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Booking and Cooking

When your unique household cooks, allow children to combine ingredients, mix, stir, and taste: Never eat raw or uncooked dough or batter. They also use the descriptive words of literature--nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs--to describe the what, how, where, and why, as well as the movements, textures, tastes, and feelings, associated with food and cooking.

This combination of cooking and books can be continued at home or during homeschooling. As morning pancakes are cooked, consider referring to Eric Carle's Pancakes, Pancakes (Simon & Schuster, 1990) or Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (Random House, 1976), or Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendack (Scholastic, 1976).  Buy or bake different kinds of bread after you read Bread, Bread by Ann Morris (Mulberry, 1989).

Literature and cooking experiences are limited only by your imagination and creativity. Use your child's food preferences as a starting place and expand the experiences from there. Discuss colors of foods that you cook or serve.

As in any other shared reading time, talking about the story is just as important as reading the book. Make comments about the plot as you read, helping connect events in the book to the child's life.  Ask questions that help your child think about the story.  Or read a child-friendly recipe together and prepare food item.  Discuss the math concepts--measurements, fractions, liquids, solids, too.

Connecting books with enjoyable family experiences--like cooking or conversation--sends your child the message that reading is fun for children and grown-ups, too.