Exam is over, test is over! Very soon, school is over too (this week is the last week of school, woo hoo)! The first thing that the smarties requested to do is to bake. We love baking. We love how therapeutic it is and how we can spend the time together chit chatting and learning while making the food we love to eat. What are the real benefits in baking for kids? Psst…is beneficial for adults too 😉
1. Mindfulness
Whenever cooking or baking with kids, I always make it a point to use simple recipe because my main purpose is to draw their attention from anything else to the kitchen table.
I made it simple because it reduces/minimises the chance of frustration. Paying attention to weighing the ingredients and measuring the ingredients actually has a calming effect because you can’t think of anything else except to focus on making sure the ingredients are in the correct measurements.
Smarties were aware that both of them are involved in making the cookies and they took turn to perform each tasks. They understand they have to work together.
2. Confidence builder
Being able to control what and when to add the ingredients and making decisions on how things should be done can indirectly build their confidence level. After the dough was out, the smarties were free to decide the shapes of the cookies that they wanted to bake.
They decide how they wanted the cookies to be decorated. They decide what to add onto the cookies to make it look more appealing and, of course, to taste better.
3. Communication
As mentioned earlier, we love to bake because we get to spend quality time together (no tv, no iPhone, no gadget, just cookie dough and us). We chit chat, we laughed, we joked, we did lots of talking while we were in the process of baking. Hey, that’s one of the steps on building healthy relationships between parent and child!
** WARNING: Saliva may appear in the cookies. DO NOT distribute your baked products to anyone else unless that person doesn’t mind 😉
4. Activate the senses
Smarties got to see, feel, smell, hear and taste throughout the process. All 5 senses are being stimulated during the baking session. They see the ingredients and the measurements. They feel the ingredients and later on feel the dough while shaping the cookies. They hear the sound of the blender. Finally they get to taste the cookies once it is done baking.
5. Build creativity
Smarties get to design their cookies the way they want it. From there, you can see what they can come out with and how imaginative they can be. Being able to express freely through cookie decoration and design can boost the well-being of a person.
Check out the cookies that smarties made. It came in all shapes and sizes! We had angry bird, mama worms with many baby worms and baymax too!
Finally, baking is sooooo much fun! Who still wants to resist baking?
hahahaha Baymax is too cute~ ahhh I wouldn’t eat the worms though hahaha I’ve always thought about baking w the kids but I never quite gotten down to it. Lots of work! and the cleaning up! but i think my kids will enjoy it very much.
The worms looks scary right? Don’t why my girl came up with that! But I still eat it… xp
No need to clean up yourself…get the kids to clean up 🙂
I love baking with Noah too! I think it’s a great way to bond with him, and he really enjoys helping me with simpler tasks like cracking the eggs and sifting the flour. Helps build his confidence while improving his motor skills! 😉
Yes is really fun and it does build their confidence 🙂
It definitely is very interesting, Aayan and Kaira love to bake and every time I will bake anything they will be there standing in the kitchen to do all the steps. One will beat the egg and other one add flour. It surely increases their confidence and they are so happy to show their creation to dad.
Agree… they are super proud of their final products. Is good encouragement 🙂
The Angry Bird is so cute! I had to take a second look at it to make out the eyebrows and eyes, haha! I didn’t give much thought about baking with my kids (apart from the fun factor), adding it to my to-do list with them this holidays 😀
Hehe…yeah without the colour can be quite difficult to tell…
But is great to see the level of their creativity. Maybe next time we can bake together 🙂
I would love to try baking with my girl some day! Thanks for sharing your experience!
Very welcome 🙂
Wow that is nice of your children to do baking together. 🙂
Yep… is fun and is a good bonding session 🙂
This June holidays will be my first time baking at home with my girls. Thank you for the great tips,
You are most welcome 🙂