Cooking Up Some Writing Practice

 

            Today's Snack: Make a calendar for the next month. On today's date, write down a type of food that begins with "a." That'll be your snack today! Applesauce? Asparagus spears dipped in ranch dressing? Whole almonds? You can get an "A" with a great start to a month of alphabet-ordered snacks.

 

--------------------

 

 

            For busy families looking for quick and easy ideas to help their children with brainstorming skills and writing and spelling skills, why not plan a month's recipes around the alphabet? Enlist your children to help record what's for dinner, and get some writing practice while learning a little about food and nutrition.

 

            Include your family favorites, and introduce some new foods, too. Brainstorm with your children. Look through cookbooks and online for recipes. You could feature a food that starts with a different alphabet letter for every day of the month - and since there are only 26 letters, you can go out to eat on the extra days, which everyone should be for!

 

            Your older children can write these words down on your kitchen calendar, and then write out the recipes and cooking instructions in a spiral notebook or set of recipe cards. It's excellent writing practice to record recipes since it is so important to get the quantities right. Provide a dictionary for your child to check the spelling of any unfamiliar words so that the recipe will be accurate.

 

Then when cooking time comes, you can all work together to prepare the ingredients and put it all together.

 

            Examples:

 

            A - asparagus

 

            B - buttermilk pancakes

 

            C - carrots

 

            D - dumplings

 

            E - eggplant

 

            F - French fries

 

            G - gelatin

 

            H - hamburgers

 

            I - ice cream

 

            J - jambalaya

 

            K - kebabs

 

            L - lentil soup

 

            M - meatballs

 

            N - noodles

 

            O - omelet

 

 

            . . . and so on.

 

            You'll enjoy having your special alphabetized recipe set. And next month, you can get a kick out of seeing the new foods your kids can find to keep up the pattern!