Prior to the health scare of 2020, many parents were sending their pre-kindergarten children to daycare so they could work.

With the “lockdowns” or businesses shuttering doors, many parents had no choice but to stay-at-home self-isolating with 3,4, and 5-year-old kids experiencing dramatic changes in routines. 

As parents were challenged with juggling work from home with keeping their tiny tots out of mischief. With new-normal opportunities for more quality time, the dawn of the New Normal took on new frustrations no one was prepared to do alone.

Let me know is the comments how you survived those challenges in 2020, 2021, and 2022. How is life in 2023 in the aftermath?

Back in 2020 when, I, the No Non-cents Nanna first published this post I gave some suggestions. Now, in 2023 we are facing potentially more unknowns that we simply cannot fathom.

Parents, it is time to prepare your family for new challenges in an uncertain future.

I edited this post on March 4th, 2023 preparing with worst-case scenarios in mind. (Palestine, Ohio train derailment in February 2023.)

What if something like another train derailment forces you to stay indoors? Please keep in mind that I published this post when the world was dealing with a contagious virus, not toxic chemicals. The ideas I share in this post may NOT be suitable for unhealthy air and water.

Back to the family kitchen in the original post.

The kitchen is the perfect place to not only eat but learn math, trading, science, and more.

A 3-year-old can do plenty in the kitchen to help out and can the 4, 5, 6…year old kids. Ten and 12 years old may be more than ready to be self-sufficient with no cooking and heating skills. 

The family kitchen is an important part of a child’s growth and development.

In this post, I give you 8 family-friendly meaningful opportunities that even a young child of 2 or 3 and older CAN do. Simple activities with a positive outcome will help kids learn independent self-help skills as well as apply the 3 R’s and concepts of number counting.

The three Rs (as in the letter R) are three basic skills taught in schools: reading, writing and arithmetic (usually said as “reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic”). The phrase appears to have been coined at the beginning of the 19th century. Wikipedia

• When a child participates in tasks of daily living their self-esteem is encouraged to bloom.

1. A child of 2 or even can pick out cherry tomatoes from a basket to put them into a serving bowl. You can count the number of little red fruits.

2. Another good place to start cooking with a 3-year-old is to let him/ her lay the cheese on bread. count the pieces of bread. Then count the pieces of cheese.

• In this image, we are making grilled cheese. Soften the butter for your child to spread on the bread.
• This may be a good time to talk about the concept of “more and less”.
• Let the child work at a comfortably low table their height.

Our little Sophie-Do-It was into the movie Frozen when we did this project years ago.

3. A 3-year-old can mix muffins. So can a 17-year-old.

• It is not critical to have the batter fluffy or all the lumps out.
• While I often bake from scratch, I make an exception with those easy-packaged mixes for the little ones to start.
• The most important part of learning is the order of the process with concepts as first, next, and last.

4. A 3-year-old can learn to grease a baking pan. with butter…lots and lots of butter…then more butter than most grown-ups would use. 

..and that’s OK for now. Learning about what constitutes WAY TOO MUCH is not a global catastrophe.

• The world will not come to an end due to excess butter once or twice. Nor will your cholesterol raise THAT much to matter with this small baking dish. (You will focus on the quality time you and your child learned something new together.)

• A 3-year-old can pour the muffin batter into a baking dish.

OOPS! So what if some batter spills?

• A 3 year-year-old is capable of wiping up the spill. Be sure to let your child know that most cooks in the kitchen do spill sometimes, too. (Don’t worry if the job is not up to your standards. Just be sure to let the child know that they did their best. That builds self-esteem.)
• If a pre-k child can clean up a spill fairly well, just think about what a 12-year-old CAN do, too. (Focus on age-appropriate or developmental appropriateness of the task.)

5. While we are waiting for muffins to bake a 3-year-old can learn how to cream butter.

In this image, she has added some orange essential oil in the butter for an enhanced sensory experience.

6. With the fresh-baked muffin bread only taking 12 to 14 minutes the process of waiting is bearable.

Use a timer to time the 14 minutes or so. This offers the child a reasonable concept of time.

In a minute or 2 announce that there will only be 12 minutes left…10 minutes left…3 minutes left to keep baking…

7. Enjoy the aroma together.

8. Now eat the food together enjoying a sense of accomplishment.

• See the smile on her face as she butters her muffin bread?

When you do things with your child in the kitchen you know what the child is safely doing. Later on, you can feel pride knowing that your is on the road to independence in the near future.

I am Malika Bourne the No Non-cents Nanna saying Make Good Choices!

Check out this recently updated post by No Non-cents Nanna on Making Good Choices. It is stuffed full of useful preparedness resources for essential information for people who live in the US.

No Non-cents Nanna on Making Good Choices – No Non-cents Nanna

For a related choice on what families with kids CAN do to find resources check out No Non-cents Nanna’s recently updated post.

No Non-cents Nanna on Making Good Choices – No Non-cents Nanna

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Key Points

#parenting tips #pre-school child #building self confidence #self-esteem

#preparing food #preeping self-sufficiency #lock-down #cooking skills

#New Normal #challenges 2023 #children #health #safety #simple kitchen tasks #learning experience #qualifty time

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Related resources:

Teach Your Kids to Cook: 5 Tips to Get You Started – Parents

How to teach cooking to kids. – Kids Cooking Activities

Now, it’s your turn…

What are some more of the many things a 3-year-old can do in the kitchen?

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