Little Bunny Learns to Play... Piano!

C has been watching the elder brother practicing his piano at home, in piano class, and occasionally she likes to disturb him just to annoy him; like tapping his keys, turning off the power supply... Cheeky girl, she is.

She had never shown interest in learning piano, despite I have asked her few times, she always just shook her head and walks away.

Until last week.

C suddenly asked me.. "Mommy, why only koko (the brother) gets to go piano class, why I don't get to learn piano?"

"You like piano too?"

"YES! I want to play by myself!"

So we took her for a trial class at the same music center, I can tell that she was excited. Kept rushing us to leave the home ("Quick, mommy! I am going to be late for my class!"), greeted the teacher upon arrival (she is usually very shy) and I noticed she was holding the hands at all time - sign of nervous or excited.

To my pleasant surprise, my cheeky girl who has short attention span sometimes, listened attentively to all the instructions and performed everything as the music teacher told her. Tapping her fingers (do-re-mi-fa-so), counting the notes (semi-breve, minim, crochet)... She did all as requested and even memorized bass claf and treble claf. 

Well done, girl!

Now that we have signed her up for one term, let's hope her passion will not cease... *fingers crossed*

Second class, still on full attention mode, learnt her first song.

E started his first music lesson at the same age too - 4.5yo, and he is now preparing for his level 2 exam. He truly loves music and often plays the songs he heard on radio. Learning piano is not about getting the certificate, but there are much larger benefits than that.. You may read my earlier post here:

Fun with music - Let's Play Piano!

May the music always flows in your heart, my sweetest C.

Xoxo,

PH



Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

DIY Home Recycle Station

The little ones have been learning about importance of recycling at preschool, and we too had been recycling our items as much as possible to reduce wastage. I bring a cloth bag for grocery shopping and occasionally bring our old papers / clothes / plastic bottles for recycling - as and when I'm not too lazy.

I thought we were doing sufficient at our personal level, until I watched a recent documentary program about this village in Japan that actually recycled over 92% of its waste... that is one amazing effort! They even setup stores for people to exchange their unwanted items, such as clothes, cutlery, household items etc (basically one person's junk can be another person's treasure, isn't it?) to further reduce unnecessary wastage. The philosophy is simple - one day our Earth will be too full of junk, where are we going to evacuate all the rubbish we leave behind? To the third world countries? To the outer space? We will run out of clean living space, not in the next 10 years but definitely sooner than we know... 

The documentary got me thinking.. I'm sure the average Malaysian households produce way more wastage than that (I doubt if we even achieved 10% of recycle rate on overall). If we don't start doing something about it, it will only get worse.

So I had the idea of setting up our very own recycling station at home, using this abandoned cloth hanger that had been sitting idle in our backyard.

This is it, our cheap & no-frill DIY recycling station.

I placed a plastic sheet over it so it can blocks of rainwater while function as a green house for my hanging plants (mint, money plants etc). They are so growing well and hanging them in the front row actually beautify the place too.

Here's what we have at the recycling station.

The light plastic baskets (RM5.30 from daiso) allow visibility and do not collect stagnant water nor result to smell. Once the baskets are full, we just move them to our car boot and drop the items off at the collection centre. Easy peasy. 

For the food scrap, I collect them in a separate bin (at the bottom) to make compost for my garden. I'm newbie to composting but I can always learn to improve, so there's no excuse of "I don't know how". At least now our food scraps (especially all the fruits or veggie fiber after juicing, those are super nutrients for the soil!) don't go to waste anymore..

I have been training E and C to sort out the rubbish according to their place, including the envelopes from our daily mails. This has really reduce the actually amount of real rubbish in our thrash bin, and the duo are feeling proud of themselves. :-) 

That's all about our little recycling station, please do begin one at your home of space allow, for the betterment of ourselves and our next generation. 

Besides, if you have any suggestion to make this works even better, I would really love to hear from you! ;-)

Cheers,

PH




Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Money Matters} Money Concept for the Little Ones

During my early childhood, I was quite a blur kid who had no understanding of money value. I just knew I must not simply spend as those were my old pa's hard earn money and I had my piggy bank to save my extra allowances, but other than that I was clueless how to conserve or make good use of my money. I learnt to manage my money and investing them only after I started my first job, some how school did not and still does not teaches money management, and in my opinion it would be too late to wait till college years. So, I decided to take this matter into my own hands and starts my little ones early.

After much research, reading and applying with my little boy, I am happy to share the tips on teaching money concept to the young kids.

Here's how we did in our family.

First, be friend with numbers

#1 Begin with numbers & counting.

