This super sensory, tactile experience allows your child to experiment with various liquids and solids and work out for themselves, the relationships between the ingredients. And the best part is, it takes very little preparation and only uses left over bits and pieces from your own pantry.

My child loves cooking but obviously most of the food you cook needs to follow a specific recipe and is very structured. Here is an unstructured way that allows them to practice the same skills required for cooking (such as pouring and measuring etc) but also lets them touch and manipulate the ingredients in whatever way they want.


This is LOTS of fun but can get very messy...  (isn't that half the fun though?) :)

Ages: 2+

(M was 2 here)

 Lay out the ingredients for your child and provide various containers, spoons, implements etc that they could use in their processes.

Materials: flour, baking powder/soda, coloured water, vinegar and some old herbs, bowls, spoons etc.

 Practicing hand eye coordination while pouring in some vinegar

 Nothing happened when the vinegar was added to flour but LOOK at what happens with this other white powder! (Baking soda/powder)

 "Oooh, the more I stir the more bubbly and frothy it gets"

 Time to make it smell nice, let's "sprinkle" some herbs

 What does it feel like? "Squishy and runny and gooey with little bits in it." Learning that the herbs don't change their state unlike the powders and liquids.

 It's too "thin" we should add more flour to make it "thicker"

 "Woah! Look at the difference. It is so sticky and thick now"

 The more she mixed the thicker and stickier it got

One lesson for Mum despite the size of the art smock... perhaps shorts will work better next time. Definitely old clothing.

Handy Tips:

- Use whatever ingredients you already have at home. I try to use old pantry items that have been sitting around for a long time that I probably should replace anyway.

- Talk with your child about what they are doing. This will help them understand the physical and mental processes they are going through as well as giving them the vocabulary to describe it.

- Use new language and descriptive words like, "frothy, thicker, squishy" etc. This will help with their language development.

-Ask questions to help connect their understanding and use vocabulary to give them words to describe what they're experiencing. Eg, "What are the little lumps in your mixture?", "It's very runny, how could you make it thicker?", "It's very thick, how could you make it thinner/runnier?" etc

- Take the time to focus on improving particular skills with your child and help them to practice, ie, pouring so that all the liquid goes in the container etc.



Happy playing,
Debs :)

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Playing with rice is a great tactile experience for children. Here I provided some basic "tools" and then let the playing begin.

As we were using a real ingredient, Madeline wanted to pretend to be cooking.

Using fine motor skills and coordination to move rice from a container to an ice cube tray with small tongs

 Some of the tools. Large spoon, small spoon, small tongs, measuring cup, scoop

 It takes time and concentration to fill such small holes

 Filled! Little "cakes" ready for serving

 "I'm making you a milkshake." Using a shaker and large cup to practice pouring and shaking

 Carefully spooning rice into a large cup and dividing it up between the cups

 Hand eye coordination working hard

Now I'm a chef. Adding her cooking apron and hat to get into character

Some tips:

- Try getting out a few different tools and vessels each time you do rice play to get a different learning experience each time and to practice different skills

- Whilst rice is easy to vacuum up, if you want to re-use it (waste not, want not) for future rice play, you will need a mat underneath and to encourage your child to attempt to keep it off the floor

- Dressing up can play a part in your child's experience. It may add a different element or change the direction of their play. How would a cowboy play with rice? (Why not find out?) :)

- Use correct vocabulary to describe the processes and experiences your child is having while they are playing. This puts it into context for them and helps develop their literacy skills

- Make your child aware of the problem solving they are doing. "How did you get the rice from that container to that container?" "That was a great idea" "How will you pour it into such a small hole without spilling it everywhere?" etc

Debs :)

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