Did you know that cooking with your kids is a natural way for them to develop motor skills? If you’ve never looked at cooking that way before, think again. There’s a reason why kids have a universal love for cooking – just like for stacking blocks and banging!

Cooking is especially good for preschoolers and here’s how:

1. Two year olds are developing large muscles in their arms: They will enjoy stirring and stirring and stirring . My two year old is always asking to stir; and her subconscious knows why! At 2 years old, a child naturally imitates circular strokes as part of their normal physical development. So, let them stir at every opportunity.Here are some ways to encourage arm muscle development through cooking:
   • stirring: flour, eggs, pancake batter, gelatin making, etc.
   • scrubbing potatoes and vegetables
   • cleaning the cutting board: Give them a washcloth and some lukewarm water with the cutting board in the sink. They’ll have a blast rubbing the wet washcloth up and down the cutting board to clean it.
   • pouring from large measuring cups into a bowl

    

2. Two year olds are developing the ability to turn pages: Another motor skill developed during the preschool age is the ability to turn pages.So – just pondering here…is it the story they love so much or just turning the pages of the book? Well, actually both. They need the motor development of turning the pages; and the pictures and vocabulary improve their intellectual development.

    

3. Two year olds love “patting” and “pressing”: From being fascinated with “patty-cake” chants at an early age, preschooler’s still love to pat and press.I’m sure you’ll recognize your preschooler doing this at the park: scooping up rocks or sand, piling them up, and patting the top into different shapes.

   Well, here’s some suggestions to bring the “patting” inside:

   • packing down brown sugar in the measuring cup
   • gently pressing a fork on top of peanut butter cookie dough on the cookie sheet
   • patting to level off the top of a cup of sugar
   • patting and pressing on pizza dough
   • pressing down with a cookie cutter on rolled sugar cookie dough

    

4. Two year olds love to dip – and this develops arm muscles skills too!: it takes a lot of coordination to dip! Getting the food in the dip, then moving the arm and somehow getting it into your mouth. If it wasn’t difficult, they wouldn’t get food all over their face! So, unless your 2 year old always has a clean face when he or she is done eating, here’s some dipping opportunities:
   • carrots in salad dressing
   • french fries in catsup
   • dipping a spoon in the emptied batter bowl to clean out the goodies
   • dipping fruit in a fruit dip or chocolate (like frozen bananas or strawberries)
   • dipping chicken or fish in a batter for you to cook
   • dipping the bread in French toast mix

    

So, instead of “shooing” your preschoolers and 2 year olds out of the kitchen, let them dive in with these simple tasks that not only give them great pleasure, but help them develop their age appropriate motor skills.

About The Author
Laura Bankston is author of Internationally selling Cooking with Kids Curriculum: “Homeschool Cooking in a Box” and the “Homeschool Cookbook”. She currently home schools her three children, maintains home school support websites, and manages their family-owned service business. For information on her curriculum and free home school support services, please visit www.homeschoolcookbook.com.  laura@homeschoolcookbook.com

If a child is having fun while moving, that child is far more likely to want to keep moving. What he doesn’t realize is that he’s also practicing his movement skills!

Following are activities that help promote the development of locomotor (traveling) skills:

• In and Around. There’s nothing like an obstacle course to provide practice with any number of skills, including crawling, creeping, walking, and jumping. Additionally, an obstacle course will offer your child valuable experience with prepositions such as over, under, around, and through. Depending on your child’s level of development (you can even use obstacle courses with babies who are only creeping), set up a course using large empty boxes to move through, chairs or other pieces of furniture big enough to move under, jump ropes to move over, or small items to move around. Then lead your child through the maze. Every time you play this game, you can arrange the objects differently and even give them different purposes. For instance, if the jump rope was originally lying on the floor for leaping or jumping over, you can later suspend it between two pieces of furniture for creeping under.
• Chasing Bubbles. Want to give children a reason to run and jump? Take them outside and invite them to catch the bubbles you blow! They’ll let you know when they’re tired – but until then, keep on blowing.
• Jump! Place your child on the bottom of a set of steps – or on the edge of a low sandbox or a curb, for instance – and stand facing her. Hold out your arms and encourage her to jump. Repeat the process as long as she stays interested. When she’s ready for something a bit higher, use sturdy plastic crate or something similar.
• Ring-around-the-Rosy. If there are at least three people available (two children and an adult), play this traditional game for practice with sliding – and sitting. It also offers experience with the spatial concepts of around and down.
• Follow the Leader. This game offers a great opportunity for practice of various motor skills. Even if it’s just you and your child, the game is plenty of fun. Just lead the way around the living room or backyard, performing as many different locomotor skills as you know your child can replicate. Don’t’ forget to vary your movements with the elements of movement, changing direction, level, pathway, speed, force, and body shape. And you can incorporate both bound flow and nonlocomotor skills into the game by occasionally stopping and performing, say, a stretch, bend, twist, or shake.
• Traffic Lights. For this game you’ll need three large pieces of paper or cardboard – one red, one green, and one yellow. When you hold up the green paper, the children walk. (You can play this game with one or several children.) When you hold up the yellow, they walk in place. At the sight of the red, they stop and wait. Start with walking until they get the hang of it. Then play it with any other locomotor skills they can perform.
• In and Out. Place one plastic hoop per child on the floor or ground. Then invite the children to jump in and out of the hoop, all the way around. When the children are able to hop, invite them to hop in and out. (The best way to help your child learn to hop is to hold her hand and hop right alongside her.)
• Tag with a Twist. A game of tag is a great way to get children to practice both running and dodging. To be sure the latter is involved, gradually reduce the available area in which the children can play!

About the Author
Rae Pica is a children’s movement specialist and author of Your Active Child: How to Promote Physical, Emotional, and Cognitive Development through Age-Appropriate Activity (McGraw-Hill, 2003). Rae speaks to parent and education groups throughout North America. You can visit her and read more articles at www.movingandlearning.com.