Tips for Baking with Kids
Couldn’t we all use some tips for baking with kids? I know this is something I have had to grow in because it didn’t come natural for me! But last summer, I intentionally planned once a week for us to bake a snack together. Don’t worry if you feel your anxiety starting to rise and visions of flour everywhere and cracked eggs on the floor. Keep reading for some of our favorite simple recipes and for my top tips to help make baking with your kids more successful!
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My Top Baking with Kids Tips
1. Take a deep breath. Take a second to really think about what parts of baking with your kids really make you feel stressed. Is it the mess that could be made? Is it the chance that it won’t turn out right? Or that they won’t do it right? Try to acknowledge those feelings and deal with them up front. Most of the reasons that make us anxious if we really look at them are more about us needing to deal with our own stuff and grab ahold of what is really true. For me it can be the feeling that things need to be done just right. I remind myself before we bake that this is for fun. No one is judging our performance. This is my chance to practice giving them control in the small things before there are big things I need to hand over to them.
2. Start with something simple. If you haven’t baked much with your kids don’t try to make a complicated recipe right off the bat. Make a cake from a box! Or banana bread! These are some of our favorite simple recipes we have used!!!
Chocolate Chip CookiesÂ
3. Start giving your kids small jobs when baking and work your way up. When my kids are little, we start by just dumping ingredients in the bowl. Mom measures and they dump. As we work out of the toddler stage, they can start measuring while I supervise, of course! Then we start cracking eggs and cutting up ingredients. Finally we get to use the oven and mixer! If your child has never baked with you before start at the beginning and demonstrate each skill. An older child will obviously progress much more quickly! By working through these skills, my 10 year old loves to bake on her own. She just made it a goal to bake something each weekend during this month. It keeps her busy and I have to help her very little!
4. When the make a mistake, smile and say, “It’s okay, mom has made lots of mistakes making recipes too!!” This goes back to step one. If we are feeling anxiety, we won’t react the way we want when mistakes happen. I am saying this as someone who has not responded this way more times than I wish was true!! But our anxious emotions are lying to us! So what if the recipe is ruined and we have to start over. So what if we make a big mess spilling milk. NONE of these things are actually unfixable! And what a great example to model to our kids that we can make mistakes and persevere!
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