decide for yourself

August 19th, 2009 by admin Leave a reply »

As any child-development expert will tell you, one of the best ways to help kids learn to be independent is to give them lots of opportunities to make their own choices. Baking with kids is perfect for this. Just ask lots of questions and offer lots of chances to participate: What kind of muffins should we make? Which bowl should we use? Do you want to take some muffins to our neighbors?

Once Carter and I settled on making sour cream–maple muffins the other night, for instance, I found myself aware of all the questions I ask him along the way. “Do you want to measure the flour? Do you want to crack the eggs?” And so he scooped and leveled the dry ingredients and cracked the egg for the wet ones. When we had the dry ingredients all ready to go in one bowl and the wet in another, I asked Carter whether we should add the dry ingredients to the wet, or the wet to the dry. He carefully contemplated before going with wet to dry.

Truth be told, often enough when I ask Carter if he wants to do something when we bake, his answer is, “No thanks, Mommy, I’ll watch.” But not always and just as often he changes his mind and joins in. But as I’ve mentioned before, more and more, he’s brushing me aside to do things himself. Soon enough, I’ll just sit back and watch.

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