Baby Development Tips

This week is National Baking Week in the UK. Here are a couple of reasons that baking is brilliant for toddler development:

Baking Teaches Skills:

There are so many skills that children can learn through baking, from the physical skills of pouring, stirring and rolling, to more cognitive skills like planning, following instructions and sequencing steps. Granted, for younger toddlers, the more cognitive skills may well be over looked but they will still have great fun developing their physical skills.

It’s a Multisensory Activity:

Baking ticks all of the boxes on being a multisensory activity. All of the senses are stimulated and that makes baking an effective teaching tool as children often learn best in a multisensory environment. So, you can start counting the number of biscuits made, talk about the shapes and colours of the cookie cutters, teaching basic concepts to your little one.

Patience is a Virtue:

And one that not many toddlers have. Don’t be surprised if your little one tucks into the cookie dough before its anywhere near ready. Baking is a wonderful tool to use to teach children that patience really is a virtue and that that if they wait until the cookies are ready, they will taste much better.

Here are some tips to make the process a little easier for both of you:

• Make sure you have a simple recipe with few steps if your toddler is still quite young.
• Measure all of the ingredients into smaller bowls before hand (unless you want mess everywhere!) If your child is older, letting her help with measuring is a great maths activity.
• Make sure your recipe is edible when raw as it will more than likely be taste-tested before it is actually cooked. (Try avoid recipes with eggs).
• If you have some time (which is unlikely) try and find picture step-by-step instructions or take plenty of photos as you’re baking for next time. These pictures can be used next time to teach sequencing and your toddler can try to follow the recipe even if she can’t read yet.
• Try for something fairly healthy and low in sugar so that your toddler can enjoy a some of his own baking without bouncing off the walls later.

Do you have any quick and easy recipes that you make with your toddler? I’d love to hear about them and expand our own little recipe collection! Leave me a comment and tell me about it!

Happy baking!