Cooking with The Kidz

This past Christmas my daughter and I were out shopping for Gabriel my youngest child. See recently Gabe was diagnosed with having mild autism, so right now outside of learning about animals and languages not many things interest him, however in the Rojas household good food is always an interest.
It was while shopping at Barnes and Noble I saw the cutest little gift and knew it would bring the wow factor to Christmas for him.
I made the best purchase possible this Christmas when I purchased a junior chef set for our youngest child Gabriel. The set was a great find at our Barnes & Noble shopping for books for the boys. The set had all the basic material for a young culinary genius in training would need to cook up masterful cuisines. The set provided a cook book, spatula, Chef Hat, and apron.

Not only was the gift cute but priceless.
Gabriel was so excited Christmas day when he opened his gift to see he had his very own Chef hat and cook book. I could quickly sense sparks of confidence & creativity beaming from him.

This was going to be fun.
In the brief days after Christmas my husband and I have experienced moments with our boys that provided opportunities to teach not only age appropriate economic and finance lessons while shopping for ingredients at the grocery store, but also a different perspective of how to be responsible in the kitchen, safety, cleaning and healthy eating. We were able to enjoy as parents the opportunity to teach some basic life skills to our 6 and 8 yrs old boys. This gift definitely provided more value than the monetary purchase price.
If your are looking for ways to connect with your children and at the same time teach them about responsibility and family values cooking is a great way. Try something different from technology PS3, Xbox nothing wrong with gaming but it is hard to connect if your are not a gamer. Think of their interest whether it is athletic, they are foodies, or books and find activities or something that you can share together in the experience. It makes it more enjoyable for both you and your child. Cooking is also an excellent way for the kids to try different foods and for you to slip in veggies and some more healthier selections. Here are some benefits you can experience while or from cooking with your children.

Connections made Cooking with your children

• Helps with the parent - child bonding (through senses smell, touch, taste, hearing, seeing)
• Gives parents an opportunity to build confidence in child's ability
• Creates memories and photo ops that are priceless
• Great opportunity to teach basic life skills ( safety, cleaning, cooking)
• Healthy eating ( most cook books for children have healthy easy recipes)

I hope you enjoy an opportunity to cook with your children.

Provides 22:6 - " Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Kindergarten Krimes

Don't you just hate when you wake earlier than planned??? You sit and think to yourself "why am I up and everyone else around me is sleeping". Finally after minutes of sitting in the dark you make your way to another room. That for me would be our down stairs living area; where I would sit some more. *sigh

Seriously the reason I shared that information is because I am up earlier than planned, and am now sitting on my sofa. Life.  You got to love it.

Well my Stages & Ages reflection is about education hence the title, "Kindergarten Krimes. We have a wonderful small fish in a big pond kindergartner.

Kindergarten- That 1st taste of independence when you have a back pack for good reason. My son did wonderful the first 5 weeks of school and then it happened a yellow face was sent home on his progress calendar. A yellow face meaning he had been warned about something. There was some behavior that had occurred that was not acceptable in the classroom. This of course sent me into the PPI mode (parent private investigator). My mommy senses told me I needed to communicate with his teacher to get the back story concerning whatever this offense was that our son participated in. The next step following an e-mail ,my preferred line of communication in these situation, was to sit the suspect down and get his story from his perspective. This is something that a novice parent can do, but may want back up support there. Since I am a 3rd time kindergarten parent, I knew all the tricks that the small fish would use to divert my attention from the real issue the yellow warning. There is the sad face with the puppy dog eyes, there is blank stare, the shifty eye look a dead give away that they are about to break, and finally the all out drop to the floor and sob like someone broke your favorite toy. The last tactic can be difficult to overcome after everyone had a long day at work or school.

My advice when dealing with Kindergarten Krimes:

•  Pray before beginning any investigation
• Get the teacher's insight on what occurred
• Never say Never ( when it comes to your child's behavior)
• Find creative ways to question your child (ex. draw a picture) it really does work
• Once you have a confession have consequences that are more like daily life skills lessons

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it"
 Proverbs 22:6