Welcome to Bookworm Bakers!

Where the love of baking and cooking (and of course eating) is combined with the joy and love of reading.

     Back to Basics Literacy was established with the goal of bringing children and their families back to the basics of life, such as reading aloud to their children, eschewing screens for the very young, embracing pretend play and promoting toys that build imagination and creativity. What better way to get back to basics than in the kitchen working with your hands to create something yummy? So along that line, this is the first in a series of blogs regarding cooking/baking combined with reading to help you see your kitchen in a whole new way.

     Reading is essential in the kitchen. When one creates a meal or baked goods, they need to read recipes, boxes, jars and containers. Working in the kitchen also aids young children’s hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills as well as teaching patterning, sequencing and basic math skills. Learning becomes a natural part of what a child is doing in the kitchen while they also gain confidence, a sense of pride and accomplishment and learn to be responsible. When we started cooking and baking with my now three year old, we noticed that books with a cooking or baking theme seemed to jump out at us when we went book shopping and there are some excellent titles out there. There are also some really wonderful and fun cookbooks available and so we thought, why not combine the two?

Slicing apples for a Dutch Apple Pie

Great recipes + great stories = great memories.

     Spending time in the kitchen affords you and your loved ones the opportunity to build real life skills while bonding with your children and creating lasting family memories.

     Cooking with your child is such a fun, engaging, and terribly tasty pastime and a positive on so many fronts that it should be a part of every childhood. A story can be used along with cooking to either introduce a food or activity or it can be read when you are done to reinforce what you have just completed. So keep visiting our site for recipes, ideas and story books that enhance the experience that will keep you and your children engaged in the kitchen while building lasting memories.

     If you're looking for some titles to get you into the cooking/baking mood then please take a look at our list of Baking, Cooking, Gardening & Food Related Books!

     Some of my daughter's personal favorites include:

The Best Mouse Cookie by Laura Numeroff

The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems

Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast by Josh Funk

Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

To Market, To Market by Anne Miranda

     Be on the look out for our next Bookworm Bakers post and in the mean time share stories and encourage your child to help out in the kitchen as much as they can!

Happy reading and cooking!

*Note: this post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Any purchases made via the links provided go to support our literacy efforts.