How can a child understand money matters without knowing how to count 1,2,3 and simple addition or subtraction? So, start with counting with fingers, small pebbles, beans, biscuits etc, everyday objects can be the counting tool. Even Cherios cereal. :)

Then we made cards to teach them simple counting. 1+1, 1+2, 1+3, 1+4, 1+5, then proceed to 2+1, 2+2, 2+3, 2+4, 2+5. We never rushed it when my little boy was under 4 years old, just kept the counting under 5, and only 1 set of numbers at a time. When he is used to the concept of addition only we gradually introduced him to larger number like 6,7,8,9,10.

#2 Introduce them to coins and notes

When my little one was around 2-3 years old, we used coins for sorting game; 5¢, 10¢, 20¢ and 50¢ all comes in different sizes. Then I introduced them the value of each coins, which is more and which is less. Notes can wait till 4yo onward, you know, when I have the assurance that they are not interested in tearing paper anymore.  :)

#3 Get a piggy bank, cultivate habit of saving

Start by learning to save and that the money saved can be used to buy things they like, so in a way it's delay gratification - they have to wait till it's time to get their reward. 

I give my little boy whatever coins I had in my pocket when I got home from work, and he will happily drops the coins into his piggy bank. 

I used to own those traditional porcelain coin boxes when I was a child, and every new year eve my mom will break the coin box with a hammer, I would then excitedly count my fortune and bring them to the bank. I still recall those moments when I peeked into my bank book balance and feeling happy that I just got richer. :)

** never leave the little ones alone with the coins as they can be chocking hazard **

  

Make it Fun

#4 Introduce books & number games

We got few sets of books and card board games at home. From the puzzle maths game from Toy R' Us, to the book / games on concept of Money as part of our Phinken education series. All these trained little ones to do mental arithmetic where counting is done without using paper & pencil. It took time to train but we always make it fun.

#5 Monopoly! What better games to introduce concept of money to little ones than using the good old monopoly game? Apart from the classic game, there is a children version and also localised Malaysian version (with name such as Kedai Telekom or Indah Water). Whichever your choice is, Monopoly is a great game to teach the concept of money (buying, selling), basic of investment (property renting, upgrade, tax etc), and that life is full of uncertainties (the Chance and Community cards, arrgg... I always have bad luck with those!)

My little boy loves the Monopoly game and he is a much prudent investor than I am - he will count the amount of cash he has on hand and choose the property selectively. Soon he will be a smarter investor than the parent (or I certainly hope so) 

Make it REAL

#6 Take them grocery shopping

Prepare a shopping list, write down clearly what are the items to purchase and the quantity. Let little one picks each item for you. It's a good chance to teach basic skill like reading the price tag, checking the label for the expiry date; It also gives the little one a sense of responsibility by helping to carry out the chores and understand the value of our groceries. 

My boy will be helping to "hunt" the listed item whenever we do our grocery shopping, it's like a mission to him. From rather lost and slow in the beginning, he is now having better understanding of each section (the supermarket's layout) and can locate the items much faster. Each time he cross out an item on the grocery list, he was grinning in pride. :)

#7 Get them a wallet

What better way to empower by entrusting little one with a wallet? Yup, I made a kid's wallet for my little boy, completed with coin, card and notes compartments. Of course you can always buy one for your child. The point is, let him feel the ownership & responsibility of looking after his own money. I let him pay for simple purchases like bread, a doughnut etc, where only small change are involved and he only has about RM$7 in there - mixture of RM$1, RM$5, and coins. Initially he was rather nervous, but he is getting much at ease now that he is able to handle the counting a lot better. 

So, that is all about it, folks. The tips on teaching money concept for young kids. 

If you have successfully introduced all the above to your little ones, continuously teach them to handle money matters in real life. It is better they make mistakes early in life under our guidance, than making mistakes later in life when it is beyond our knowledge, right? 

Do share with me on the methods you apply with your kiddos, I would love to hear from you!

Cheers.

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Book Review} How Did That Get In my Lunchbox?

When the batch of new books I ordered for my duo arrived, I fell in love with this pictorial book the moment I read it, How Did That Get In My Lunchbox? The Story of Food by Chris Butterworth, illustrated by Lucia Gaggiotti.  I knew my duo, especially my little captain who is 5yo now will be interested with the topics covered.

I was right. He was hooked onto the book instantly and kept asking me to read more with him that very evening we got the book.

Look at the lovely drawings of food and little kids around the world. Which little ones would not be attracted?

It started with a colorful illustration of a lunch box comprises of a cheese sandwich, a choc chip cookie, some tomatoes, carrots, clementines and a packet of apple juice. Something I regularly packed for my kiddos or serve for their breakfast, so I know they can easily connect to this book.

