What Children and Parents Can Learn From Baking Together

[elleng]

'There’s a picture that I keep in the left-hand corner of my computer screen, of me and my son, Joshua, who is now grown, baking together years ago. It shows me bent over the kitchen counter gingerly disengaging a bell-shaped cookie from a large piece of dough. It looks as if it might have been gingerbread. Joshua — age uncertain, less than 3, I’d say — is standing on the stool we bought for just this job. He’s holding a cookie cutter, and there are more scattered about. We both have flour on our fingers; Joshua has some in his hair and on his sleeve, too. We’re both concentrating intently.

We baked together regularly but rarely took pictures. I wish we’d taken more. If we had, I think I would have seen us growing older, but not different. In the gingerbread picture, I recognize the curve I still make over the counter and the way Joshua holds his head when he’s focused, the way he keeps his arms close to his body when the task is intricate.

Our silhouettes would be the same today, and we would probably be doing the same things. Playing with the dough a little longer than any recipe would recommend. Molding miniature figures from the scraps. Licking bowls, spoons and fingers. Piling dishes in the sink and leaving them for later. Sitting on the floor in front of the oven window, watching our work rise, turn golden and set. Snatching hot cookies from the rack. Smiling, happy to be together in the warm room with the fragrance of butter and sugar and spice around us.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/magazine/what-children-and-parents-can-learn-from-baking-together.html?