Teaching Your Kids Valuable Food Lessons via Pretend Play Toys

Teaching Your Kids Valuable Food Lessons via Pretend Play Toys

Are you always looking for a few different ways to teach your kids new lessons while making things a bit more fun for them? One great way to get your kids to have fun with something other than the electronics is to purchase pretend play toys. There are many different things children can do with these toys to keep them occupied and learning for hours. Instead of allowing your little ones to spend time on video games to keep them entertained, consider buying items that will make imaginative fun possible.

The Next Master Chef in Your Home

Have you ever watched Master Chef with your kids? If they have watched it with you several times, they may be interested in copying what they see. Although your little ones may be a bit too young to start cooking meals in your kitchen, they can always pretend they are preparing meals using a kid’s wooden kitchen. There are several companies that have designed these wooden pieces to look like an exact replica of a real kitchen. In fact, you may want to buy one that comes equipped with an artificial stove, microwave, pots, pans and utensils. Some of the adorable options even come with an oven door, baking rack and a fake faucet.

After you buy the kitchen itself, you may need to get some plastic play food. Most toy stores sell these kinds of plastic treats. If you have trouble finding them in the stores, a simple search online will help you find exactly what you need to go with the kids play kitchen. As soon as you have everything the children will need, simply show everything to them and allow them to start using their imagination.

You may want to get involved while the kids are having fun. For example, you could ask one of them to prepare you a healthy meal. They will need to figure out which ingredients go into that meal. It helps them figure out the importance of understanding the ingredients that are used in different dishes while allowing them to have a good time pretending. In fact, you can even use the food play as an opportunity to cook healthier together. While you are making dinner for the night, the little ones can act like they are helping you out and become more involved with the meals you make.

Healthy and Unhealthy: Understanding the Differences

Some kids are too young to understand why certain things are not exactly the best for them to eat. If you have picky eaters who often get upset when they see vegetables or even anything new on their plates, playing a sorting game with the plastic food is a great idea. If you want to follow this idea while making it fun for the children, you will need to gather the pretend play toys together and ask the kids to sort the healthy stuff apart from the ones that are unhealthy. Each piece of food that the kids put into the right category gives them an extra point. Turn it into a fun and slightly competitive game by telling each child that the one who gets the most points will win a special prize.

After they have separated the different items, explain what makes them healthy and what makes them unhealthy. For example, a burger may be greasy and loaded with toppings that add calories while a piece of fruit is natural, does not contain additives and provides lots of vitamins for the human body.

Use the Kid’s Wooden Kitchen to Play House/Grocery Store

As an adult, you have the responsibility of figuring out the weekly grocery budget while compiling a list of things you need to get and then heading off to the grocery store to get everything for the week. However, your children may not know how much time and effort you put into planning everything out. Now you can teach the little ones what it is like to be an adult. You may want to give them some fake spending money. Once they know what their “budget” is, they can start creating their own shopping lists.

While they are creating their lists, place the pretend play toys on a table and mark each of them with a specific price. As soon as they are ready, pass around some reusable shopping bags and have them pick out the items that are on the list. You may want to act like you are the cashier or have one of the other children pretend that they are the cashier. The person who chooses to act like the cashier will need to make sure that each shopper has enough of the fake money to cover the cost of the food items they have in their bag.

Using the kids play kitchen for pretend shopping teaches the children important lessons about spending money. If they do not have enough money, they are unable to get certain items. It shows them exactly how important it is to create a budget and stick to it as much as possible. They may also have a much better understanding of how much effort you truly put into the food shopping process.

Faux Restaurant Employee

Even if the kids are still young, it is never too early to teach them the importance of providing excellent customer service. After all, they are going to need to learn how to work well with others if they want to hold down a job in the future. Use food play as an opportunity to get your children to pretend they are working at a healthy restaurant. You may want to pretend to be a customer who hands over some cash while awaiting your change for a fresh and tasty meal. It is a good game that will keep the children distracted for several hours while they take turns being both the employee and the customer.

These are just a few of the many fun things you can do with your children while you focus on teaching them valuable lessons that involve food and eating healthy. There are tons of different pretend play toys to choose from that you may want to start buying for the kids so they can begin participating in these activities with one another.