Making Muffins!

Some mornings the kids are antsy and need help to play. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that breakfast can't get made or that a kitchen fairy magically appears to make breakfast so I can structure the play. In these cases, compromise is required, and mine is muffins! That’s right, something that each age can help with in some way and they tend watch each other with excitement. If you just have one kid you can make the muffins from scratch, but since I have the daycare muffins in a bag is a cheap and fun way to get breakfast done while teaching the kids about taking turns, measuring, numbers, patience, and oven safety (which at the ages I have is strictly do not touch!). Each kid gets a job or two depending on their age and ability, with my job being the checker and oven handler. All kids get to be testers once the muffins are done and cooled. Jobs that can be done are:

Item collector (get muffin tin out, measuring cup or the food items needed for the muffins)

Tin sprayer or paper placer for the muffin tin

Mixer

Scooper (scooping the ingredients out to put into the bowl or scooping the mix into the tin)

Measurer

Muffin giver

Some of these jobs can be divided up further if more kids are present. My 1 1/2 year old really loved to watch, help get out the tin, then hand out the muffins. All the kids loved to eat them!

If you want to make the muffins extra special you can melt chocolate (or buy it melted) and have the kids drizzle on top of the muffins once cooled. Kids are great drizzlers. You can add an extra ingredient like vanilla, cinnamon, or brown sugar. This will give an extra special feel to the muffins and a nice present for the taste buds.

In my kitchen clean up is part of cooking and everyone also has a job when cleaning up, plus it’s a great way to pass the time while the muffins cook. Once the kitchen is clean and hands washed (faces too, because sometimes we test early when we are little) sit down and ask the kids what their favorite part was, ask what they think the muffins will taste like, ask what they learned, ask them if they can smell the muffins or how the batter or ingredients felt for sensory exploration, ask them when the buzzer goes off if the muffins are done yet! Write down in your kids’ journal what they say and don't forget to remind them that by cleaning and talking about what happened they got to practice patience and good manners! Always have fun! To end, the kitchen may get a little messy and things may not always go into the pot as planned, but the memories and lessons created will always be in your heart and mind after the counters are wiped and the mess if forgotten.

Abby