In a (somewhat) recent Instagram Live Q&A that I did, some of the questions asked were about baking with kids. I had such positive responses from my answers so I thought I’d do a little blog post about it in the hopes that it will help encourage more parents to start baking with their kids!

What’s your favourite thing about pairing baking & motherhood?

For me, the biggest thing about baking with my kids is that it’s a love language and bonding moment for us. It’s a huge reminder of my childhood – my mum loves baking so I have a lot of memories of helping her in the kitchen. And it’s just so beautiful for me now that I can do the same thing with my kids!

I’m creating memories with and for them, and not only are we having fun together in the kitchen, but it’s also a great learning experience for them! Baking is a great opportunity to teach them science, maths, and reading in a really fun (and delicious!) way! It’s also great for building their recall memory and conversational skills. For example, when my oldest was 3, he was able to guide me in making his dad’s pancake recipe…just from helping him make pancakes pretty much every Sunday!

What are some tips for baking with kids?

1. Prep ingredients beforehand

Depending on the age of your kids, their attention span isn’t going to be very long! Plus you know they just want to get into the fun part – mixing, stirring, and tasting! To save time and to keep their interest & attention span, prep and measure all your ingredients beforehand!

2. Explain what you’re doing

This is where the teaching and learning takes place! Explain what the ingredients are, what you’re doing with them and why (science), count out your cups/spoonfuls (maths), and if they’re old enough, you can even simplify your recipe to help them learn to read*!

*If you're not sure how to do this, then let me introduce you to Sarah, from Reading Made Delicious! This is her jam! Using her skills as an ex-primary school teacher, she designs special recipe cards using her signature read-to-cook method to help make reading practice easy and delicious! Check out her Read-to-Cook Starter Bundle HERE and use it to help start your read and bake journey today!

3. Hands on approach

Let them get their hands in it! They can help you crack the eggs, pour in the ingredients, stir the mixture, etc. My favourite things to do when I was a child was mashing up the bananas (banana cupcakes), and beating the eggs.

4. Embrace mess & imperfection

Let it go! They’re kids so it’s going to be messy and it’s not going to be perfect. I’ll be honest, this is something I struggle with because of my OCD and perfectionism, but am very adamant about doing! I never want my kids to feel like I’m not enjoying the experience with them because I’m upset about mess, or that I don’t think what they’ve done is good enough if I redo/”fix” something they’ve done.

5. Enjoy their creativity and learning

If you can embrace the mess & imperfection, they just might surprise you! I know I am constantly amazed by my son’s creativity when it comes to decorating cupcakes or cookies. And I get blown away at how much he learns from the experience (case in point, my example earlier about him being able to teach me his dad’s pancake recipe)!

These were all done and decorated by my 3yo with no input from me!

6. Take pictures/videos

I know we all want to be in the moment, but if you can, remember to take some pictures or videos of your experience! My son loves using the pics for “Show & Tell” at childcare, plus they’re also great for you to look back on as they grow up!

So are you ready to get your bake on with your kids? Let me know how it goes and if you found these tips helpful!