At another Mommy & Me at Garden of Eve, Eve led us in picking wheat, threshing the wheat to separate the grain from the chaff, grinding the wheat (in a blender..though my kids have stone-ground grains at some local colonial-themed events), stirring in the eggs, sugar, baking powder, and milk, and frying up the pancakes.

Unless you have a field of wheat growing in your backyard, you may need to take a few shortcuts–but making a batch of pancakes is a great cooking with kids activity that we do most weekends with our children.

Pancakes, Pancakes! A great book for this fun and tasty activity is Pancakes, Pancakes!, by Eric Carle. A boy wants pancakes for breakfast and his mother sends him on errands to get flour from the mill, select an egg from the hens, milk the cow, churn the butter, and gather firewood for the stove.  The young man learns everything that goes into making his favorite breakfast and enjoys the delicious pancakes all the more.

Making Pancakes with Your Kids

Your children will also discover that food you make yourself just tastes better.  My daughter has her own whisk and loves stirring the batter with her Daddy or her Papa.

You can use a simple pancake recipe to make them from scratch or try these banana-cormeal pancakes at Crunchy Domestic Goddess.

Even using a just add water pancake mix provides opportunities for pouring, measuring, and stirring.

Go maple sugaring for added fun and a scrumptious treat!

Make sure to observe kids in the kitchen safety rules for a fun and memorable experience!  We have a Guidecraft Kitchen Helper that allows our kids to safely measure the ingredients into the bowl, stir the batter, and even pour batter onto the griddle and decorate the pancakes with chocolate chips or fresh fruit slices.

Educational Opportunities

• Math: measuring the ingredients
• Motor skills: pouring and stirring
• Science: What is the importance of each ingredient? Why does the batter transform into solid pancakes when fried?
• History and Culture: What role did this simple treat play in our culinary history? Why were pancakes important on the frontier? What types of pancakes are popular in other cultures (crepes, dosa, blintzes)? Wikipedia has a good starting place for pancake research.
• Ecology: What is the origin of the ingredients that go into the pancakes? Can these all be found locally or do some come from other regions or nations?
• Literature: Read Pancakes, Pancakes!, by Eric Carle. Make up a similar story about another favorite dish.

We have the good fortune to live near an organic farm (Garden of Eve) owned by young parents. The mom runs a summertime “Mommy & Me” that includes a circle time and a farm “chore”. One week the children picked blackberries and turned them into jam!

The process was fairly simple:

1. Pick the berries
2. Wash and dry the berries
3. Meanwhile, sterilize glass jars in boiling water
4. Crush the berries in a bowl
5. Add mixture to a pot and pour in pectin according to the recipe
6. Bring to a quick boil and stir
7. Add sugar according to the recipe and bring to a boil again
8. Ladle jam mixture into the sterilized glass jars.

Since we did not plan to keep the jams for a long time, we did not process them in a Boiling Water Canner.

Books About Jelly, Jam, and Berries

Jamberry (ages 0-3)

My daughter’s favorite book when she was a baby, Jamberry is a rollicking, rhyming journey through the land of berries.  With just the right amount of playful silliness, a boy and his bear pick blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries for jam.  Their journey through Berryland ends in an explosion of flavorful berries as delicious fireworks fill the night sky.

Blueberry Shoe (0-3)

A clever story that makes a connection between a young family’s berry-picking and the natural environment.  A young toddler loses a shoe hiking with his family and the local wildlife makes use of his unintended gift.  When he finds it again the following year, he brings a bit of nature home with him.  Amazon has this listed as a book for 4-8 year olds but despite the more advanced vocabulary, the simple sentence structure, short pages, and beautiful woodcut-style illustrations will keep younger children’s interest.

Jam and Jelly by Holly and Nellie (Ages 4-8)

This touching story focuses on the bond between a mother and her daughter.  Holly’s mother wants to make sure she does not miss a single day of school for lack of a warm winter coat and boots.  So, the pair gather the bounty of the forest to make and sell jams and other berry treats.  I love the focus on the importance of education, personal responsibility, and hard work.

More berry book suggestions at Gardenaut…

Educational Connections

• Mathematics: Measure out the ingredients.
• Science: What makes berries sweet? What is pectin and why is it important in making jam? Which fruits are highest in natural pectin? Why do we boil the jars?
• Ecology: What other animals eat the berries? What is the difference between cultivated and wild berries? (Remind children to never eat berries without confirming with an adult that the berries are safe to eat.)
• Colors: Even young toddlers will enjoy identifying which berries are ripe and which are not yet ready based on the color.

We like to make homemade, crafty gifts for the family and for this Father’s Day, the kids made mosaic coasters.

Materials:

• metal jar lids
• plaster of Paris
• sea glass, seashells, smooth pebbles, mosaic tiles, broken pottery, letter beads or tiles or scrabble tiles to spell names or words
• felt
• scissors
• glue

Directions:

1. Mix plaster of Paris
2. Pour into the metal jar lid.  If your “mosaic” pieces are much thinner than the lid is shallow, you might want to allow the plaster of Paris to start to set for about 10 minutes.  Alternatively, you could pour a layer, allow to set to create a base, then pour another, fresh, wet layer.
3. Kids can place words (like “Daddy” or “Love”) and then put other tiles and pebbles around the word in any design they like.
4. Allow to dry (plaster will be dry in about 20 minutes).
5. Trace and cut a circle of felt and glue to the bottom of the lid to prevent table scratches.

