親子廚房好處多 There are many benefits in parent-child kitchen

在許多家長眼中，廚房等同一個「孩童勿近」的小型戰場。但是，讓孩子一同參與烹飪、備料的過程，家長除了可同時教導孩子認識廚房環境、烹飪器具、食材等基本知識，孩子還能了解下廚的辛勞，甚至懂得珍惜食物。除此之外，還有一連串的好處數之不盡[1]：

1. 分化手指，開發五覺

手指分化能力是兒童期的孩子需要重點得到培養的一項能力，手指分化得好，有利於刺激大腦發育。孩子在洗菜、切菜、炒菜的過程中，雙收得到鍛煉，在解決各種小問題的時候動手能力會提高。同時在教孩子做菜的過程中，孩子還可以了解到各種食物的屬性，嘗試各種酸甜苦辣各種味道，有利於孩子「五覺」的開發。

2. 創意潛能開發

廚房就是最好的教室，食物就是最棒的教材，媽媽們可以透過道具或小遊戲，逐步訓練孩子使用餐具、刀具、試做簡易料理，引導孩子在玩樂之中輕鬆學習，並且鼓勵孩子嚐試食物在不同處理階段的味道、質地以及組合的多重性，以體驗天然作物帶給我們感官的享受。

3. 培養孩子的統籌自立能力

在做菜的過程中，孩子需要計劃要用甚麼原材料、調味料的數量等等，過程中差了調味料的數量差了分毫也會影響出來的味道。孩子的思考會越來越全面，統籌能力會越來越強，這些能力對孩子將來的工作也是有非常大的好處。

4. 培養親子關係

藉由烹飪過程，寶寶才有機會學會洗米、撕菜、切菜、捏飯糰等動作，如果寶寶不知道該怎麼做，也能促使他向父母發問，對口語發展都有不錯的幫助，且親子必須齊心協力在同一個環境中完成共同目標，對於情感連結也會帶來正面效果。

5. 學習與他人分享

父母不妨鼓勵孩子把自己的料理成果分享給其他家人與學校同儕。孩子會覺得自己成就了一件很不平凡的事，畢竟不是班上每一位同學都能做到同樣的事，還可同時促進人際關係，培養孩子學會分享的美德。[2]

Many parents treat kitchen as a ‘mini-battlefield’ where children cannot come in. But in the process of letting children join cooking and prepare ingredients, parents not only teach children basic knowledge about kitchen environment, cooking utensils and ingredients, but also let children understand how laborious when cooking so as to treasure food. Besides, there are countless benefits as follow:

1. Separate fingers and develop five sensations. The ability of separating fingers is a kind of skill that should be developed emphatically in childhood. If children can separate fingers well, it benefits children’s brain development. In the process of washing, cutting and stir-frying vegetables, children will be trained and their manipulative ability will be improved when solving small problems. In the process of teaching children how to cook, they can know the property of food and try five kinds of taste of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty, which is beneficial to develop five sensations.

2. Develop creativity. Kitchen is the best classroom and ingredients are the beat teaching materials. Parents can use props or games to gradually train children how to do simple cuisines used by tableware and knife tools so as to let children learn something with fun in games. Apart from that, parents should encourage children to taste food, feel the texture of food and try multiplicity of food combination in different food processing phases so that children can have enjoyment of sensation brought by natural food.

3. Develop children’s overall planning ability and self-care ability.In the process of cooking, children need to plan what ingredients should be used and what the quantity of seasoning is. Only little difference seasoning will influence the taste of food. In the process, children will gradually have a comprehensive thinking and improve overall planning ability, which is beneficial to work when they grow up.

4. Improve parent-child relationship. In the process of cooking, children have a chance to learn movements of washing rice, tearing vegetables, cutting vegetables and pinching rice balls. If children don’t know how to do these, they will ask parents, which is helpful to oral development. What’s more, cooking can bring positive effects to emotional connections because parents and children have to achieve the same goal shoulder to shoulder in the same environment.

5. Learn to share with others. Parents should encourage children to share the food made by themselves with family members or peer at school. It will make children feel they finish an extraordinary work and develop the merit of sharing.