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*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
Tony Baroni Loves Macaroni by Marilyn Sadler
15th: National Gum Drop Day
17th: National Cabbage Day
20th: National Muffin Day
If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff
21st: National Sticky Bun Day
Bizz & Buzz Make Honey Buns by Dee Leone
23rd: National Banana Bread Day
23rd: National Toast Day
Toast! by Heywood Banks
25th: Fat Tuesday (changes annually) & National Pancake Day
27th: National Strawberry Day
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear by Don & Audrey Wood
4th Thursday: National Chili Day
Armadilly Chili by Heather Ketteman
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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.
Quick quiz: it’s the beginning of February, a winter storm blew through during the night coating everything in a layer of ice and you’re stuck indoors with a rambunctious three-year-old…
WHAT DO YOU DO?! You get busy in the kitchen baking Valentine’s Day cookies, of course! And then you enjoy your delectable desserts while poring over a Valentine's storybook. Baking and books...a positively perfect combination!
With nowhere to go and Valentine’s Day fast approaching we spent the day trying out two new cookie recipes: soft sugar cookies and red velvet cookies made from a cake mix. Yes, that’s right, we used a box cake mix to make cookies and it worked out better than we anticipated. The recipe came from a Tasty video: Cake Mix Cookies 9 Ways.
Since the sugar cookies were a roll-out cookie, we started our baking bonanza by preparing the dough for those so that it could chill while we worked on our red velvet cookies, which were a simple drop cookie. An essential part of helping in the kitchen is learning how to prioritize tasks and manage time wisely, thus talking about which cookies we were going to start working on first and why was an excellent introduction to those vital life skills for my daughter. We made The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies from All Recipes.com and actually cut the recipe in half, which led to a little lesson about fractions as we measured out the ingredients. The great thing about getting kids in the kitchen is that they are learning so many new things without even realizing it and you're also creating lasting memories.
Remember that children are far more capable than we often give them credit for. Let your child not only assist you but try new things on their own. This helps build confidence and self-esteem. Don't be afraid of the messes that might happen, these can always be cleaned up and also teaches your child that they need to clean up after themselves. I am always amazed at what my daughter can do and spending time together in the kitchen gives us an additional opportunity to bond especially when we pair the time with a book or an additional extended activity, which in this case was valentine coloring pages and making our own valentines.
Once all of our baking was complete and we had sampled our confections, we snuggled up with some Valentine's books. Below is a list of some of our favorite picture books all about love.
For more Valentine's Day books, take a look at our previous post: 9 Books for Valentine's Day!
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 editions, a daughter for Kate (now 3) and a son for Amanda (now 1.) 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.  February is almost here and that means it is time for hearts, chocolates and lots of love! We have here nine of our favorite stories all about love to share with the ones you cherish and adore the most.  Llama Llama I Love You by Anna Dewdney Llama Llama is busy making valentines for all of his friends and family. Short, simple rhymes and bright illustrations make this story a real delight.  Kiss, Kiss, Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen There are lots of ways to show someone you love them, but the best way of all is a nice big SMOOOCH!  Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff Like Llama Llama, Mouse is busy making valentines for all of his friends. Each card he makes explains what he loves the most about each friend. Fans of Numeroff’s If You Give A… series will love seeing familiar characters in this story. *Extended activity: Get out the craft supplies and make your own valentines to give out or send!  Love Monster by Rachel Bright Monster just wants someone to love him, which is difficult when you live in a land of cute, fluffy things. So he embarks on a journey to find love. He looks low, high and even middle-ish, but he soon learns that love often finds us when we aren’t really looking for it.  Love from the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle This delightful, little book highlights all of the little ways in which someone can light up your life and brighten your world: “You are the cherry on my cake; you make the sun shine brighter; you make my heart flutter.” Fans of The Very Hungry Caterpillar will love seeing familiar images from Carle’s works throughout this story.  Click, Clack, Moo I Love You! by Doreen Cronin It’s Valentine’s Day on the farm and Little Duck is sooo excited! She has put up decorations absolutely everywhere! Little Fox follows Little Duck’s decorations back to the barn where the party is in full swing, but will this new guest ruin the fun?  Valensteins by Ethan Long Fran K. Stein is busy making something, with pink paper, scissors and glue. Of course, the other members of the Fright Club want to know what it is. After much speculation and guessing the horrifying truth comes out: Fran K. Stein is in love and is making a valentine!  Slugs in Love by Susan Pearson Marylou loves everything about Herbie. Every time she sees him or thinks of him poems fill her heart. She begins leaving poems for Herbie around the farm and Herbie replies to her rhymes with words of his own, but Marylou keeps missing them. Will these two slugs ever meet? *Extended activity: Write your own love poems!  XO, OX: A Love Story by Adam Rex Clumsy Ox is hopelessly in love with graceful, glamorous Gazelle. He writes Gazelle a love letter, which sparks the beginning a rather rocky, albeit humorous and touching love affair. Don't see your favorite Valentine's Day story here? Share it with us in the comments!
Happy reading! -Kate from BTBL |
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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