Teaching Children to Measure Ingredients
The secret to a successful measuring lesson is to make it non-threatening. That means you need to do it in a way that keeps you from threatening your little one. Have your early lessons outside or spread out a plastic sheet on the floor if you're worried about mess. Consider doing it in the high chair if your child still uses one.
Practice measuring things that don't matter, like water or rice. They're easy to clean up. Give your child a small, unbreakable container to hold the item you want to measure. Let him practice pouring it into a plastic measuring cup. Use the ones that are a specific size at first. Tell your child what size the cup is. "Here's the rice. Can you measure a third of a cup of rice? If you fill it right to the top, it will be one third, because this is a one-third measuring cup." With toddlers, just let them play at scooping and pouring. Tell them the measuring cup size periodically. "Wow! You did a great job filling that half-cup." In time, they will know which measuring cup is which size.
When they're getting pretty good at it, teach them how to level off the cup using a plastic knife or a popsicle stick.
Once you're ready to do real measuring, pick a day when you're feeling calm and unconcerned about mess, because there will be some.
Measuring spoons are harder to use, but again, use water or salt, or something else unimportant to practice with. Just keep mentioning what size spoon is being used and soon your child will recognize them by sight.
KitchenAid Cook For The Cure Measuring Tool Set, Pink
