Playing with Food by Julian Frederick

Kids playing with their food is a good thing and here’s why…

Hi, I’m Julian and I’m a proud member of the ChopChop Kids Advisory Board.  I’m here to tell you why kids play with food is a good thing.  Now, I know what you are thinking “kids should not play with their foods”, but the type of playing I’m really talking about is kids learning to experiment and be creative while cooking.  When kids experiment and play with food not only do they start to create new things but they also learn to be independent. Kids start to use their imagination AND their creativity grows. I personally get excited when I get to make new foods and I think that other kids will too!

Here are 5 easy steps for kids to learn how to play with their food:

Step 1: Choose what you want to cook.
Pick whatever type of dish you like.  It can be a dessert, a sandwich, a soup, etc.

Step 2: Decide on your ingredients.
What I like about that is that you put in whatever YOU want in it. You can put in random ingredients as long as you think it should go in it.

Step 3: Decide how you want to cook it.
This is cool because you can decide if you want to cook, grill, bake, fry, boil, freeze, or not cook it at all.

Step 4: Try it again… but differently.
Try cooking your recipe a different way like adding or taking away a few ingredients.  Keep trying until you’ve mastered your recipe. It’s like trial and error.

Step 5: My favorite part… EATING IT!!!!

Well, there you have it, “How to Play with Your Food”.  I hope you use this strategy. The best part about it is kids can try new foods and they’ll be excited to eat it knowing that they made it!

Julian Frederick is a member of the ChopChop Kids Advisory Board. To apply to be a member of the Kids Advisory Board, click here: http://www.chopchopmag.org/content/chopchop-kids-advisory-board.