Five ways you can use food to learn.

Over the last 8 weeks, a large number of us have taken on another role in family life. We’ve become teachers which involves a lot of patience, planning, humour, creativity and flexibility!

We’re having to teach our children without having the three-year degree and on the job training that the early years educators have. 

There’s a lot of pressure involved in being our children’s teachers. I’m loving resources such as Twinkl, BBC Bitesize, and Pinterest to source inspiration from but sometimes I feel like I need a secret tunnel to Hobby Craft plus an industrial printer to be able to prepare everything that’s being suggested.

So, that’s why, we've made a list of the learning opportunities we’ve enjoyed recently that involve food:

1. Themed Snack plates – this week, we did The Very Hungry Caterpillar snack plate –we all sat down to eat our hungry caterpillar  and we spoke about what foods we’d eat throughout the week. It’s a perfect way to practice days of the week, counting and talking about healthy food.

2. Baking – what child doesn’t love to bake and be little helpers? We bake at least twice a week. It’s the perfect activity as we’re not only making food for them to enjoy, we’re also learning about ingredients, measurement and kitchen skills.

3. Putting the food shop away. I know it sounds more like a chore than a fun learning activity but it’s the highlight of my children’s week at the moment. We get the food shop, they make a production line of removing it from the box, washing it and then having to decide which part of the fridge it belongs to. It’s great to get them to choose whether it’s a vegetable, fruit, dairy, meat or perhaps a non-fridge item. This week we added a layer and we had to guess whether it grows in the ground, on trees or on a bush.

4. Fruit and vegetable drawers are perfect for colour matching games. The younger ones love to show me which colour group they belong to. We also love dying our spaghetti and rice and making sensory bins to dive into.

5. Blindfold taste testing – to my four-year-old, this is just a really fun game. For me, it’s great to see her enjoy food which on sight, she repels. The whole family can get involved.

How do you incorporate food into your children’s learning? We’d love to hear your comments below.

Picture is from the very talented @baby_n_me on Instagram. She served her hungry caterpillar up on eco rascals organic bamboo toddler suction plate for kids.