As most children have a natural interest in both cooking and screens, playing free cooking games online with your child may be an excellent way to introduce them to the world of food at an early age. 【小题1】. They provide a number of developmental and educational benefits as well.

Cooking games for kids develop creativity. 【小题2】 by letting them experiment with raw materials, recipes, and preparation methods. Such games can help kids develop a growth mindset, creativity, and the freedom to make their own choices.

Cooking games can improve social skills. Most cooking games offer an in-built social space. For example, playing multiplayer or two-player games allows children to interact with others, solve problems in cooperation, and so on. This is especially convenient for those who have difficulty reaching out to others in the real world. Online games can help them practice their communication skills. 【小题3】.

Cooking games boost confidence and independence. When kids take the initiative, finish a task, or follow directions correctly, they feel good about themselves and proud of what they’ve done. 【小题4】, they are more likely to grow up with a feeling of confidence, responsibility and independence.

【小题5】. The act of cooking, whether virtual or in the real world, requires a lot of counting and measuring, which promotes the development of fundamental mathematical abilities. Additionally, they require kids to perform various kitchen tasks or read the recipes or lists of raw materials and then follow the directions, teaching them to read, and improving their vocabulary.

If you love talking about past and future vacations almost as much as you love actually going on them, this card game Destination Anywhere from TableTopics is for you.

There aren’t any rules — it’s just you, your friends, and 135 cards printed with conversation starters that all relate to travel. The questions are open-ended enough to invite general answers, but they’ll also probably prompt(提示)you to share your most funny stories from previous short trips. “What do you always forget when you’re packing for a trip?” may, for example, remind you of the time when you forgot to bring your tent on a week-long hike along the Appalachian Trail. And “Do you prefer making tours or seeing sites on your own?” is practically begging your sister to talk about the time she got lost on a self-guided tour through the Tuscan countryside and was rescued by a kindly old sheep herder. The game is recommended to ages 12 and up, and you can get it on Amazon for $25.

And if the Destination Anywhere edition(版本)doesn’t dominate your thoughts, there are plenty of other TableTopics editions that you might want to bring to your next family dinner. The “Geek Pop!” edition ($22) could encourage a lively debate about which of Doctor Who’s Doctors has the most memorable catchphrase(名言). “Not Your Mom’s Dinner Party” ($25) will keep your guests entertained with questions like “Have you ever been escorted(护送)out by security?” and it is strictly for adults.

The “Family” edition ($25) is a great way to get silent kids to come out of their shells a little. “Would you rather know how to fly a plane, drive a race car, or rock climb?” pretty much guarantees an answer that isn’t “Yes,” “No,” or “Good.”

You can browse all the TableTopics card sets on Amazon.

Although toys' packaging says it's' educational , it doesn't make it so. That's the finding from a new study in JAMA Pediatrics that found some toys being marketed as language promoters got in the way of learning.

Research shows that for kids to understand, speak and eventually read or write a language, they need to hear it -- lots of it. And it's' never too early for parents and to caregivers to get talking. That explains the booming industry in talking electronic toys that claim to help kids learn language.

Professor Anna Sosa, of Northern Arizona University, led the study and says she gave families three different kinds of toys to play with: books, traditional toys like humble blocks and a shape sorter, and electronic toys. Sosa says she picked those toys because they are advertised in their packaging as language-promoters for babies between the ages of 10 and 16 months.

"We had a talking on farm-animal names and things," Sosa says of the electronic toys. "We had a baby cell phone. And we had a baby laptop. So you open the cover and start pushing buttons, and it tells you things. The parent-child couples were asked to play separately with each type of toy over the course of three days."

"When there's something else that's doing some talking, the parents seem to be sitting on the sidelines and letting the toy talk for them and respond for them, "Sosa says. "That's bad because the best way a toy can promote language in infants and toddlers is by stimulating interaction between parent and child. There's simply no evidence that a young child can learn language directly from a toy. It isn't responsive enough. It isn't social."

As for the other toys, traditional blocks and puzzles stimulated more conversation than the electronic toys, and books outscored them all. But don't underestimate the humble block. While traditional toys fell short of books in interaction quantity, Sosa notes, they kept pace in terms of quality.