SORT & MATCH, TWIST & PRESS WHILE MOMMY IS  BUSY IN KITCHEN

     Many of my friends who have  crawling and walking infants keep telling me how their little ones are happiest rummaging through vessels and pots in the kitchen. I can almost see the exasperated sigh from moms going through that phase and wide smile from those like myself, who can now only remember those lovely daysJ.

 Some  of you don’t want to let their little ones into the kitchen and have very good reasons to do so. I appreciate your choice. I, however, always encouraged my son to enter and spend time in the kitchen. In fact, I feel that we have both learnt a lot of lessons working together in the kitchen. The next couple of activities that I am going to discuss in this blog, are child friendly and will keep your little ones engaged in the kitchen, while you finish your cooking and other chores. Of course, you may also choose to sit with them and work on these activities. These activities are ideal for infants from 1 years to may be about 2 and half years of age. I don’t think these activities would interest them after that but then these little ones have the uncanny ability to prove all our big theories wrong!!!

• I would give my son cups of different sizes and encourage him to stack them. We would do that with pots too. Surely there would be pots of different sizes in your kitchen and you can encourage your child to stack them.
•  Another interesting thing that you can do with your child is to  give them pots and lids. Encourage your child to match the lid to the correct pot. This is a tough perceptual activity. They have to estimate the size and match the lid to the pot. Of course, some of them are really smart. They keenly observes us when we are working in the kitchen and already know which lid goes on which pot J. Another similar activity, I often did was to give storage containers of different shapes like some being circular and some being square and encourage my son match the lid.  Storage containers also come in different colors. Encourage your child to match the lid to the correct container. I would suggest you to increase the complexity gradually. So if you want the child to recognize and differentiate colors then give different colors of cups or containers and ask them to match. If you want them to learn shapes then focus on it.  You can combine the two as they grow older. Jean Piaget, who gave to us the most famous theory of cognitive development in children, has said that  thinking at this stage is “centered” on only one aspect of a situation and thus it is often difficult for them to simultaneously focus on two aspects like color and shape. Try to understand why your child is matching, sorting or stacking in a particular manner. You will be surprised to find that they are actively thinking and not doing these activities randomly. There is definitely a method in their madness…we just need the eyes to observe and appreciate them J.
•  Another interesting sorting activity you can do with your little one in the kitchen is to give me them a few variety of fruits and vegetables. Then you encourage them to sort them. You can discuss the name of the vegetable or fruits, discuss colors with them or just count them. They are very young and please don’t worry it they don’t recall the names or colors correctly.  When they sort, they may not sort according to color always. You will be surprised that they sometime sort by shape. They make keep the tomatoes and potatoes together and put the okras and beans together. They may put the apples and tomatoes together. Yes it is amazing to see how the precocious minds are brimming with unusual possibilities. If we pay attention, I think we will all appreciate that they display creative thinking and it is we adults who think  and act in very predictive manner.
• These activities are all great to facilitate sensory-motor development in children. Also these are excellent concept building  activities for young children. As they grow older, they will build on this knowledge . For instance, once they recognize to perceptually differentiate between a square and circle or between colors, it is easier to teach them to name them correctly.  

I particulary recommend these activities because they are inexpensive and require almost no preperation in adavance. These activities are excellent ways  to spend happy time with your child in and around the kitchen, which is the place that most mystifies them at this tender age. They see their moms in this  part of the house so much and role playing comes early to them. Any day care that you visit will have a kitchen set up in all rooms. They know how much the little ones want to be thereJ