*Note: this post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Any purchases made via the links provided go to support our literacy efforts.
February is the month of celebrating love and we would hope that includes the love of reading. This is the month to gift loved ones with heart shaped chocolate, cookies and cakes and we encourage you to make those home-made goods with the kiddos and include a book, and even read a book while you are waiting for those goodies to bake!
February is most often associated with Valentine‘s Day but the Home Baking Association (HBA) has designated February as Bake for Family Fun month. The HBA encourages families to take this month to share family love and traditions through baking. Since it is also Chocolate Lovers month, consider combining the two. Baked goods are always extra yummy when chocolate is added (for adults a fun read is Chocolate: The Consuming Passion by Sandra Boynton.) February can sometimes include Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday, which here in Michigan we know as Paczki Day but in other cultures it is also known as Pancake Day or Mardi Gras. You can celebrate the day with a stack of pancakes and the story If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff.
Remember that baking and cooking builds:
Stronger bonds with children Reading skills Math skills Science skills Responsibility Self-esteem Confidence Creativity & Imagination Communication skills Life skills Background knowledge Life-long memories ~Food Calendar & Suggested Reads~
Once again, we are including a food calendar to assist in some family cooking, baking and reading suggestions. As we recommended before, find a food you want to celebrate and then look through recipes with your child(ren) and spend some time creating something delectable together. Always look for additional titles and fun ways to cook and read as a family.
February
National Bake for Family Fun, Cherry, Chocolate Lovers, Potato Lovers, Snack Food & Sweet Potato Month
National Bake for Family Fun Month
National Cherry Month
National Chocolate Lovers Month
1st Friday: National Bubble Gum Day
4th: National Homemade Soup Day
9th: National Bagel Day
9th: National Pizza Day
*For our favorite pizza recipe and additional titles take a look back at our blog Pizza, Pizza!.
13th: National Tortellini Day
15th: National Gum Drop Day
17th: National Cabbage Day
20th: National Muffin Day
21st: National Sticky Bun Day
23rd: National Banana Bread Day
23rd: National Toast Day
25th: Fat Tuesday (changes annually) & National Pancake Day
27th: National Strawberry Day
4th Thursday: National Chili Day
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Celebrate Chocolate Lovers Month with some chocolate biscuits and a glass of milk or a cup of tea. A great dough for youngsters to help roll into balls!
Chocolate Biscuits
(Originally from kidspot kitchen)
Preheat oven to 350°. In a bowl beat eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla until well combined. Stir in flour, baking powder and cocoa. Roll spoonfuls into balls and flatten slightly with hand or fork. Bake on parchment covered cookie sheet for 12 to 15 minutes. Makes 2 dozen biscuits.
Happy baking and reading!
-Kate @ BTBL Author
We are three generations that seek a way to get back to basics. It’s not that we eschew technology, but sometimes simpler is better, especially in raising our children. Mom was a reading teacher, Amanda is an early childhood educator and Kate a children’s literature specialist and former school librarian along with the latest additions, a daughter (now 4) for Kate, and two sons (now 1 and a newborn) for Amanda. We advocate reading aloud, the simple toys that use imagination and encourage creativity and learning in the kitchen, which can be a fun mess but also teaches life skills. Join us in raising healthy, happy, inquisitive and intelligent children.
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*Note: this post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Any purchases made via the links provided go to support our literacy efforts.
If you are a parent of a young child, you know that they are continually growing both in stature and in cognition and therefore, ability. Like any construction project that needs a strong foundation, brains are also built upon a strong foundation and a child’s experiences and interactions help to make their foundation solid. During early childhood, the brain undergoes a series of extraordinary changes with connections forming between the brain cells at a rapid pace. Connections that are regularly used will be kept and those that are not will be eliminated. Because children are learning everyday through experiences, it is important to offer a variety of experiences to learn from as well as repeated experiences. Repetition helps children develop and master new skills as well as allowing them to construct meaning of their world and how they fit into it. Repetition promotes learning and can also be achieved through daily tasks and routines such as making meals and baking in the kitchen. Introduce learning in the kitchen through:
While adults crave variety, preschoolers thrive on repetition. When preschoolers do things over and over again, they develop and master new skills while also constructing new understandings of their world. Think of how people master a new skill such as baking or playing a musical instrument. It takes repetition and practice. As preschoolers repeat and practice a variety of skills, they build their proficiency in those skills, which in turn leads to greater self-confidence.
Working in the kitchen also teaches children about cause and effect. Sometimes a recipe might not turn out the way you thought because a step was missed, measured incorrectly or misunderstood. A child can learn from the mishap and repeating the recipe will help them to master the task and allow for success, building confidence and self-esteem. It will also demonstrate to a child that their actions have consequences, both positive and negative. A fun watch to include might be 'Little Bear and the Cupcakes' where Emily and Little Bear’s muffins turn out hard as rocks because they forgot to add baking powder.
Another way that learning occurs in the kitchen that has a pedagogical association is learning by teaching and we aren’t talking about the parent as the teacher but your child. When a child becomes the teacher, understanding is on a deeper level because the child has taken ownership of their learning. This has also been termed the protégé effect, “a psychological phenomenon where teaching, pretending to teach, or preparing to teach information to others helps a person learn that information.” I remember watching my mother in the kitchen and then later as an adult thought, “no problem, I can handle that” only to discover that it wasn’t working out the way I thought it would. But when I had to do it myself and explain to another what I did or how to do it, it stuck in my mind because I had to struggle to gain an understanding of it and make it clear enough in my mind to explain it to my own child. First hand knowledge is always the best and when someone can explain it and teach it to another, a deeper understanding has been gained and perhaps has even allowed that person to see it in a new way putting a whole new twist on it, fueling the imagination. So, as you cook with your child, have them explain to you what they are doing and why and make sure that you offer opportunities for pretend play to extend the learning.
“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught.”
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AuthorWe are mom Sandra and daughters Amanda and Kate, all with backgrounds in literacy and education, who want to share our philosophy of taking the basics of life; books, simple toys that encourage play, imagination and creativity, and using cooking and baking to teach math and real life skills to raise happy, inquisitive children. Join us in exploring the old and the new and sifting through the myriad of research to consider what is best for our children. Archives
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