I love cooking, upon reflecting on my work I have now realised how often I have used cooking in many of my work with individuals and families.
When I first started working in schools, I was starting to test out new ideas for recess and lunch times. In the early days, I did scone making as a recess activity. There was a huge turn out, so many children, that I realised I needed more scones ready for lunchtime for everyone to eat.
I ended up using my one on one sessions during the day making more scones.
Then I started Cooking with Claire, a parent-child cooking program which I facilitate in two primary schools. It was 8 sets of one parent and one child, cooking a meal together and then taking it home to eat with the whole family at night around the dinner table. I bought 8 gas camping burners from Bunnings and carted them around the different schools I worked at.
I used cooking to support children struggling with school attendance, we would cook carbonara or cupcakes together on a Friday.
A child with high anxiety struggled to attend school assembly and wouldn’t eat during the day, so I bought fantastic noodle cups for him to eat after assembly. The next year, when he moved into another year level the wellbeing leader continued to provide noodle cups to the child, it was a real positive for him.
I have used cupcake decorating to support girls with their development of self-identity, self-expression and self-confidence. They could decorate the cupcake any way they wanted, and afterward would have a photo shoot with them and their cupcake. The photos would then be preserved in personalised photo albums.
When it came to supporting families with children who only eat toast, have issues with nutrition and constipation I started to focus on what the research was saying, that children need 8-15 exposures to a food before they feel comfortable around it. The exposure isn’t eating the food or tasting it, it’s seeing it, feeling it, playing with it, smelling it, using all their senses to experience the food.
I wanted tools that I could provide to families to support them on their food exposure journey.
First came the 5 Senses Food Discovery A3 Placemat For 'Unsure (fussy) Eaters'- Digital Download
Then came social stories around foods and story boards that could be used in homes, classrooms or in professional settings.
Families and I would go on adventures food picking, to see food grow in its natural habitat, look at the colours, smells, feels of the fruit. It was fun! Food exposure can be fun, well at least I want it to be fun for families.
The next resource has multiple benefits- food exposure, more play, more fun, developing a child's competence, skills and confidence, building the bond between child and carer, sharing of family knowledge and recipes, an opportunity for creativity and feeling more comfortable around different foods.
Personalised Food Fun Let's Play Book (Digital Download) includes exposures with food three ways- play with food, small steps to preparing meals, toddler friendly dinner recipes. Even though it says toddler, this Food Fun book is awesome with children as well!
There are also mindfulness breathing cards that are food inspired...
