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Description
While you or another grown-up is pulling out ingredients for a meal, your child smells each one and tries to guess what you are making. A two-minute sensory ritual that turns meal prep into a moment of genuine curiosity and connection.
What to prep
- cooking_ingredients
Play guide
- 1As you gather ingredients for the meal, hold each one near your child and say - "Can you smell this? What does it remind you of?"
- 2Let your child sniff the item, then ask - "Do you think this goes in something sweet or something savoury?"
- 3After three or four ingredients, ask - "Can you guess what we are making?"
- 4If they guess correctly, celebrate it. If not, give one more clue - "It has noodles" or "It gets cooked in a pan."
- 5When the final dish is ready, connect back - "Remember when you smelled the ginger? That's what you can taste now."
Success signals
Your child leans in to smell each ingredient without being prompted after the first. They attempt a guess at the dish, even if wrong. At the meal, they point out or comment on an ingredient they recognised.
If it's tricky
Child pulls back from a strong smell (onion, fish sauce, chilli): Do not push - acknowledge it - "That one is pretty strong, isn't it?" and move to the next. Child is not interested in guessing and just wants to keep smelling things: That is fine - the sensory engagement is the point, not the right answer. Child wants to hold the ingredient themselves: Let them hold sturdy items (a carrot, a ginger root, a lime) but keep raw meat, raw eggs, and hot items with the adult.