Cooking with Kids

I describe myself as an artist and educator.  But, many of you might not know much about the educator part.  For many years I worked teaching people of all ages all about ceramics.  Unlike many people with my degree and the direction my career was going I discovered that I love working with children, specifically the ages of 3-5.  When I moved to Ithaca I began to pursue an early chlidhood position.  I was lucky to start working with a Montessori School before I had my son.

Learning about the Montessori Method has completely enriched my life.  It has opened my eyes as an educator and mother.  It has renewed my desire to be a lifelong learner.  It has changed the way I look at education.  I could go on and on, but obviously you can see I am commiteed to Montessori Education.  My work at our school involves creating a fun and engaging afterschool program.  Because of my background, our program involves lots of art projects.  In my studio, I have begun holding one day workshops for kids.  The last one was a huge success, and I will offer more this spring.  In our home, we work to guide our son to be independent.  Lately, we have been trying to get him more involved in cooking.

Last week we made muffins:

Putting the wrappers in.

 Chopping Pecans.

 Helping Stir.

 Watching the muffins cook.

 The finished product.

A lot of people might shy away from cooking with 2 year olds.  It can actually be really fun, if you can break things down into simple steps.  Just remember to stay calm and have a sense of humor-later in the day he licked all the tomatoes he was chopping and they did not go into the soup we were making.  I am planning on getting this book soon for our kitchen adventures.

I thought our muffins would look great photographed on the plates I made, but we ate them too fast!