Celebrate your child's love of learning

© Wondertime

Chinese children start using chopsticks as early as age 1, and most are competent by 5 or 6. Here's how to help your kids get started.

Get a Grip
Kids will first grip chopsticks in their fists, as they do forks and spoons. To demonstrate the proper technique, try this method, which works with the joined sticks made for children and with traditional ones. Have them rest the end of one chopstick in the V of their thumb and forefinger. Show them how to support it with their little and ring fingers. Help them hold the other chopstick as if it were a pencil, between the middle and index fingers, anchored with the thumb. Then try this imagery used by Chinese parents: The sticks are a bird's beak. Holding the bottom stick still and moving only the top one, imagine the beak opening and closing to pick up food.


Make It Fun
Bowls work better than plates. Try cheese cubes, apple chunks, or mini-marshmallows. At playtime, put cotton balls or pom-poms in a bowl and take turns moving them with the chopsticks to another bowl.