To encourage Lil’s love of cooking every Christmas and sometimes on her birthday she gets a cook book. Sometimes Lil chooses a cook book or drops not so subtle hints and it becomes a surprise! Cooking has also helped Lil’s sensory retraining and rehabilitation since she suffered nerve damage (Dr’s negligence) in simple terms her brain stopped recognising her foot.

The theory is when Lil is ready to leave home she will have a good cook book collection, a set of staple recipes she enjoys cooking, good life skills.  Her cookbooks take pride of place on the shelf in the kitchen.

For  Lil’s eighth birthday part of her present was a blank notebook with strawberries on the front so she could collect her own recipes as time goes by. Lil also asked family members and friends for her favourite recipes that they make for her, they have hand written them for Lil, what a brilliant keepsake, a loved ones hand written recipe!

 

 

An artist once told me children need quality art supplies (not just using the back of already used computer print out paper) to encourage their creativity and inspire them. I can’t help but think this is true for children and adults no matter what their interest.

 

By giving Lil these kitchen accessories over the years (definitely not at once) it has continually motivated and inspired her to cook, try new things that will help and support her passion for cooking. We have arranged the kitchen cupboard contents to make sure everything is accessible for Lil to reach herself, it encourages independence skills & sense of pride in looking after her things, everything has a sense of place.

Love heart measuring cups.

Skewers to test if cakes are baked with love hearts and cupcakes on the end of them.

Love heart cake tins.

Pretty teaspoons and spatula’s.

Pastel mixing bowls.

Cookie cutters in all different shapes and sizes including love hearts.

Aprons.

Tea towels in Lil’s favourite colours.

A two tiered cake plate to display baking creations on.

Bundt tins.

Cake tins and trays for specific recipes.

Every now and again a jar of cream magically appears in the fridge, it is Michael’s not so subtle hint that he loves Lil’s sponge cakes filled with quince jam and chantilly cream and it’s been too long since he had one!

There is a lot of love hearts in that list and Lil does love her pink, there will soon enough be a time when she passes through this age and stage of development moving more and more into the later teenage years and I will miss this time in her life, just like when she was a baby and we are embracing it love hearts and all.

I think you get the gist of what I am saying, extend your child’s interests with things that interest them. When my nephews were shifting out of home they got cook books from Luke Nguyen they loved his cooking shows, Donna Hay  cook books because they wanted to start baking apparently buying cakes was becoming too expensive and a River Cottage cook book that focused on cooking meat, butchering and meat cuts, because I am a vegetarian and I want them to have an understanding of what meat they eat and how best to prepare it on a budget.

Of course the biggest benefit of giving your child a cook book is you get to be the taste tester!

 

Jude x