Читать книгу Raising Girls: Why girls are different – and how to help them grow up happy and confident - Gisela Preuschoff - Страница 29

Cook with pleasure, delight and love, and involve your daughter in the cooking. As soon as she’s old enough, let her help choose what to cook, take her with you to the supermarket, help her learn to tell good-quality food from bad, and allow her to help you prepare meals. You can show a two-year-old daughter the proper use of a kitchen knife – as long as it’s very blunt! These sensory experiences increase her interest in food and her familiarity with the taste and texture of different foods, and help to develop her intelligence.

In the first few years, children learn only through sensory experience – imitation, touching, playing, sucking and exploring things with their whole bodies. When you allow your daughter to be part of such a sensory activity as food preparation, she will receive just the stimulation she needs. And if you think about it, preparing and consuming food engages all five senses – sight, sound, smell, touch and, of course, taste – like few other activities.

On the other hand, if your daughter experiences mainly tinned or frozen food, she might reasonably assume that milk comes from a carton and carrots come from a freezer!

If both you and your partner are working, try to cook with your daughter on weekends and shop beforehand. If you live in the city, you could drive to the country now and then and visit a farm, so your daughter can see how vegetables are grown and harvested.

Don’t be too concerned about whether your child is eating enough – every healthy child eats exactly as much as she needs