34614 Nutrition Activities for Preschoolers

I think the other reviewer missed the point of this book. Debby Cryer is an author who speciaizes in what is called "Active Learning", having collaborated on a series for children 1-5 on the subject, an entire book for each age. As a certified trainer of teachers who has developed a workshop on this topic, which centers on hands on activities to learn curriculum goals in Early Childhood, I found "Nutrution Activities for Preschoolers" to be exciting and plentiful of terrific ideas. The focus here is NOT on recipies. The focus is on how food can be used to help develop skills such as comparing and contrasting, clasification, critical thinking, etc. The idea, for example, of taking powdered soup, canned soup, and freshly made soup and letting the children prepare, taste, write about their experience and preferences(through dictation or experience charts), and discuss may seem prosaic, but in my experience, it is an idea rarely thought of by most Early Childhood teachers. The book is abundant with such engaging ideas and promotes a very "hands on" approach to exploring food as a means of exploring the world. One can find multicultural recipies elsewhere, and find ideas about "good nutrition" also in other places, but I have not found too many books that emphasize the many diverse activities that invite development of thought processes. For me this was a great find.