Ingredients for Fun

Age: 6 to 10

Time: 1 hour or more

Materials: Recipes (from a cookbook or card file), paper, pen or pencil, construction paper, poster paint or markers, sequins, tinsel, and other decorative materials.

Flip through a cookbook or your recipe file, and call out a variety of ingredients. Have an older child list these on a page. You then take the list, and read off five or more ingredients. Your child combines these ingredients to create a new taste sensation -- say, a meal, dessert, or the like. Ask your young chef what the new concoction is called, how it's prepared, and how it tastes. Are there any other ingredients your child would add to make it taste even better, or any that your young cook would eliminate?

Alternatively, find a recipe and begin to read all but one of the ingredients. Tell your child the name of the recipe, and then ask him or her which ingredient is missing. Or you can begin to list the ingredients, and stop when your son or daughter figures out the recipe. If the chef-in-training is stumped, provide helpful hints.

Finally, invite your child into the kitchen to help you prepare a meal, and watch him or her really cook!

More on: Nutritional Resources for Families