I love the illustrative explanation on the processes. Not too wordy or overly elaborative, just enough to let the kids understand where the food originated (from the tree, cow, farm etc), and what sort of processes it gone through (pressing, extraction, sorting, packaging etc) before it became what it was or get to where it was.

Like, how the apples on the apple tree turned into packets of juice.

Or, how was the cheese produced? My little captain was especially interested in this page as he loooooooove cheese like a mouse. Kept coming back to this page and asked me to explain each step.

It's a light paper back with only 32 pages, but full colored and not a single page of dullness. So I would strongly getting this book for your preschoolers, as they can easily associate with the content and have a good understand of how the food value chain works, hence can better appreciate the food that is packed in their lunch box - it's a result of hardwork from many people involved, not as easy as just picking them from the air-conditioned convenient store. This book reminded me of the TV series "How It's Made?" on Discovery channel, one of my favorite late night shows (err... when I used to have time for my own TV Programme.)

This book will be ideal for 4 years old onward (assisted reading), but for younger toddler like my baby C, the  pictures make it a fun book for story telling too (just make sure they won't tear the pages apart...)

Interested in this book? Check out any of the following websites..

Scholastic Malaysia

Book Depository   (5% off and worldwide delivery!) 

Amazon.com

Happy reading!

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Fun with Leaves.. A walk in the garden

I took a day off from work for some errands today and I managed to settle the stuff earlier than expected. Since the weather was nice and not too hot, I invited my duo to join me for a walk in the garden, and we picked some leaves and rocks along the way. 

Don't you just love the vibrant greens?

I then requested baby C to sort out the leaves by sizes, from smallest to largest. She happily obeyed as this was something new to her, and new is always fun.

Next we got a bowl of water and taught them the concept of weight and gravity, heavy and light.. Naturally only the rock sink... The duo were busy running around picking more leaves to see which float which doesn't. Good exercise for them to burn the energy.

I could have used a big bucket but it may be too messy (imagine water splashing every where!) and a bit dangerous if my girl starts playing with big bucket unsupervised. So, small bowl it is for now.

What did we do with the leaves later? I pad dried them and glued them onto a piece of paper with the help of my little captain, then I drew a big heart and called it the heart of life. He continued to draw all the tiny objects around the big heart and colored them. I quite like the final outcome despite it's really just a random piece of work.

A simple, relaxing afternoon with the little people I love, and I certainly hope they remember what they have learnt today. 

Guess we may do this again on weekend with our mini wadding pool this time... can't wait!

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Book Review} MK Junior Encyclopedia!

My little Captain received this MK Junior Encyclopedia as his birthday present last year, and gosh, how he enjoys reading this book over and over again. It's a really interesting book and I would like you to know why..

MK Junior Encyclopedia

So, What Do We Like about this Book?

Firstly, the book cover comes with a 3D layer where the images "move" as you tilt the book. It captures the kiddos' interest before they even reading it's content.

It's full colored and full of interesting picture and illustration to keep the kids interested. The content is brief and layout makes it interesting & easy to read for the little ones - not too wordy, not too dry. It has many "Quick Facts" and "Fun Quiz" on each chapter that my little Captain really likes. 

Apart from the colorful print, it covers quite a vast topic from Mysterious Space, Deadly Dinosaurs, Active Earth, Wild Weather, Ancient Egypt, Birds & Mammals, Knights & Castles, Super Science; there is surely a topic or two that your little ones will like.

If there is one thing that I dislike about this book, it's the weight. It is really thick and heavy and I guess it weigh nearly 1kg. So don't bother bringing it for travel, just keep it at home. However, most encyclopedia are thick and bulky, aren't they? ;-)

A few of my little Captain's favorite chapters..

• Mysterious Space.  The Sun, the moon, the planet Earth. The stars, the galaxy... We started on this chapter and my boy was hooked instantly that he refused to sleep just so that he can read the entire chapter! He was able to name all the planet and even gave the daddy a quiz over dinner the next day, testing if daddy knows what is the smallest planet in the galaxy (the answer? Mercury. Pluto was once the smallest planet until it's disqualified as a planet).

Learning about Earth

• Deadly Dinosaurs. Which kids not fascinated by these huge mammals that longer exist? Why dinosaurs died? can dinosaurs fly? Why are the front legs so tiny? My little Captain had ton of questions and I'm just glad that answers are available in the book! ;-)

• Active Earth. How is ocean created? What caused to volcano? Where does the lava came from? Things that I don't know how to explain precisely till I have this book which provide the illustration to better explain it. 

