What children can learn from the Mouse who wants a cookie!
Little Cookhouse conducted our very first class requiring our 3-5 years old to measure out the ingredients. It was a very good learning experience for us, as we need to work with a lot of ambiguity.
- Ambiguity in precision, given that the quantity required for ingredients are typically given in grams. In order to make it manageable for kids so young, we converted it into spoons and cups size. Sound simple? Actually not so, because a cup of liquid is different from a cup of flour or a cup of butter!
- Ambiguity in measurements, given that the recipe is now based on tablespoons, and a child may not scoop a full tablespoon as required in our measurement. The consequence, is a cookie that may not turn out to be a cookie….
Fortunately, our little chefs manage it well (with assistance from Teacher and parents of course!), and produced cookies which tasted great, even though there were slight differences in colours, size and even the sweetness.
This, as we explained to parents, is what makes baking a learning process. We can teach children the importance of measurement, that by adding more or less of something, their output may differ. Your ultimate goal is not the creation of restaurant-quality food, but boosting your child’s self-esteem and encouraging independence. More importantly, it’s about having a happy kid who’s excited to spend time working on something and doing it well!
Baking is also about providing early exposure to the child, in terms of measurement, scooping, sieving, which all helps in their numeracy and fine motor skills development. It also presents opportunities to talk about culture, nutrition and values. For instance, parents can continue to engage the child after the class, by discussing about the values from the story ‘If you give a mouse a cookie’.
Parents can ask leading questions like “Will you give the mouse a cookie?”, “Why did you do so?”, “Do you think the mouse is being greedy?”, “Do you think the boy was very kind and helpful, and such an act is something you can also learn from?” etc.
Again, it’s not about arriving at a factually correct answer, but about stimulating the thinking of your little one!
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