Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

Our goal is to create a Kid's Kitchen in which they feel safe and confident to prepare food independently!

This is one of my favorite recipes, and my student, Charlotte, loved cooking these. Charlotte's mother has allowed me to share with you the pictures of her very hard work! 

What you will need (these are listed in the order that they appear in the above picture):

1. 1 cup of oatmeal
2. 1 cup of flower
3. 1 tbs. of baking soda (I have added this beforehand to the flour)
4. 1/4 cup of sugar (I prefer to use brown sugar)
5. 1/4 cup of unsweetened apple sauce (I use this as an egg substitute)
6. 1 cup of milk
7. 1/4 cup of oil
8. 1 cup of blueberries

When the children come to class, the above Mise en place is already prepared at a table for a child to cook if they choose. In my classroom, we use a small toaster oven to bake. We cook these on high (around 400 degrees) for about 15 minutes. Remember to spray the muffin tin beforehand (this is part of my preparation before the children arrive to school).

Have your child use a small spoon to transfer each ingredient into the mixing bowl. Transferring with a spoon helps your child develop fine motor control and coordination. 

As we all know, it can be hard for toddlers to stay seated for such a long period of time; Therefore after mixing in each ingredient, Charlotte stands up, pushes in her chair, and walks the now empty bowl to the dirty dish rack. This allows her to exert some energy and return excited to combine the next ingredient!

    

   

If you're interested in buying a great baking set, Monti Kids' level 7 kit includes one. Click here for more information!

The Importance of Cooking with Toddlers

One of my favorite things in my Montessori Toddler classroom is watching the children prepare their own snack everyday.

Food preparation activities for young children, especially between the ages of 0-3 years, are not only fun to do and observe, but they are also so important for a young child's development. 

Such activities allow a child to feel a sense of belonging to their community, support the development of their coordinated movements, and help a child learn to care for themselves. Additionally, through food preparation activities, a child is able to refine their senses, which is so important since they learn through their experiences which are absorbed through their senses at this young age.

Often, I see many children playing at home or in other classroom environments using kitchen sets and fake food. While this may be fun, it removes so many of the important aspects that cooking with real food offers. Giving a child the opportunity to understand and engage in the process of preparing a meal is so beneficial. Cooking with real food allows a child to understand where food comes from. For instance, when a child squeezes oranges to make juice, they not only feel the different textures of the fruit, smell the orange, and see the juice come out, but they also get to reap the benefits of their hard work, as they enjoy a fresh glass of orange juice!

Sensorial education helps a child understand food and where it comes from. Additionally, these activities are opportunities for language development (names of the food, explanation about the different parts of the food, colors, smells, and the instruments we use to work with the food, etc.), and mathematics can also be incorporated! 

Through this blog, I hope to share with you some of the recipes we use in my classroom. These can be fun to duplicate at home as well! 



Also, Monti Kids' level 2 kit includes a dining set that can be your child's first place setting, and their level 7 kit has the perfect baking set! 

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