Old School Learning

I was in the kitchen prepping a delicious vegetable dip when I remembered that I could use this as an activity or teaching moment.  So instead of just measuring ingredients and throwing them in the blender I started putting things into the measuring  cups and lining them up so it would look interesting to a two year old.  I grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the counter and called my son in with excitement saying "Ooh look what mommy has for you.  Do you want to help mommy?"  He ran over with excitement, mainly for being able to "push the button".  I had him pour each cup in one at a time and then he was given the task of turning on the blender.  In no time flat I taught my son how to help with cooking, the act of pouring, recognizing numbers (on the blender dial), and how to do things one at a time.  Not to mention, I got some cooking done.  It's nice to be able to take it back to the simple things when it is so easy to get overwhelmed and go overboard on new ways to teach the little ones.