Bake a cake

Cooking with kids may seem like a daunting task for many but the more they practice the better they become at all the skills necessary. Start them young with little basic tasks as often as you can and gradually build up new skills as their confidence increases.

 Start with a clear bench and have your ingredients out so your child can clearly see them. Talk about the processes before beginning.

 Making a well in the cake mixture and pouring the water

Adding the oil

 Cracking the eggs! (this is a skill that takes time to perfect. Practice, practice, practice!)

 Beating the ingredients together. (Stay very, very close if using an electric beater)

Pouring the cake mixture into the tin. Here Madeline commented on how the cake mixture was "making steps!"

Some tips:
- This was a "quick" cake using a packet mixture.
- Extend this activity by making the cake from scratch and adding in the extra skills of measuring, sifting etc
- Simplify this activity by measuring all the ingredients yourself and allowing your child to pour them in and practice their hand eye coordination
- Always talk with your child about what they are doing and seeing etc. This helps to build their language development and will lead you to all sorts of areas of conversation and thus further learning..
- I could write all day about all the reasons that cooking with kids is SO beneficial for their learning and development but for a great and easy list of 10 reasons why, check out: http://childhood101.com/2011/09/10-reasons-to-cook-with-kids/

Debs :)