A great way for our children to learn about food is by exposing them to it - including all of the interesting ingredients and spices that go into the cooked foods.
The stage in which a child transitions from infancy to toddlerhood is very important. At this point they are experiencing things for the very first time and start to develop the mental capacity of connecting together the little they know, ultimately creating a clear train of thought as to what is what and why things happen the way they do.
Often, as adults we do not stop to think that what seems obvious to us, is not to a child. This happens a lot with food. We tend to dumb down our children's culinary habits without realizing that they too are human beings that learn the same way we do, by exposure. So why not help develop your kid's senses and learn about food early on? A great way to do this is to take a trip to your spice cabinet. It is safe from heat and germs and all you have to do is take out the bottles of the spices you use the most in all your cooking, open it up and sniff, sniff, sniff! Smelling the different spices early on and getting acquainted with their shape and textures will help them develop their taste buds by enhancing their sense of smell, allowing the brain to connect the different aromas with the taste in a meal. Not everything in the kitchen should be off limits for children. With the appropriate supervision, you can allow your little one to explore and gain valuable knowledge about what they eat, because the same way you may like to go to the farmer's market to view and possibly taste different things, kids do too.
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