Weekend Wonder: Citrus Season, Part 1
Winter is here and with it, the joy of citrus.
I’m guessing clementines are in snack or lunch rotation in some of your homes right now.
But let me tell you, there is so much you can do with citrus.
Known for their bright, uplifting scents, citrus fruits are healthy, delicious, and mood-boosting.
I speak from experience - we had at least two types of activity with citrus out every day for the children in my classroom throughout the winter. Without fail, the sensory qualities of lemons, clementines, navel and blood oranges, and grapefruits elevated our spirits.
Here are two easy activities for you to consider. While these offerings may be straightforward, they offer outsized benefits.
These two activities are excellent motives for concentration and help your child to develop their motor skills and capacity to follow a sequence. They offer abundant sensory feedback - textures, scents, tastes, even sounds.
Try making these experiences available for your child. Welcome repetition for meaningful growth. And see if your child’s day isn’t a little brighter - and your own, too, with these scents in the air.
Peeling Clementines
Create a work space with your child - a bowl with several whole clementines, a space for peeling and segmenting, a discard bowl for peels, and a plate for peeled clementine segments.
Model the process for your child. Show them how to indent their thumb into the base of the clementine to start to peel. Slowly demonstrate the act of peeling, placing the skin in the discard bowl. When complete, demonstrate segmenting.
Invite your child to continue. Have at least two more clementines ready for them to practice with, to invite repetition in the initial experience.
Scaffold your child through the clean-up process. Your child can empty the peels in the trash, place bowls next to the sink one by one, and then rinse them and load them into the dishwasher (or scrub them, if you are willing!).
Repeat! This is key. Put this out in the evenings while you cook dinner and invite your child to pack their prepared segments for the next day’s lunch. Or offer this on the weekend and serve at breakfast or snack time.
Zesting Citrus
Create a work space with your child - a small bowl with a lemon, a hand-held microplane or zester of choice, and a plate, cutting board, or bowl to zest over. You will also want a small jar for the zest, and a spoon for collecting it.
Model the process for your child. Be attentive to show your child how to hold the microplane in their dominant hand and the lemon in their non-dominant hand (or in whichever way seems intuitive - but demonstrate hand placement, as this takes some coordination). Also show them how to zest over the designated plate, board, or bowl. Admire the zest, appreciate its scent aloud. Demonstrate how to spoon the zest, or pinch it with fingers, and place in jar for storage.
Invite your child to continue. Let them know they are welcome to continue with another lemon when ready.
Scaffold your child through the clean-up process. Let your child know that you can save the zested lemon, using its juice for another purpose like salad dressing or squeezing on apple slices or in hot water. They can place this in a storage container or bag. Your child can place bowls next to the sink one by one, and then rinse them and load them into the dishwasher (or scrub them, if you are willing!).
Repeat! Again, this is the key. Offer different types of citrus and discuss the differences in texture, scent, color, etc between lemons and lines, tangerines, etc.
Use the zest! A great use is to combine the dried zest with flaky salt for citrus salt. You can also add it to baked goods, pasta, green beans, or broccoli.
One of our main tenets is to prioritize repetition and avoid one-off, novelty activities.
Try putting these citrus wonders into rotation through February, and watch to see the benefits.