Kids just need attention and interaction. With a little imagination, any activity can be turned into play. Here is something I would like to share that worked so wonderfully one evening.
After shopping for vegetables and fruits, I requested Anya to help me put them away in fridge. She totally took charge of the chore and asked for bags for storing. She wanted an audience and I was more than willing to put up my feet. She patiently sorted brinjals, potatoes, shallots, carrots, coccinea, capsicum, cheeku, pomegranates and bottlegourd and placed them in bags or baskets. With this exercise, she not only revised her veggies and fruits but could also touch and feel them. She commented on the size of potatoes and shallots, observed if they were clean or dirty and felt if they were light or heavy. To sneak in some more learning, I asked her to count carrots. She counted them as she put them in a bag. After she had sorted and bagged everything, with a little help from me, she put them away in fridge. All the while she was doing this task, her only request to both me and my husband was to come and watch her. We all need attention and appreciation!
As a reward, she was given a carrot to eat which she relished. I was on cloud nine! She not only finished my chore, she also ate a carrot without any coaxing. This set me thinking, that apart from learning names of vegetables and fruits, this simple chore could be used to build many other concepts:
- Colors and shapes - Ask kids to separate everything on the basis of color.
- Ascending and descending order - Kids can be asked to arrange carrots according to their length.
- Comparisons - Ask them to select three potatoes and tell which is big, bigger and biggest. Let them lift a coccinea, a tomato and a bottlegourd. Ask about heavy, heavier and heaviest.
- Basic arithmetic- Counting, more and less, addition, subtraction etc. can be practiced as appropriate for age.
- Guessing- This can be played in multiple ways. Depending on your kid's age, you can blindfold her and let her feel the vegetable. If she is able to guess, give a high five. If she isn't able to guess, give hints. (Anya calls a hint as a 'reason'. When she is stuck at answering, she cutely says 'Papa, give me a reason') For e.g. for a tomato you can say, it's round or oblong, it's red when ripe, it is juicy, it is sour, you love it, it has many seeds.....
- Stories - I recently read a story called 'The Stone Soup'. This story can be perfectly enacted using all varieties of vegetables. Click here to read the story. Arm your little one with a pan and you all can take turns to be villagers contributing vegetables!
- Role Play - Ask your kid to be a green grocer and you can be a customer. Go shop for 5 tomatoes, 7 onions and so on. For little older kids, you can include prices too.
- Painting - If you are game for some mess, you can indulge in veggie painting. Ladyfingers are my favorite stencil and beetroot water, my favorite color. You can try painting with capsicum, cauliflower, beans, mushrooms, corn, peppers.....
The bottomline is, the kid should be having fun. Let her lead and just play along. If you find an opportunity, introduce any of the above concepts. Books and charts are fine but this is a more interesting way to learn about vegetables and fruits.
Do you also have fun with veggies and fruits? It would be lovely to hear more ideas.
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