Life and Learning

Baking Christmas Cookies together

When I was younger and in school, I vividly remember homework-filled nights of tears and struggle trying to learn to use fractions. It always makes me smile when my kids are baking with me and I see them happily manipulating fractions all over the place to measure ingredients, double a recipe, or make up for missing measuring cup/spoons.  Happy, purposeful, life learning.

I don't bake with my kids in order to provide a lesson on fractions and measurement. We bake because we like cookies.  And cake.  The math involved is a tool to get what we're after.  It is real and relevant.  

I don't have a checklist of skills for them to master by a certain age or date. I don't quiz them. When they were littler, I talked through the calculations out loud as I did them myself.  As they've grown, they've each come into being able to make the calculations and adjustments on their own, in their own individual times.  It is as seamless as a child learning to walk and talk.

How do I know they're learning?  Because it is right here before my eyes everyday.