Every day, parents and caregivers need to spend time in the kitchen preparing meals. It’s not obvious but this time can also be used for fun, learning and encouraging your child’s readiness for kindergarten.
Much of the information presented to your child in kindergarten and beyond will be oral. Sharing and reading books with your child is tremendously important for oral stimulation but that’s rather hard to do when you are busy in the kitchen. But you cook up some stories along with breakfast, lunch or supper. Stories are like recipes and need some basic ingredients and a method: a beginning, middle and end with characters that have a problem and find a solution. Use what’s available in the kitchen for all kinds of stories.
Once upon a time, there was a table that was lonely. In the morning, all the chairs decided to go for a walk. The table had waited all day for them to come home…
Once upon a time, a spoon jumped right out of the drawer and began to dance around on the counter…
Once upon a time, there were some children that would not eat their vegetables. Never, never, never. One day who should come for supper but the Vegetable Fairy…
Besides the language aspect stories exercise the imagination. Kindergarten readiness is a dish that’s best served often! Can you put some on your menu?