The level of growth Cara has had (along with other kids her age) in the last year or so is amazing. Even with lockdown, the amount of things she has learnt and picks up is crazy. I’m proud of her everyday, but every now and then, there’s that extra bit of magic and inspiration. Over the weekend, there was another proud Dad moment – baking time!
Desire to bake
During a Sunday shop at the local supermarket, we walked past the baking section. Cara asked whether we could bake something as the weather was quite miserable and we were planning on staying in. You may recall Cara wrote down some goals for 2021 at the beginning of the year, and one of the areas she wanted to improve on was to ‘bake cake and cookies’. Cara has now completed the majority of the objectives she set herself, so we’ll be sitting down again to think of some others for H2 2021.
Back to baking time. Although not baking from scratch, we picked up a Betty Crocker’s Rainbow cake mix and a tub of vanilla buttercream icing. With the exception of melting the butter and throwing the cakes into the oven, Cara pretty much did everything. From cracking the eggs into the pre-mix, measuring out the milk, to mixing all the wet and dry ingredients together. Yes, it gets a little messy. But it’s a great way to learn some home-ed and maths skills. At school, Cara was learning about volumes (e.g. 100ml is less than 500ml), so it was good to reinforce that with some practical activities.
Not only is it good for her, but on a damp, rainy Sunday afternoon, it’s also good for the parents to have with some tea and coffee!
ABC Dad tips on helping
- Let them do as much as possible during baking time – obviously under your supervision and guidance. This way, they’ll feel more of the achievement, rather than just ‘helping’ Mum or Dad, it’s something they created.
- Try to incorporate the learning from school into it – e.g. 2x 40g of butter = 80g of butter, cutting the cake into half, quarters etc.
- Have some Chux or wipes handy – it will get messy!
Do you have any other tips or suggestions? Please comment below!