02 May Renei Ngawati: Baking With Energetic Kids
Achieving that small activity that our tamariki ask for us to do with them (or vice versa!) deserves a big congratulations Mātua mā.
The times I have tried to teach end up being battles of who is the boss of what job, and who is running the kitchen. So I decided to step back a bit and start off nice and basic…
We all have been teaching our tamariki to bake and cook on our ‘list of parent-child activities’, so lock-down has been the perfect opportunity. Baking biscuits with my five year old is not an easy feat. She is high energy, lots of fun, and very exploratory. She’s got her own plan going on! Being at home at the moment with her and my other tamariki is the blessing amongst the situation our world is in.
Spending that time with them means I can (hopefully) figure out ways to adapt my ‘teaching’ to her learning style. I found a way to allow her independent learning but also save the kitchen from a flour explosion… It takes preparation, but if you dare try it… Congratulate yourself for allowing yourself to step back and let your tamaiti take control of their cooking skills, with hopefully no casualties (of sorts) in the kitchen…
I then wrote (with pictures) ngā tikanga tunu kai:
- Hereā ou makawe, horoia ō ringa. Keep it simple!
I then showed her the instructions. Each container had a corresponding sticker that she could identify in each step. Then follow māmā’s awesome drawings…easy peasie!
The real achievement here was letting go of the need to teach her how to bake, and let her create, but within a timeframe that she could handle before the next exciting distraction came along.
She could follow the basic tikanga, and all I had to do was make sure the tray got into the oven. And not burn them!
Yup, I kind of burnt them.
Last step: Eat them. Smile. And say how yum they are…