The Tasting Game

When Nana was here she played a really lovely little game with the children called ‘the tasting game’. The children really enjoyed this so much that I’ve decided to expand on it, and add an activity to explore each of the 7 human senses, perhaps one each week. So this is the first in the series …

Taste
Choose several food items (you know your own children’s limits & allergies) from the fridge and cupboards. Spoon a small amount of each onto individual dishes (or pot lids). Aoife, aged 4, chose to be blindfolded, while Nana guided her finger to one of the samples for tasting. Muireann also wanted to play, but being that big younger, opted to keep her eyes open. I played too, and without seeing the colour, it can actually be quite tricky to guess the flavour. The children loved this game. Its quite exciting and can be very funny. One tip though, leave the chocolate spread sample until last otherwise the game is in danger of being discarded for repeated tastings of the same sample!!!

Possible samples : Try and cover a couple of different flavour experiences which include plenty of sweet (honey, syrup, raison, yogurt, chocolate spread), perhaps a mild sour (diluted lemon) and salt (only one grain, or a ready salted crip). Each of these flavour senses are located on a different area of the tongue. Don’t use anything yucky unless you want to lose the trust of your children!

Comments

[Rebecca]

Hi Conor

Yes the reject 'spray' can be messy alright!

I coax my two into eating by saying things like 'wow you ate your greens and now I can see you growing taller', which spurs them on to eating more! Or ... 'oh, I'm sure I can see you shrinking, soon your little sister will be taller than you because she ate more healthy dinner'! Ah the psychology of being the tallest!

[Conor O'Neill]

Love it! Our four gits have been fed proper food all their lives and every meal is still a fight to see what I can get them to eat. Most of the time the problem is how the stuff looks to them rather than how it tastes. This is a great way of getting them to try different tastes.

I did try to con the 1-year old the other day. He wouldn't eat the risotto I cooked so I cleaned out a jar of baby food (which he loves of course), stuffed it with my creation and then tried to feed him.

This time I got past his hands and lips. He took one taste and spat it all out. Who says that babies don't have a sense of taste?

[Rebecca]

Great Vera, thats what its all about. Try it yourself, its quite hard with your eyes shut.

[Vera Q]

What a fantastic idea - I will play this with my niece and nephew when they come to me next time! Cant wait to try it ...!