life skills

Rolling, cutting, colouring and playing with dough!

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Rolling, cutting, colouring and playing with dough!

We successfully conducted 2 sugar cookies classes over the weekend, and it was a joy watching the happy faces of the little chefs eating their own creation.

This was not an easy class, particularly for the younger kids, as their fine motor skills are still being developed, plus the lack of such practice at home. Therefore, parents’ involvement became extremely crucial for this class, as the parents will have to guide their child in the rolling and cutting process. We are very proud of the parents who are willing to sacrifice speed and progress, to give their child the maximum exposure in creating their own cookies, instead of doing it on their behalf.

 

When we developed this class, we knew that there is probably insufficient time to teach the kids about measurement, hence, the dedicated focus on rolling and cutting. We also make the lessons age appropriate, by only introducing the technique to make rainbow cookies for older kids.

 

This strategy certainly works, as we see that our under 5 years old enjoying the cutting of the dough into different shapes the most. In contrast, the older kids were most wowed when the technique of mixing colours into their dough was introduced, as it allows them to use their colours knowledge to blend a colour of their choice. This is a good illustration of what age-appropriate activities can do to instill interests in children!

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What children can learn from the Mouse who wants a cookie!

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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.

  1. 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!
  2. 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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If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

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You probably didn’t know that this book was written in 1985, and is today considered a contemporary classic!

It is so well-received, that Charles Schulz (yes, the Peanuts strips creator!) created 2 strips about it! The series has fans of all ages from all over the world including Japan, where an entire Tokyo city bus was painted with images of Mouse, and First Lady Michelle Obama read the book on the White House lawn during the 2009 Easter Egg Roll! How cool is that!

Author Laura Numeroff has often said in interviews that the idea for the story came to her during a car trip she took with a friend from San Francisco to Oregon. She narrated it as they drove and later wrote it down. The manuscript was passed over by nine publishers before being taken on finally.

The text was interpreted by illustrator Felicia Bond to show the increasing energy of the mouse, with the little boy being run ragged by the end of the story. Bond describes rushing to get the sketches done before leaving town with her boyfriend and that the energy of the mouse evolved from that excitement. She has mentioned on numerous occasions that the little boy in the book was her boyfriend, Stephen Roxburgh, as a child.

If_you_give_a_mouse_a_cookieWhat is the moral of the story? Here are 2 which I learned about.

Firstly, it is that one should possess empathy, respect, and basic manners. Even though the mouse asks for so many things from the boy, he just does it because he does it out of the goodness of his heart. This is a value we need to teach our children.

Secondly, it is how even a seemingly simple task may end up being more complicated than you originally thought, which teaches the importance of setting limits, even on a good deed. This is a lesson parents need to learn, and apply firmly so that our child can learn.

So, should we give a mouse a cookie? Yes, I think we should, but we should also teach the Mouse how to make the cookies so that he will have countless cookies to eat in future!

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No fear of getting dirty!

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No fear of getting dirty!

One of the perks at Little Cookhouse, is the immense satisfaction we get when we see how a child became a lot more confident after attending just one session with us.

When Lionel joined us for his first class 2 weeks ago, he was quiet, reserved and very afraid to get his hands dirty. The class he attended was to create Sushi-lookalike sweet cakes, and i can imagine his ‘horror’ as he gets his hands dirty during the mixing of the cake batter. Even though he was curious to learn, from time to time, he will ask for permission to wash his hands.

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Lionel preparing the cake batter, but doesn’t like getting his hands dirty

Such fears of not wanting to get their hands dirty are actually common with young children, given the clean environment they grew up with, whereby we adults will ask them to wash their hands at the slightest bit of dirt.

Fast forward to one week later when he attended the 2nd class on creating Bento Sushi, the quiet and reserved Lionel became chatty and very comfortable being amongst us, and throughout the class, we can see him enjoying the entire process of cutting, moulding, and assembling his own bento, despite his hands getting dirty! He is now able to understand that ‘it’s alright to get your hands dirty, as it can always be washed when we are done with our tasks’. Throughout the session, Lionel has smiles beaming and he will even engage in small talks with us.

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The bento box which Lionel created

Baking and cooking are great ways to expose children to getting dirty and making a mess, and also an opportunity to introduce the importance of washing hands before handling food sources. Our 3 year old went through the exact same process of fearing getting his hands dirty, to now being able to play with paint, dirt, cake mixture etc. So parents, expose your child and let them handle food… it’s a great way for them to learn, and don’t be surprise that next time, they will be the one volunteering to cut your fruits and be a great help at the kitchen!

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Why we need to teach children to wash their hands?

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Germs are everywhere and your hands may carry them and cause infection to yourself and your loved ones. Children are most vulnerable to get infections, hence instilling good personal hygiene in children such as inculcating hand washing habits is vital for their health and well-being.

We had recently attended the course on Food & Beverage Safety and Hygiene Policies and Procedures by NEA, to increase our awareness on maintaining food hygiene during the preparation process, and we found that even adults are not aware of the proper hand washing technique nor the importance of it.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hygiene interventions including hygiene education and promotion of hand washing can lead to a reduction of diarrhoeal cases by up to 45%, as well as prevention of germs, infections and spread of diseases such as the hand food mouth disease.

Getting children to wash their hands thoroughly may not be easy at first, but once they learn the proper hand washing techniques and understand the reason behind it, they will pick up this habit in no time. I’m sure even many of us do not know the proper 8 steps to wash our hands (see below).

wash

It is important to instill a sense of fun when teaching children how to keep their hands clean. For instance, parents and caregivers can add in a hand washing quiz or game that kids can participate actively and perhaps be rewarded at the end for their efforts. This helps them to remember the various steps in hand washing.

Parents and caregivers can use the Washy Washy Clean song to teach children the correct technique of washing hands the fun way. The duration of the song serves as a timer to demonstrate the hand washing process. All it takes is 30 seconds.

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