Using Baking Kits as Part of a Homeschool Curriculum

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Homeschooling gives parents a unique opportunity to teach their children the values they believe in. You also have the flexibility of shaping certain aspects of the curriculum to suit your children’s unique learning styles. While doing this, you get to spend time together and grow closer as a family, and include fun teaching activities within the curriculum.

Baking with kids is one of the activities you can engage in to support classroom learning and teach real-life applications of these classroom concepts. Using baking kits for various treats, you can include educational and fun baking to break the monotony of classroom teaching.

In fact, considering the benefits of baking with kids, baking lessons can actually be considered an important part of the homeschool curriculum, rather than extra-curricular. In this article, find out about making homeschool fun by including baking lessons with easy-to-use baking kits.

Learn the best ways to use baking kits and how to assign age-appropriate tasks when baking with children.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”16032″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”BAKING AS A HOMESCHOOLING ACTIVITY” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Baking is an excellent homeschooling extracurricular activity. At the end of a long day of learning, you can embark on baking with your children. They can have these delicious treats for dessert after dinner or with tea depending on the time.

Take advantage of bad weather when you’re locked indoors to enjoy fun kitchen activities. Once they’re old enough, you can assign various baking with kits as homeschool projects for learning credit. Here are some benefits of using baking kits as a homeschool activity:[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Encourages Bonding” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Setting time aside to focus on something the children love (and what child doesn’t love dessert?) shows them love and demonstrates that they’re valuable. You’re creating precious memories that will strengthen your family bond now and throughout their lives.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Communication and Cooperation” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Using baking kits encourages children to build their communication skills – they will learn to read and follow instructions, cooperate with each other towards a goal, and just learning how to chat about different things. Initiate random discussions by asking questions about their day, or encourage the stories they start sharing.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Confidence” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Using baking kits makes it easy for children to bake with minimal assistance from an adult (although an adult must be present for children younger than ten). This builds their kitchen skills, which is a valuable life skill for everyone.

Once they learn how to follow the recipe and come up with delicious treats, they can become more confident experimenting and tweaking recipes to get different results. They can move on to more complex treats as they become better at baking with kits.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”16033″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”BAKING FOR EDUCATIONAL LESSONS” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]The benefits of baking with kits don’t only cover life skills outside the curriculum. Rather, baking also directly aids the homeschool curriculum by reinforcing various classroom concepts. Specifically, baking is a useful tool to show STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) concepts applied in fun ways.

The educational activities that come with the baking kits can be included in the homeschool lesson plan for greater variety. Emotions form a huge part of learning – and if a child enjoys how they learn, they will grasp concepts faster. This is the greatest advantage of using baking kits to assist home education. Below are some direct lessons they can learn:[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Measurements and Fractions” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Measuring isn’t easy for children; their fine motor skills and bilateral coordination must reach a certain level to help them measure accurately. Measurement is an integral part of learning math and the sciences.

Ingredients in baking kits come pre-measured to help your children get the best results before they learn to measure out ingredients. Still, you can use these premeasured ingredients to reinforce fractions and measurements. For example, pour your pre-measured ingredients to a measuring cup for the child to ascertain what quarters, halves and thirds look like.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Critical Thinking” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Understanding a recipe and applying the instructions bolsters the child’s critical thinking skills. If they can read, they should read it aloud and take charge of ensuring instructions are followed.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Chemical Reactions” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Even before learning chemistry, the reactions of baking may be fascinating to children. You can explain why adding yeast or baking powder makes cakes and bread rise. Older children can get more technical explanations and experiment freely to make their own observations.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Problem-Solving and Failure Handling” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Despite every good effort, a baking lesson may go off the rails. These failures give you an opportunity to bring the child’s problem-solving skills to the fore. They can learn to handle failure and make the best of terrible situations with by resolving simple kitchen mishaps.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Creativity” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Creativity is an integral part of any homeschool curriculum. You can help your child to personalize a recipe according to the ingredients available in the house. Using baking kits, follow instructions and figure out where to add or subtract ingredients depending on what you want to achieve.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Value of Learning” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]The real-world applications of classroom concepts can generally help a child to understand that learning has a real impact on their lives. This will give them a positive attitude towards learning, even later in life. Though they may not see the purpose immediately, these skills will be helpful in future.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”16034″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”AGE-APPROPRIATE ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOLERS TO TWEENS” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]You should assign baking tasks for kids according to their age, concentration span, and dexterity (hand-eye and hand-hand coordination). However, even the littlest of hands such as preschool and kindergarten kids can help out when baking.

Using a baking kit takes out much of the work in baking, which is why it’s so easy for younger children to participate. Older children in grade school and middle school can be more helpful. Tweens can even use baking kits to make delicious treats unsupervised, once you’re comfortable with their level of skill. Find out what your little helper can do depending on their age:[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Preschool and Kindergarten (2-5 Years)” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Toddlers and preschoolers can help with stirring, kneading, dumping an ingredient into the mixing bowl, and scooping batter into baking pans. Encourage them to use their senses – touching flour, smelling spices or tasting (safe ingredients). At this age, the child needs you to be the principle baker. But include them by engaging their senses and letting them help with simple activities.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Grade School (6-8 Years)” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Grade school children have better hand-eye coordination, bilateral skills, and basic reading and math skills. They can read the simple recipe instructions that come with baking kits and follow the pictures to know what to do.

They can handle tasks like whisking, kneading, greasing baking tins, simple decorating, sifting, cracking eggs, etc. Stay by their side, but let them handle the recipe and only step in for the tasks they find difficult.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Middle School – Tweens (9-12 Years)” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Older kids that have been baking with you from a young age should be able to handle most recipes that come with a baking kit since they are simple and include premeasured ingredients.

Even without baking kits, they can make accurate measurements, and even handle knives and electrical appliances like mixers and the oven. They can place baked goods in the oven and take them out, and they can handle more advanced decoration (with help).

Tweens have the attention span to handle the slower parts of cooking like waiting for the bread to rise or rolling and crimping the pie crust. They can work independently but step in periodically to give safety reminders, like turning off the oven or cleaning up the kitchen.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_custom_heading text=”FINAL THOUGHTS” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Building cooking and baking skills in your children is a helpful aspect of the homeschooling curriculum. Get your children in the kitchen from a young age to provide a fun educational activity that reinforces your class lessons.

By and by, your children will be more capable, more confident, more responsible and better learners because of the lessons they pick up when baking. As a necessary advantage, they will learn their way around the kitchen – an important life skill for their future.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]