Get the children cooking

Winter half-terms are great for spending time in a warm kitchen and letting children do some cooking.

We'll be reviewing Cook it step by step from Dorling Kindersley but in the meantime have made good use of the colourful spatula and the Alphabet & Number Cutters from Apollo Housewares which are great fun to use as well as having educational value not only with number and letter recognition but, as children get older, spelling and sums with tasty treats for answers!

The Alphabet & Number Cutters are the perfect size for small hands, are easy to use, come in blue, green, red and blue and are easily cleaned. Plus they have a plastic "bucket" to keep them in.

Cooking is a very practical way of demonstrating maths – weighing and measuring – as well teaching children about nutrition and the importance of a balanced diet.

Lots of fussy eaters become less so when they prepare the food themselves!