By now you've seen my review on the Farmer's Market Color Sorting Set and the many benefits of using it and that's why I thought it was important to talk a little more about child development! I have 5 fun benefits of playing with toy food and play kitchens that you'll love as part of your child's development. I know that I love watching the kids cook up a meal in their play kitchen and serve it, there is something special about the whole process!
5 Benefits of Toy Food for Child Development
1. Visual recognition of shapes, patterns and colors
Playing with toy food means understanding similarities and differences in shapes, colors and patterns. This helps your child sort according to toy food type, texture and size. What you take for granted as your ability to differentiate between and sort colors, shapes and patterns with a quick glance actually got its start when you were just a child. Promote toy food and play kitchen interaction to give your child a head-start in these important developmental areas.
2. Self-confidence in their imagination
When your little chef-to-be places toy french fries on his toy peanut butter and jelly sandwich, his creative imagination is unleashed. Cooking in real life and toy cooking playtime rewards experimentation. This is driven by your children's imagination when you applaud their efforts. Their self-confidence is boosted when they realize they can imaginatively combine and create any toy food creations they can dream up.
3. Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork
As you have probably discovered yourself on several occasions, cooking means teamwork. It is no great secret that working effectively with others toward a common goal is an important skill consistently used by successful and happy adults. And when your child teams up with other children or helpful adults in the toy kitchen, teamwork becomes second nature.
4. Preparation and cleanup teach responsibility
Developmentally, responsibility can benefit your child in a limitless number of areas. When your child is very young, they may not understand that the food they eat has to be prepared, and that cleanup has to take place afterward. When playing with toy food and cooking in the playtime kitchen, your child quickly understands that proper preparation before and clean up after are integral parts of the food making process.
5. Delegation and follow-up
Playtime cooks need to be as effective with delegation and follow-up as do their real-world counterparts. Sometimes creating toy food masterpieces requires taking charge and directing the efforts of other children. Delegation is worthless without effective follow-up. These two skills are paramount as an adult, and get a developmental boost from toy food and playtime kitchen activities.
Take time to play with the kids and create some new memories!
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