of Mealtimes — Syenna at Gently Parenting Twins writes about the significance of mealtimes in her family’s daily rhythm.
• Kid, Meet Food. Food, Kid. — Alburnet at What's Next? panicks about passing on her food "issues" to her offspring.
• Growing Up in the Kitchen — Cassie at There's a Pickle in My Life shares how her son is growing up in the kitchen.
• Harvesting Corn and History — From Kenna at School Garden Year: The kids in the school garden harvest their corn and learn how much history grows in their food.
• My Guiding Principles for Teaching my Child about Food — Tree at Mom Grooves uses these guiding principles to give her daughter a love of good food and an understanding of nutrition as well as to empower her to make the best choices for her body.
• Kitchen Control — Amanda at Let's Take the Metro writes about her struggles to relinquish control in the kitchen to her children.
• Food — Emma at Your Fonder Heart lets her seven month old teach her how to feed a baby.
• Kitchen Fun? — Adrienne at Mommying My Way questions how much fun she can have in a non-functional kitchen, while trying to remain positive about the blessings of cooking for her family.
• Kitchen Adventures — Erica at ChildOrganics shares fun ways to connect with your kids in the kitchen.
• Kids in the Kitchen: Finding the Right Tools — Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings shares some of her favorite child-sized kitchen gadgets and where to find them.
• The Kitchen Classroom — Laura at Authentic Parenting knows that everything your kids want to learn is at the end of the ladle.
• Kids in the Kitchen — Luschka from Diary of a First Child talks about the role of the kitchen in family communication and shares fun kitchen activities for the under two.
• Our Kitchen is an Unschooling Classroom. — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle explores the many ways her kitchen has become a rich environment for learning.
• Montessori-Inspired Food Preparation for Preschoolers — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares lots of resources for using Montessori food preparation activities for young children in the kitchen.
• My Little Healthy Eater — Christine at African Babies Don't Cry shares her research on what is the best first food for babies, and includes a healthy and yummy breakfast recipe.
• Two Boys and Papa in the Kitchen: Recipe for Disaster? — MudpieMama shares all about her fears, joys and discoveries when the boys and handsome hubby took over the kitchen.
• Food choices, Food treats — Henrietta at Angel Wings and Herb Tea shares her family's relationship with food.
• learning to eat — Catherine at learner mummy reflects on little M's first adventures with food.
• The Night My 7-Year-Old Made Dinner — Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! shares how her 7-year-old daughter surprised everyone by turning what started as an idea to play restaurant into pulling off making supper for her family.
• Cooking With a High-Needs Toddler — Sylvia at MaMammalia describes how Montessori-inspired activities and a bit of acceptance have helped her overcome hurdles in cooking while caring for a "high-needs" child.
• Kids in the Kitchen – teaching healthy food choices — Brenna at Almost All The Truth shares her belief in the importance of getting kids into the kitchen using her favorite cookbook for kids to develop healthy food choices now and hopefully into the future.
• Make Milk, Not War — Tamara at Tea for Three remembers the daily food fights as she struggled to feed a picky eater.
• teaching baby birds about good food. — Sarah at Small Bird on Fire writes about the ways in which her family chooses to gently teach their son how to make wise food decisions.
• 5 Ways to Enhance Your Baby or Young Toddler's Relationship with Food — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares simple ways to give your child a healthy beginning to her lifelong relationship with food.
• Toddler at the Table: 10 Creative Solutions — Moorea at Mamalady shares tips for preventing meal-time power struggles.
• How My Child Takes Responsibility During His Mealtime... — Jenny @ I'm a full-time mummy shares how she teaches and encourages her 32 months old son on adopting good manners and responsibilities during his mealtimes...
• Kids in the Kitchen: 6 Tips Plus a Recipe — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings shares six tips for overcoming some of the the difficulties of cooking with multiple young sous chefs, and a recipe they all can agree on!
• How BLW has made me a better parent — Zoe at Mummykins shares how baby-led weaning has changed her approach to parenting.
• My Budding Chef — Jenny at Chronicles of a Nursing Mom is no cook but is happy that her daughter has shown an inclination and manages to whip up yummy goodies for their family.
• Kids in the Kitchen: An Activity for Every Age — Gaby from Tmuffin describes how she keeps her kids busy in the kitchen, whether they are one week old or two years old.
• The Phantastically Mutlipurposed Phyllo — Ana at Pandamoly shares how Phyllo is used to create enticing dishes at home! Anything can be made into a Struedel!
• Kitchen Kids — Laura from A Pug in the Kitchen shares her children's most favorite recipe to make, experience and eat.
• Independence vs. Connection in the Kitchen: won't you please get yourself your own snack already? — Lisa at Organic Baby Atlanta wishes her daughter would just go make a mess in the kitchen. But her daughter only wants to do it together.
• Grandma Rose's Kitchen — Abbie at Farmer's Daughter reminisces about her childhood and dreams of filling her kitchen with people, love, noise, and messes.
• Healthy Food Choices for Kids — Jorje offers one way to encourage children to make their own healthy food choices at MommaJorje.com.
• Cooking food to thrive rather than survive — Phoebe at Little Tinker Tales is trying to foster a lifetime of good food habits by teaching her children about the importance of avoiding junk, cooking healthy meals, and learning about the whole food process.
• Evolution of a self-led eater — Sheila at A Gift Universe shares the story of how her son grew from nursing around the clock to eating everything in sight, without her having to push.
• 10 Ways Tiny Helps In The Kitchen — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama explores the ways in which her toddler actively participates in kitchen-related activities.
• The Complexity of Feeding a Child — Feeding children a healthy diet is no straight-forward task, but Lisa at My World Edenwild shares some general guidelines to help your child thrive.
• Lactation Cookies — That Mama Gretchen shares a fun recipe that will benefit both mamas and babies!
• 50 of the Best Books, Websites, & Resources to Inspire Kids in the Kitchen — Need inspiration to get your kids in the kitchen? Dionna at Code Name: Mama rounds up some of the best books and websites that can serve as a source for ideas, recipes, and cooking with littles fun.
• A 4-year-old's smoothie recipe — Jen at Grow With Graces and her son set out to make a smoothie without the usual ingredients. She let him improvise. See how it turned out.
• Independent Food Preparation (My Toddler Can Do That?) — Megan at Montessori Moments shares simple ways for children to prepare their own healthy snacks.
• Follow Your Gut — Amy at Anktangle shares her philosophy about intuitive eating, and how she's trying to foster her son's trust in his own inner wisdom when he feels hungry.
• A TODDLER-STYLE LUNCH + RECIPE — Manic Mrs. Stone photographs how to have messy fun during lunchtime with a helpful toddler.