Bake baby Bake!

On Monday, Silas accidentally decided what we would learn all week long. He asked "Mom How do you make flour?"

Perfect!

So I got out the wheat berries.

First, he got to play with them, he said "They feel cold like rocks." Okay, This gave us a chance to talk about descriptions (without actually saying the word "descriptions").

Then, I got out the grain mill.
This was "Loud. very VERY loud!"

Later, he and Lauren tasted one.

"It is hard, and you can't bite it because its hard as a rock. You can't even chew it!" There you go son! Good description!


We made it a baking week
Monday: sourdough bread

(sourdough starter homemade)

Tuesday: Blueberry muffins

Wednesday: raspberry muffins

Silas watching the dough cycle for the bagels

Thursday: bagels
(my favorite day!)


Friday: Soaked Banana Coconut Muffins
Slight overkill on the muffins. I think I am going to have to spend all week weaning them off of the carbs!

I was surprised to see Silas feel so accomplished with thwhat we had made. He was very proud of himself.

Since the bagels turned out so Killer, and I was asked a couple of times for the recipe, I thought I would share it with all 7 of my followers (wink).

Killer Bagels
Click the name for a link to the recipe.

There was one full sunny day this week.

Silas found this caterpillar. It got away before we could find a home to watch it grow.

Bummer.

These are the Soaked Banana coconut Muffins.
(link to recipe is in the muffins name)

They were tasty tasty.

I have never baked so much in one week (ever!). It was so much fun to see the kids so excited to do this with me. Silas learned a little bit about fractions (from using the measuring cups). Lauren is learning ( the hard way!) to harness her fine motor skills. She inherited her dexterity (or lack thereof) from her Mom. This baking experience made me so excited with our decision to keep Silas home from school next year. There was no school desks or raising hands ( We have been working on interrupting lately though), just pure un-coaxed natural learning from live experience. We practiced reading and matching numbers (from the recipe to the measuring instrument), measuring out exact amounts (well practicing anyway), and Silas read all the words he could pronounce. his literary vocabulary is growing at a rapid pace.

For now, I must tend to a disaster that vaguely resembles my sweet kitchen. I love it so. Guess I should have taught them a little bit more about cleaning. I feel a cause and effect week coming on. "What happens the week following an entire five days of playing in the kitchen." Nice one.