Comes with suggested activities in each chapter

• Ancient Egypt. Pyramid, Sphinx, Pharaoh, mummies, Nile, anthologist are what this chapter is about. He learnt about Pyramid, Sphinx & Nile river from the Little Einstein series when he was about 2.5 yo, so when he saw the word "Egypt" in the table of content he was so excited and requested to jump to this chapter directly. He kept making noise as we were on this chapter... "Look, the Nile river! where the naughty crocodile lives!", "The Pyramid, just like the one in the Little Einstein!". 

Bedtime was so much fun, thanks to this encyclopedia.

How to get kids interested in reading?

Some of my friends complained their kiddos do not like reading, only likes to flip the pages but no patient in reading... here's some of the techniques I deployed.

Make it RELEVANT
Kids will be more interested if they read about something that they can relate to. For example what makes my little boy so fascinated about the Dinosaur chapter? We got him few small dinosaur figurines as his bath toys, one of which is T-Rex and another that we named it "Spiky". He was so excited when he saw his dino appeared in the book and be able to learn more about them.

Make it FUN! 
Don't read the encyclopedia word by word. Make it alive like you have all these objects right in front of your eyes, read with excitement and expression. Get the kiddos enter the world of imagination with you and you may be amazed how much they enjoy reading.

Make it a CHALLENGE!
Many toddlers love challenge or race, they have the urge to proof that they are not small kids anymore and that they know things. So, after reading each chapter just give an instant quiz, you may have an excited kid who may try so hard to find the answer and keep asking for more quiz. Start with an easy one, like, what is the hottest star in the Solar system?

You may read the review of the book here, and our copy was purchased from Popular bookstore.

Happy reading!

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Funny Science... Fizzy Balloons!

We're doing some simple deco for the party, rainbow colored balloons are one of them. Instead of blowing the balloons we decided to have fun science experienment, using baking soda and vinegar.

When you put the two ingredients together they generate carbon dioxides, which then fill up the ballon. Same technique is applied to making school volcano project (learnt that when watching Art Attack!)

It's easy, all you need is:

• big cup of vineger (I used rice vineger)

• few teaspons of baking soda

• a used milk container (I would suggest to use a smaller container next time)  

• a funnel

The ingredients & tools. Fill the vineger in the empty container and add few teaspoons of baking powder into each balloons using the funnel. Drop the soda into the vineger once you have the balloon secured onto the opening of the container.

The duo anxiously watching the balloon expanding...

Perhaps the soda I used had been kept too long, the mixture did not create enough gas to fill up the balloons, but still we had some good laugh. The duo were super excited when they heard the fizzy sound and kept chanting "ballon grow! Ballon grow!" as they watched the balloon expand.

What's a party without some pretty balloons? We made 2 dozen of them in rainbow colors, consistent with the birthday theme.

Perhaps next time we may consider making volcano instead, who knows? :) thanks to this site that gave the idea on this fun activity http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2012/05/fizzy-balloons/

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

  

Grow a Plant: The Magical Beans!

I do not have green hands, plants I tried to grow when we stayed in condominium often ended up drying and eventually died. Even we have moved to landed few years back, we have people who helped to take care of our lush gardens. Until recently that I started my interim career break, I decided to take up the gardening myself and even bold enough to try planting some vegetables and flowers.

Why give myself such challenge? You may wonder. 

Well, first of all I would like my kiddos to understand and respect the livings and the wonder of our Mother Earth. like to proof that I am not poison Ivy and I CAN really grow something without killing them.. 

So among my picks, are these little French beans. They grew so fast that amazed all of us, including my little captain, who excitedly check up the growth every morning and reports to the father.

There was nothing in the first 2 days. I prepared the soil, some red soil with composed organic soil, dug 5 holes about 1" deep each 2" apart, then dropped 5 beans into each hole, covered up and follow by some water. Then I left them under the sun, with a netting over to protect them from birds.

On day 3, there's where the surprise came. They sprout! Some tiny purplebean stouts popped out from the soil.

On day 4, the purple shell dropped, they have now grew 2cm taller, within just a day!

On day 6, continued to grow at such an amazing pace! I got few gardening poles to give each of them the much needed support later. Sprinkled some organic fertilizer to give them the extra nutrition too (since I grow them in a pot instead of on the ground) 

On day 15, they are starting to creep up the pole, one couldn't made it probably I injured the root as I shifted some of these plants. Soon I will need to tie up a horizontal pole for the stem to grow side ways instead of up up up (to the sky? I wish!)

The printing on the packaging says it will be ready for harvest in 2-3 months, so we shall see.

As I am resuming work next week, I hope I can continue to find time to care after these little plants and gather our harvest one day..

