Just a few minutes ago Elijah was busy helping me make cranberry sauce. He was doing an excellent job washing cranberries, stirring the pot, adding ingredients, etc. I went upstairs for a minute and when I came back he said “Mama, I added a tiny bit of this (cinnamon) so it will be reeeeeallly good!” Well, adding things on his own may be a sign of culinary greatness to come, but for now, it is expressly forbidden in our kitchen. He knows it. I thought it was time to drive the point home. So I took a little bit of cranberry sauce and put it in a bowl. Then I got some salt out, and asked him to imagine he decided to add some of it to the pot of cranberry sauce. I poured about a tablespoon of it into the tablespoon of cranberry sauce and stirred it up. Then I let him give it a lick, which he eagerly did. Wow, did his expression change! “This is DISGUSTING!!!!” I hope my point was taken.
December 17th, 2009 at 5:10 am
LOL– I LOVE this post! good work using those natural teaching moments, Kirstie. btw, how did the cranberry sauce taste with the cinnamon in it?
December 17th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Luckily, cinnamon tastes great in cranberry sauce! So that was no problem. But I have caught him on several occasions picking up the salt container to add some seasoning to a dish, so it was a good time to teach a lesson! I wish every little problem presented such an easy teaching opportunity!