Teaching Your Kids to Bake in 18 weeks
Cooking is a hobby of mine. I really enjoy it. What I don't enjoy, I tell you, is ten little hands "helping" me. And then add to the hands the fact that my kitchen sits directly on the equator and I own an oven that radiates more heat than the sun, I can get a tad grumpy doing something I say I enjoy. I have had a few Mommy low-points involving a loud voice and the phrase "get out of the kitchen!" directed at one (or five) of my innocent little angels. I want to teach them some skills and they are SO eager to learn. But thus far, I am failing at passing on any kitchen joy.
Then, lo and behold, I ran across a previous post from Jamie over at Simple Homeschool. She shares all the why's and how's of teaching kids how to bake. She starts her formal baking class at eight years old and since my oldest just turned eight, I thought I would give this idea a whirl. This formal class approach is right up my alley 'cause I can handle one set of hands at a time. Making it a "class" gives me just the opportunity I need to gently escort the other four kiddos out the door into the land of play (or TV watching...keeping it real).
Jamie's thirty-week cooking class per child seemed too long for me. I am a chronic good starter, horrible finisher. I shortened my class to eighteen weeks (one semester). I can make it through that...I hope.
I designed the class after Jamie's each recipe three time idea: "the children make each recipe three times: once with me teaching, once with me there to help as needed, and once all on their own!"
I put together a short little syllabus with six recipes. During the course students will bake brownies, banana bread, oatmeal cookies, muffins, biscuits, and a cake with butter frosting. If this class goes well, I may decide to level-up in a second semester and add a pie, cinnamon rolls, whole wheat bread, etc. But I wanted to start simple.
All the recipes are made from easy to access ingredients (there was no way I was going to allow my kid to experiment with my precious chocolate chips).
Disclaimer: This course is not a good lesson on whole-food eating. Sorry, but this girl often bakes with butter, sugar and white flour. After completing the eighteen-week course students will have learned the following skills:
Proper way to read a recipe
Proper way to turn on oven, stovetop, and remove items from oven
How to measure ingredients correctly
How to test for doneness
How to mash bananas, sift flour/sugar and zest a citrus fruit
How to use a pastry blender and electric mixer
Proper way to knead a light dough
How to roll and cut out shapes in dough
How to grease and flour pans and how to ice a sheet cake
Soon I will be lounging on the couch, watching Netflix and a sweet child bring me a delicious fresh homemade cookie. I am planning on retiring in a few years and allowing these kids to run the house. I'm now one step closer to this being a reality.