Grow a Plant: Home Grown Vegetables

Last August, little captain and I planted some sunflowers and till today he still remembers it. From that experience, he learnt the responsibility of caring after a life, and that sun, water and fresh air are essential for the living plants. You may read more about it here, http://funwithlittleones.blogspot.com/2012/08/grow-plant-together.html.

Now that I have some times at home, I decided to start planting some edible vegetables instead, on top of the herbs we already have. We can have some fresh veges and little one can learn a thing or two about gardening (not that I know a lot, but at least i am giving it a try..)

So here is the pot we used filled with some black soil (mixed with composed, bought from nursery). We loosened the soil with a spade, sprinkled some seeds randomly and watered sparingly.

Some of the seeds we got. Planning to get more pots once we have success in the baby Pak Choy.

Day 2.

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Day 3.

After the evening rain the day before, we noticed a lot of saplings sprouting! The joy of new life. 

Day 4.

I re-planted some of the plants to give adequate space to grow, and added a layer of netting to protect them from birds  that are frequent patrons in our garden. Little one helped to water and search for stones to serve as weight for the net.

Day 7

They had grown slightly. Time to put some organic fertilizer...

In the meanwhile, I planted a pot of Kai Lan and some Salvia seeds in the garden too. Will these little plants survived and eventually grow into beautiful green veges or flowers? We certainly hope so!

Latest update on day 20 (+- 2 days), looking good, aren't they?

 Look up for more updates!

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content

Little One's First Cooking Experience! 小哥哥初次下厨

Little Captain was always keen to help up in the kitchen since turning 2+. He has been helping to knead the cookies, whisk a batter, decorate cupcake; small chores, but often brought him tons of joy and sense of achievement. Kids of this age, says 3 to 5, loves helping up and want to be treated like a big kid, being able to do so actually boosts their confident and gives some feel-good points.

So I had been thinking to let him try out cooking, something simple so he can get a feel how it is like to handle the pan and stove. When we walked passed the kitchen supplies corner in a hypermarket, he saw the small frying pan and kept telling me those are the right size for him (at home I only have medium to large pans). Knowing that he was genuineing  interested, I helped him picked a right size pan, with heated protected handle and non stick coating.

Upon reaching home, he just couldn't wait to start cooking right away, he put on his apron, washed his hands and told me he's ready. I was so amused but did not laugh at him as that would probably put him off.

I decided to let him try making one of the simplest dishes - omelette. It's the one fail-proof dish with such simple steps:

1. cut it

2. cook it

3. flip it

4. serve it!

Here he was, learning to crack an egg, pour the milk, add seasoning and beat the egg with a kid-size whisker.

I let him cut a slice of the honey glazed ham using a butter knife and add into the egg mixture. 

I then heat up the pan and pour the oil for him, it's too dangerous for him to handle fire and gas yet. However I let him poured the egg mixture and count 20x before flipping it.

It's not easy to refrain him from poking the omelette with the spatula before it's ready, but I let him be since it's part of learning. Eventually I helped him to flip the omelette after few tries without success. Asked him to count another 20x before transferring the omelette onto a plate.

Ta-da, the omelette is done! Easy peasy, as my little Captain said it.

The lesson did not end here.. I let him wash up after cooking (just the bowl and whisker, not the pan and knife), and clean up his hands properly.

Finally, he got to enjoy his own cooked omelette. You can bet how happy and satisfied he was although it's such a simple food. 

So, what is the motive of teaching a little boy to cook? Some may ponder, especially for the male friends who think cooking is a girl's thing.

Well, cooking is an essential skill in life since we eat everyday.  Most importantly, learning the cooking process has several benefits as I see it:

• learn to understand instructions and execute them in the right order. This trains good communication and understanding skills which are 2 of the key skills required to excel in school or work.

• understanding the complexity of cooking lets them appreciate the food better. They know hardwork is involved in producing the yummy food on the table and will not be wasteful on food.

• understand how things work and learn to be independent. I once had a girl friend who did not knew that she had to pour oil before frying an egg, and she was 13 then. I would very much like my little ones to be able to do things on their own instead of being dependant on others all the time. So supervised cooking provides a good learning ground.

Important!

• Please note that real cooking has its danger, eg risk of getting burn or cut, so 100% adult supervision is required and I would strongly recommend to do this only when you are certain that your little one is ready.

• Besides be prepared to cook at 2x slower speed and you may have 2x cleaning up to do too. I'm not joking about this..

• To ensure food hygiene, make sure little ones wash their hands and wear an apron while working on the food.

That's all folks, do let me know your cooking experience with your little ones too.., I'll be interested to know. *wink*