Educational Connections:

Mathematics: Measure the plaster of Paris and discuss the idea of proportions (two parts plaster, one part water).

Science: What happens to the plaster when you add water? What happens to the mixture after 20 minutes?

Ecology: Why is it important to use recycled materials?

Art / Art History: Identifying colors.

Advanced Art / Art History: What cultures made mosaics? Why might mosaics be useful? (recycling broken materials, making pictures out of waterproof and durable materials, etc.)

Literacy: Identifying letters, spelling words.

Fine Motor Skills: Placing tiles, tracing, cutting.

I love “busy hands, calm spirit” crafts like these.  This is so simple and yet it requires a lot of focus, patience and dexterity.  You can also use this as an opportunity to practice measuring (the yarn) and cutting with scissors.

Applying the yarn.

Popping the balloon.

Finished ornament hanging up.

Head over to No Time for Flashcards for the instructions.

Find a local Maple Syrup Festival or take a road trip!  If you are heading to Vermont, check out Find & Go Seek’s listings of Vermont Maple Festivals.

My family headed to Benner’s Farm for their annual Maple Sugaring event. My children had an opportunity to learn about the Sugar Maple Tree (which New York, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia share as their state tree), tap trees for sap, watch the sap being boiled, taste fresh maple syrup, and even watch them making maple sugar candy.  I think the candy was the highlight for my daughter.

If you have Sugar Maples at home or near your school, you can also make your own maple syrup–we used to do this at my school when I was a child.

Discuss the process of photosynthesis and how the Sugar Maple is part of its ecosystem.

Learn about the history of Maple Sugaring, from the role it played in the lives of the native people to its use as a domestic (and slave-labor free) sweetener for colonists.  Changing technology has allowed large maple sugaring operations to flourish but small-batch maple syrup manufacture remains a cottage industry for many Americans today.

Calculate how many gallons of sap you will need to make one gallon of maple syrup.

Watch the temperature rise and fall as the sap reaches it boiling point and then cools.  Discuss why different fluids have different boiling points and why boiling turns the sap into syrup (and the syrup into candy).

Check out some more educational activities for enjoying Maple Sugaring Season and some great lesson plans about maple syrup from photosynthesis to weather to history to marketing the finished product.

And then whip up a batch of pancakes or waffles and enjoy some tasty syrup or try another maple syrup recipe!

Photo Credit: Hounds in the Kitchen

Home baked goods can be shared, donated, or sold to raise money, teaching social skills and responsibility.

The process itself is a delight for the senses–the tactile pleasure of kneading dough, the crackle of popping corn, the sight of various foodstuffs browning, caramelizing or blending, and of course the smells and tastes of the finished product.

So, I thought it was a great question when an Education.com community member asked about easy recipes for children.

Here are some resources I know about and ones that others suggested as well:

• Teaching Tiny Tots Toddler Recipes
• Martha Stewart: Cooking with Kids
• Family Fun: Kids’ Recipes
• Food Network: Cooking for Kids
• The Science of Cooking

Even preschoolers can cook up a great time in the kitchen.  Check out these tips for age-appropriate kitchen activities for preschoolers to teens.

Safety is always of paramount importance anytime you are in the kitchen with kids.  Here are some great tips for cooking safely with kids from the BBC.

Do you cook with your kids?  What are your favorite recipes and tips?

Photo: Slicing

Here’s a fun activity that turns your apple pickings into a beautiful and fragrant craft: apple pomanders.

Materials:
1 Apple
Whole Cloves
Spices (Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ground Cloves)
Sandlewood Oil or Orris Root (optional for additional preservation qualities)
Ribbon (optional)

Instructions:

• If you plan on using ribbon, you can also first mark off where the ribbon will go with tape, then add the cloves over the rest of the surface, then remove the tape.
  

1. Push cloves into the skin of the apple, until the surface is covered.
2. Roll apple into spice mixture (mostly cinnamon)
3. Let sit out on a plate or in a paper bag until it cures

Here’s another set of pomander instructions including some fantastic photos.

Variations/Modifications:

• Younger kids may enjoy this activity but have trouble pushing in the cloves or grow bored after pushing in about a dozen. You can start the cloves for them and do the activity over several days.
• Pomanders may also be made with citrus fruits.

Educational Experience:

• Science: Why do spices preserve the apple?
• History/Social Studies: From where do these spices originate? Older kids can explore the history of the spice trade.
• Home Arts: Where should we display the pomander to best enjoy its scent?
• Mathematics (older kids): Calculate the surface area of the apple and estimate the number of cloves used.

Extend Your Learning (more posts to come):

• Community: Visit your local apple orchard and go apple picking.
• Science: Find out about the life cycle of the apple tree.
• Literature: Read about Johnny Appleseed or story books about apples.
• Arts and Crafts: Make apple prints or apple head dolls.
• Home Arts/Cooking: Bake apple pies or apple muffins, make apple sauce or apple butter, drink apple cider.