Children are often far more capable than we give them credit for. When we give them our support and the time and materials to learn new skills, they thrive and surprise us with what they can accomplish.
Teaching children life skills from an early age is important to me both as an Early Childhood Educator and a mother. I want children to feel that they are a successful contributor to their own world – and to actually be one, too! The opportunity to prove that they can contribute to their own (and the whole family’s) well-being can have a positive effect on their self-esteem. When children develop self-esteem and feel good about themselves, they are set up for future success in everything from school to friendships.
One of the ways I offer my 3-year-old opportunities to build her self-esteem is by allowing her to help in the kitchen. When she helps with the daily food prep, she is learning valuable life skills while we enjoy making memories together. Yes, things get messy, and my patience is tested, but I’m learning to embrace the sticky situations.
While she’s not yet at a point that she can handle everything involved in making these breakfasts, she is quickly learning and becoming more capable every day. By letting her do what she can now, and having her take part in the process of preparing healthy food, it won’t be long before she’s able to take on all the steps herself.
Keeping as many healthy choices and dishes at a level she can reach herself makes a difference as to how much she can do on her own. As she learns to become more self-sufficient in the kitchen, an added bonus is that my life is getting a little bit easier as she starts to share in life’s daily responsibilities.
Hopefully, we’re setting the stage for a happy future of helpfulness!
Yogurt is one of our go-to ingredients for our daughter’s meals and snacks. We try to choose natural products, recently enjoying one from Hans Dairy’s small-scale Canadian family business.
My preschooler needs my help to retrieve some items that are too high in the fridge for her to reach, but otherwise she can collect the rest of the ingredients and assemble them.
To make a yogurt bowl, my daughter starts by scooping a small bowl full of yogurt. She then adds 2 drops of vanilla stevia sweetener or honey for a bit of sweetness and flavour. Then come the toppings she has chosen, such as hemp hearts, milled flax seed, chia seeds, bits of frozen or fresh fruit, cereal, or anything else from a dedicated basket in our pantry.
I was thrilled to find that freezer waffles have evolved so that there are now healthy options for quick toaster waffles that are made with hemp, flax, chia, buckwheat and other nutritious ingredients. Keeping these stocked in our house has saved many a late-running morning.
To make the waffles, my daughter retrieves them from our freezer and then (with my supervision) puts them in the toaster. While we’re waiting for it to pop up, she chooses her toppings, just like with a yogurt bowl, from the pantry. These are generally a variety of hemp hearts, chia seeds, and flax. When the waffle is toasted, she spoons yogurt onto it, adds the toppings, and drizzles with honey. Sometimes she will also add frozen fruit, or I will cut up some fresh fruit to top the waffle with.
Smoothies are a standard breakfast idea for good reason. Blending up fruits, veggies, grains, and more to be slurped up with a straw always ensures our daughter gets more nutrition into her.
While she’s not at a point to handle the blender all on her own, she can add all the ingredients herself and help to push the button to blend it all up. We often use ingredients like kale or other greens, yogurt, peanut butter, frozen and fresh fruit, rolled oats, and anything else our daughter would like to try that won’t break our blender.
While smoothies are a quick and easy breakfast to make and take on the run, some days even that is too much. When we’re really running late, keeping something quick in the house that’s ready to go can be a big help. Hans Dairy makes a delicious variety of pre-made smoothies that we’ve enjoyed as we run out the door to work and school.
I especially like that, as with all Hans Dairy’s products, they don’t contain any artificial sugars, flavours, colours, or preservatives. That’s not always easy to find in ready-to-go yogurt drinks. The smoothie ingredients are all sourced locally in Ontario, too. How cool is that?
English muffins are another item we like to keep stocked in our pantry for quick and easy breakfasts. Our headstrong three-year-old enjoys getting out the bag of muffins, toasting them, and spreading out peanut butter or honey (or both) with a butter knife. She then tops them off with unsweetened applesauce and gets me to help cut her creation into bite-sizes pieces.
There’s something to be said for keeping things simple. While “milk and cereal” may not seem a Pinterest-worthy breakfast idea, when it comes to helping children discover ways to successfully learn self-help skills, simplicity is nothing to sneer at.
The fact that our preschooler has been able to get herself this basic breakfast entirely on her own (as long as there is a bowl within reach) has been a blessing on several occasions – not the least of which is when I’m sick. I can see the pride on her face when she can get a wholesome cereal from the pantry, pull the milk from the fridge, and pour one after the other into her bowl.
Let me tell you, there is nothing boring about that smile.
Don’t feel like you should be making breakfast with your child every day. That’s certainly not what works for me. However, I do try to offer her the opportunity to learn life skills and experience the pride of being a capable person as often as I can.
Will you try, or are you already involving your preschooler in preparing their food? What are your family’s simple go-to breakfasts?