By Laura Sutherland aka Bakeful Play
Whether you have a school starter, first time nursery goer or a school aficionado climbing up the year group ladders, a new academic year can bring all sorts of anxieties and challenges. Children will be learning a new collection of skills, negotiating new social situations and adapting to new routines and expectations. Meanwhile parents will be figuring out how to support them whilst juggling the never ending to-do list.
When we set about providing activities for our children, I subscribe to the philosophy that they have to be flexible enough to fit into our crazy lives without creating too much mess or adding any additional stress. Ideally they will be purposeful, pleasurable and enjoyable for parent and little one alike. I hope in the next few paragraphs I can show you how baking can be just the activity you’ve been looking for to get your children school ready and beyond.
1. Bake For The Big Feelings
The run up to a new school year and the first weeks of term can be a time when anxieties and questions can bubble away under the surface. If we’re not careful these feelings can easily go unexpressed, lost in the overwhelming business of juggling outings, playdates, reading books, deadlines, and who hasn’t got any pants on two minutes before we absolutely HAVE TO GET IN THE CAR. Then of course we run the risk of the emotions bubbling over into tears and tantrums.
An activity like baking can be the perfect thing to create a safe space for talking through big feelings. When children are fully engaged in an activity like baking, their brains are in a state of executive function, which facilitates learning and allows connection. When little hands and yours are busy in the mixing bowl, rolling dough, cutting out biscuits, filling cake tins or whisking eggs, time flies. Both they and you are absorbed and present which results in better emotional regulation, a greater sense of enjoyment in what they are doing and personal control. When children feel like this they are more likely to engage in meaningful conversation and feel confident talking about the big things in their world. So if you feel like your little one is feeling a bit wobbly about school starting, friendships, a particular subject or struggling with separation anxiety whip out the mixing bowl.
Recipe Suggestions
• Something like my scruffy cookies that can be made using just about anything you’ve got in the cupboard is always a winner and there’s no need to fit in a trip to the shops.
• My fool proof cookies are the perfect speedy bake to satisfy hungry tummies after school.
Top Tip
Pre-weighing ingredients into easy-to-tip-or-pour containers massively reduces time and mess when it comes to baking with smalls. 'Tip that cupful into the mixing bowl' is a much simpler instruction and requires much less spooning than measuring out flour from bag, to scales, to bowl.
2. Bake To Support Motor skills
By improving their fine motor skills, children develop their independence in doing a vast array of tasks including writing, speaking, dressing themselves and creating things with their hands. The better they are at all these things, the more ably they can physically and emotionally navigate the world. Here are some great examples.
• Squeezing an icing tube, rolling dough into balls, sprinkling decorations over a cupcake or biscuit develops hand and finger strength. This is essential for everything from using cutlery, climbing monkey bars, doing up your coat and writing.
• Mixing ingredients or using a spatula to flip pancakes or take biscuits from a baking tray helps to develop forearm strength. This will all help with activities that require a child to grip.
• Using a rolling pin or rolling dough into balls requires a baker to use two hands at once. This is called bilateral integration and means that both sides of he brain are working well together to coordinate both sides of the body. Just think how many daily tasks require you to do this.
Recipe Suggestion
• My Squishy Pancakes are the perfect treat. Super easy, good mixing and flipping practice.
• Try this delicious School Dinner Sprinkle Cake
Top Tips
If your children are nervous about getting messy hands when rolling balls of biscuit dough make sure you keep a damp cloth or tea towel nearby for wiping.
Try to use baking implements that are an appropriate size for your little one, but avoid cheap, plastic play tools. Children will quickly become frustrated if the utensils they are using can’t cope with real ingredients, textures and thicknesses. Silicone utensils tend to have slightly shorter handles and silicone rolling pins come in a wide range of lengths for cake decorators.
3. Bake to encourage curiosity
Baking is a great activity for sensory learning, numeracy, literacy, communication, coordination, spacial awareness and planning. The chat you have whilst baking naturally develops mathematical and scientific language. Recipes include pictures, simple words and numbers. It’s perfect for reading together and following the recipe step-by-step supports working memory, organisation skills and sequencing.
Recipe Suggestion
Take a look at the Berry Yoghurt Loaf Cake recipe on the Bakeful Play blog. It was set up on a tuff tray to give the children maximum independence and they measured out their own ingredients using cup measures.
Top Tip
• When children are baking encourage their curiosity by asking them to predict what will happen when different ingredients are added and stirred into the mix. What will happen when we bake what we have made? How will colours, textures, sizes change? Why might that happen?
4. Bake For Others
One of my favourite outcomes from baking with my children is seeing them take pride in their accomplishments and be generous and thoughtful towards others. Baking is made for sharing and anything made with love tastes better. It’s a wonderful way of teaching little ones to think of others, develop empathy. It also helps to develop some resilience. An over baked biscuit or a wonky cupcake will be received with just as much excitement as a perfect one - it’s no about being perfect or comparing yourself to others. Once school begins so does a new self-awareness and celebrating their talents in a safe environment and providing others an opportunity to acknowledge their strengths and thoughtfulness will help them to feel confident. The mere act of baking with a parent, sibling or friends means being engaged in an activity as a team and this allows youngsters to feel secure and confident enough to try new skills, broach tricky subjects and be creative.
Recipe Suggestion
• Jam Drop biscuits are perfect for gifting. They’re quick to make and look lovely in a box, jar, tin or cellophane bag.
Top Tip
Often children find it hard to wait for their treats to bake in the oven. If you are going to give some of your cakes or biscuits away as a gift, why not get your little one to create a greeting card or gift tag whilst they bake? If you are making biscuits with a cutter they can even use that as a stencil. Dip it in paint to create a pattern or draw around it and colour in.
5. Bake With Friends
Starting school or returning for a new academic year naturally bring with them some social anxiety. Friendship groups change, we change in ourselves and new people come into our lives. If you are having a play date baking can be a brilliant ice breaker and help your little one negotiate new relationships. Turn taking promotes social interaction, working together to follow a recipe gives a focus and purpose to conversation. Completing the bake will help them to feel physically and emotionally comfortable with each other and might even inspire their free play later on. Best case scenario, they might even have made their own dinner or snack!
Recipe Ideas
• Making something like muffins or cupcakes is a great idea on a playdate. Each cake has its own case and can easily be transported home with a few extra for parents and siblings.
Top Tips
Read more about baking with several children on this top tips blog post.
Huge luck for September. You can find more recipes, tips and baking ideas at www.bakefulplay.com.
Happy baking.
Laura has just launched some back to school baking kits.
This gorgeous kit comes with two recipes, smiley face biscuit cutter & School classic ‘Please Mrs Butler’ it’s the perfect starting school gift for your little one.
The very best thing to have in the cupboard for an after school treat. Simply pour the ingredients into a bowl, mix with butter and ‘hey presto’ deliciously sweet buns ready to go. 20 min bake from start to finish.
