| Little Tikes News - An Interview with Lesley Waters | |
Top Tips from Lesley Waters for developing children’s passion for food: |
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| Q. | Can you tell us what the ‘Cookery Becomes Child’s Play with Little Tikes’ campaign is all about? |
| A. | With everyone leading such busy lives these days, many children just don’t get to experience the fun of being creative in the kitchen. This campaign aims to address this problem, by getting kids interested in cooking at a very young age through interactive role play. I think the Little Tikes Inside/Outside Cook ‘n’ Grill play kitchen is perfect for inspiring a passion for food and cookery. It has an ‘indoor’ kitchen on one side and a delightful ‘outdoor’ barbeque on the other, so the toy will appeal to both girls and boys with endless opportunities for ‘Mums and Dads’ role play.
At the risk of stereotyping girls and boys, I can just see the boys ‘outside’ on the stone patio, working the barbeque with its electronic starter and great cooking sounds, and the girls playing on the other side, preparing food in the kitchen, tidying dishes away in the dishwasher and handing sausages and burgers though the window! I loved my own toy kitchen, but I can’t help wishing I’d had one of these when I was small. This Little Tikes Kitchen really does give children a great idea of what it’s like to be in the kitchen for real and will certainly get their imaginations going. |
| Q. | Where can parents find out more about the campaign? |
| A. | General advice about the campaign can be found on www.littletikes.co.uk/food Parents will also be able to read my hints and tips on getting children interested in food and the kitchen and there will be some great ideas for recipes that parents and children can have fun making together. |
| Q. | How did you get so interested in and passionate about food? |
| A. | My passion for food came from cookery role play. I had a toy kitchen that was my pride and joy and I frequently had tea parties with my dolls and friends! I even remember making mud pies at my grandma’s house! She gave me this set of red plastic dishes – I played for hours in the garden simply making mud pies in these little red dishes.... I was just so happy! My sister and I also used to play in one of the rooms at my grandma’s house - she hung a curtain in the middle of the room and one
half of the room became a pretend kitchen and the other side, a ‘restaurant’. We used to love that game so much. As I grew older, I think my enjoyment of role play cooking simply went on to become a love of real food and real recipes. |
| Q. | How do you keep your own children interested in learning about food? |
| A. | When they were young, I made sure they had plenty of role play cooking toys to feed their imagination and now I encourage them to help me in the kitchen. This has taught them some basic cooking skills which I think encourages them to want to learn more. We do try to eat together as often as possible and if you have a TV in the kitchen a golden rule is to switch it off as soon as the food is ready to be enjoyed. As a parent, I also believe it is my responsibility to educate my children by talking to them about the importance of fresh fruit and vegetables and eating healthily. |
| Q. | What advice can you give parents keen to develop their children’s interest in food and cooking? |
| A. | I would encourage parents to play food-related role play games with their children to fuel their enthusiasm for food and cooking. Perhaps prepare a feast together using a toy kitchen, grab some paper plates and have a pretend tea party or posh dinner party. Let your children decide what’s on the pretend menu – it’s great to see what concoctions they come up with. I would also suggest going out to eat as a family and encouraging the children to try new dishes. Let them help you prepare meals and spend time making delicious food with them – choose recipes that involve plenty of stirring, tasting, mixing, measuring and mess! Just try and close your eyes to the mess – remember that they are learning, which is more important than having to clear up a few spills. When you really don’t have the time to let your kids get involved in the real meal, if you have a toy kitchen, ask the children to help you by ‘washing’ your (already washed) carrots etc in their own sink.Make a big effort with breakfasts at the weekend when you have more time and don’t have to worry about having enough time to clear up. Let your children help you make scrambled egg, fruit smoothies and so on. Also, from an early age encourage children to pour their own milk on cereal and let them butter their own toast... all these things encourage independence and they just seem to enjoy the experience of the meal so much more. |
| Q. | How about taking children ‘back to nature’ and showing them how to grow their own fresh produce? |
| A. | Yes, that’s definitely a good idea - giving kids a small patch of the garden in which to grow their own vegetables or fruit is a really fun way of encouraging healthy eating and an interest in fresh food. They’re sure to be thrilled when they pull up their first home-grown carrot or pick their very own runner beans and then see them used in the family meal!
If you don’t have a big enough garden to give your kids their own patch, why not look into getting together with some other families in your road or school and share an allotment. The parents can then take turns to tend it with the children. Of course, you can also grow things such as herbs, cress and tomatoes on a window sill or patio and if you use the ‘results’ in the children’s packed lunches, they can proudly show them to their friends.
One other suggestion is to take the family to ‘pick your own’ fruit farms – the kids always love going home with punnets full of strawberries or raspberries that they picked themselves. |
| Q. | And any tips for getting kids to eat vegetables? |
| A. |
My advice is to put mixed veggies in a bowl and let them help themselves – I find with my kids that if I put them on their plates they are less likely to eat their veg, but when they can help themselves, they seem to eat more! |
| Q. | Do you have any ideas on how you can tempt children away from sweets and chocolate when they want a treat? |
| A. | Introduce them to alternative snacks such as dried apricots, raisins, sticks of carrot, cucumber and pepper. Show them how to have fun making and eating simple healthy snacks, such as dips for fresh vegetables, toast cut into fun shapes with tuna and soft cheese or egg and cress toppings. |
| Q. | What are your family’s favourite foods / recipes? |
| A. | We eat quite a few pasta dishes as they are easy to put together using ingredients that I happen to have in the fridge. Shepherd’s
pie is a family favourite – particular my Moroccan version – and the great thing about shepherd’s pie is that you can hide a variety
of vegetables in the meat base or potato topping. We all like fish so I often make fish cakes or fish pie and as for puddings, if it’s sweet, they won’t say no! |
| Q. | And a final word? |
| A. |
I truly believe that giving children the chance to enjoy creative fun with toy kitchens and all the great accessories that are available these days, is the best way of encouraging them to be passionate about real food and real cooking as they grow older. Make sure they see how enjoyable cooking can be and include children in the preparation of food and decisions about meals from an early
age. Finally, always make food fun and NEVER turn mealtimes into a battle. |
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