What Lasagna Love is teaching my toddler
I don’t know about you mamas, but at the beginning of this pandemic I was feeling helpless amidst the COVID19 craziness. Completely, totally helpless. And I went through my fair share of coping mechanisms (ice cream, wine, binge-watching Netflix... to name a few). And while those felt good in the moment, they didn’t actually make me feel any better in the long term. I also realized I was unintentionally teaching my three-year-old those coping mechanisms (I think she ate more cookies in a single week than she had in her entire lifetime...). I wanted her to learn positive ways to handle uncertainty and stress. Heck, I wanted me to learn those things!
So, I started thinking: what actually makes me happy? And the answer was surprisingly clear: cooking, and helping people. As most of you know, that week in April Cimorene and I started making lasagnas. We cooked them in our tiny rental kitchen and gave them away to families who were struggling from the impact of COVID19. But what started as a way of me coping with my own feeling of helplessness has actually become an amazing learning opportunity for Cimorene, beyond learning a positive way to cope.
1. It’s teaching her numbers and basic math. I try to make sure that in everything we do together, there’s some knowledge or skill that we’re building. I’ve found that I learn best by experience, and I think that might be true for many children as well. When Cimorene and I cook together, we talk about it. She counts the number of lasagna noodles for each layer. She knows the ratio of eggs to tubs of ricotta. She’s even starting to understand basic addition and subtraction – if we’ve already added X eggs, and we need Y total, how many more do we need? For older kids the concepts might be more complex, but there’s enough math in cooking to stretch even my brain. Try converting grams of flour to cups of flour – without the help of Google – if you’re trying a European recipe!
2. It’s teaching her patience and coordination. Let me tell you, spreading meat sauce and ricotta cheese evenly in a pan is a great motor skill challenge for a three-year-old. While her first attempt back in March looked like, well, a toddler’s work of art, this last week I was impressed at how even the layers were. Not only that, but her (and Moseah’s) ability to sit still through the chopping, mixing, and layering without getting bored is a tremendous skill in and of itself. Do they snack on a boatload of mozzarella to keep them occupied? Yup. But then again, so do I.
3. It’s teaching her the importance of contribution. My mom instilled in me from a very young age a desire to help others. I don’t think she ever said explicitly “Rhiannon, this is important”. She just… did it. And she brought me along. My earliest memory of this is volunteering with her at the annual library book and bake sale. I made “cookie pizza” and tried my first attempt at fondant to top a cake. Now, I can set the same example for my own daughter. It’s incredible to see giving become part of Cimorene’s language! She’ll ask me “mama, are there niños that need food today?” She always wants to make “asagna pasta”, and if someone asks her what we’re doing, she’ll say “we’re helping mamas and niños who are sad”. Helping, I think, will become an intrinsic part of her character just like it did for me because of my mom.
Now, as I’m watching other kiddos all over the country get involved in the lasagna love movement with their parents, I’m even more inspired. With all the bad that’s come as a result of COVID19, for these tiny volunteers it’s become an incredible opportunity to develop character. If a library bake sale could be so formative for me, making food and delivering it to hungry families is sure to leave a mark on all of the kids that are helping their parents with Lasagna Love.