A Taste For Learning

Counter the summer brain drain by using cooking to help your kids brush up on math, science skills and more.

"I'm bored."

"There's nothing to do."

"It's too hot to play outside."

Sound familiar?

On days like this, lure your kids into the kitchen, where they can create edible masterpieces while also brushing up on math, reading and motor skills.

Teachers and parents have long struggled to combat the dreaded summer brain drain. "Like everything else - use it or lose it," says Baltimore County teacher Esther Waxman. "Every year, teachers spend September and October catching kids up on all the basic skills they forgot over the summer."

Cooking offers many lessons, while also reinforcing important habits like following directions and making correct measurements. It also provides a level playing field that draws in children who otherwise would have no interest in summer lessons.

"Not all kids learn the same way," says Ellen Marks, director of a Baltimore County preschool and kindergarten. "Cooking provides many different types of learning."

It is tactile, it involves smell, it taps spatial and visual senses.

Even simple kitchen events like watching a stick of butter melt into liquid provide a lesson in basic food chemistry. And not to be forgotten are the social skills learned in the kitchen and around the table - from taking turns to minding your manners.

But above all else cooking focuses attention on a practical skill, the ability to feed oneself. Best of all, the results are not abstract and don't call for adult approval.

So use your kitchen as a classroom and let your kids produce their own tasty rewards.

Just remember to stand back and let the young chefs do the work.

Here are three recipes that can also serve as lesson plans for a "kitchen classroom."

Younger children, ages 3 to 6, will need supervision and duller implements. Let them use plastic or butter knives to cut their fruit.

Older children or preteens can safely work with these recipes with regular implements and a little supervision. The directions are written in a step-by-step format for easy focus and comprehension. Only one recipe requires heat - boiling the water to cook noodles for the Pasta Dough Rules.

Each of the recipes has a short lesson plan indicating the skills children will apply. Also included are questions to spark curiosity and conversations about what they are doing. What are their observations about the ingredients or simple food chemistry? Why are eggs added to the noodle dough?

Summer school in the kitchen may be more delicious than kids think with the practical application of their hard-earned school skills. Parents may never hear again, "Why do I have to learn that?"

Kitchen rules

Here are a few ideas to keep the kitchen from turning into a disaster zone:

Before you start cooking, set out the ingredients and utensils on a clean work surface.

Measure messy ingredients such as flour or salt over the sink.

Clean as you work. When you finish with a cooking tool, rinse it and leave it in the sink or dishwasher.

After measuring an ingredient, put the container back in the cabinet or refrigerator, so you can find it again when you need it.

Clean the work area with a paper towel or damp sponge.

Fruit Skewers

Lesson Plan:

Kids 3 to 6 years old use summer fruit such as watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, grapes and peaches to learn shapes, sizes and repetition patterns as well as practice their fine motor skills.

Kids 7 to 12 use their math skills to figure the amount of fruit needed to serve family and friends.

Ingredients:

1/4 watermelon

1 cantaloupe

3 cups strawberries, whole

1 pound grapes

12 bamboo skewers (sharp end can be snipped with kitchen scissors for young children)

1. Wash fruit.

2. Cut watermelon and cantaloupe into equal, 2-inch pieces.

3. Put fruit pieces on skewer, alternating types of fruit.

4. Repeat with remaining skewers.

Fruit Fraction Parfait

Lesson plan:

Kids 3 to 6 years old learn to follow repetition patterns and practice fine motor skills.

Questions for younger children: "Why do we cut up the strawberries?" "Why do we measure ingredients?"

Kids 7 to 12 work with multiplication and fractions.

Ask them: How much yogurt do you need to make 4 or 6 servings if each serving has two 1/4 cups?

Ingredients: vanilla yogurt

strawberry yogurt

granola

blueberries

strawberries

Each parfait has two 1/4 -cup layers of yogurt and granola. Each fruit layer requires 1/4 cup of strawberries slices or blueberries. How many total cups of yogurt and granola for each parfait? Now multiply that by number of servings.

Have ingredients within easy reach. Put parfait or dessert glasses on the kitchen counter.

1. Wash and drain berries.

2. Slice strawberries.

3. Place 1/4 cup of granola in each glass.

4. Spoon 1/4 cup of yogurt on top of granola.

5. Put 1/4 cup strawberries or blueberries over yogurt layer.

6. Repeat steps 3 through 4 and garnish with a few perfect berries or sprinkle with granola.

The parfait is best served immediately or if chilled and served within the hour.

Pasta Dough Rules

Lesson Plan: