Help Mom Cook
In the kitchen it is not only about stirring and pouring, but about waiting for a turn and sharing the space. The teamwork itself is the real challenge. The pictures below show who does what and when.
♀Stirring the bowl
A girl stirs a bowl with a spoon next to mom at a kitchen counter.
♀Cooking with mom
A girl with a whisk stands beside mom stirring a blue bowl in the kitchen.
♀Holding the bowl
A girl holds a bowl of vegetables while mom stirs a pot on the stove.
About this visual support
The kitchen is a small room where two pairs of hands have to share. Helping mom cook is less about being able to stir the pot and more about waiting until it is my turn, listening to an instruction and staying clear when the stove is hot. For many children it is exactly this social give and take that is the hardest part of the whole job.
With visual support the turn-taking becomes visible instead of something the child has to sense in the moment. When one picture shows mom chopping and another the child pouring in, both know whose turn it is without it having to be repeated again and again. That cuts down the collisions at the stove and turns the teamwork into something to lean on.
One concrete tip: give the child a step that comes after mom's, like sprinkling in the spice once the vegetables are chopped. Waiting gets easier when it has a clear end and a job of one's own that picks up right afterwards.
With the Routined app you can alternate mom's and the child's steps in the same routine, so it shows when it is time to wait and when it is time to act.