Learning With Savoury Pikelets

Welcome to the September Carnival of Natural Parenting: We’re all home schoolers

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how their children learn at home as a natural part of their day. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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Education at home is extremely close to my heart, so much so that if I can put in a plug here I run a blogging carnival dedicated to it called ‘Teach/Learn.’ No matter where you are or what your kids do most of the time, they are learning at home – we are all teachers and all learners all the time.  Rather than something wordy and philosophical, I thought I’d show a really simple twist on one of our favourite activities – cooking.  Kids can learn all sorts of things without realising they’re learning, you don’t have to add anything to make it a special experience.

Savoury Pikelets

I think everyone learns pikelets early in their cooking career.  What we did rather than the sweet version, was taste all the herbs in the spice rack.  We decided which ones we liked the best and substituted them for sugar in the recipe.  (Incidentally this is good practice extending from the known to the unknown.)

Ingredients

• 1 cup* self-raising flour
• 3/4 cup* milk – For a runnier mix, add more milk.
• 1 egg
• Chosen herbs, amount to taste.  Err on the side of caution!  Too much and they are inedible.

*Australian cup, which I think is slightly different to a US cup.  I don’t know if it will affect the recipe, common sense says it shouldn’t but who knows

Method

1. Sift flour into a bowl with herbs.  To tell the truth we don’t normally bother to sift.
2. Whisk milk and egg together.  Large bowls with high sides are a good idea with little ones.
3. Add milk/egg to flour and keep whisking until smooth.  Or you can do what we sometimes do, put the flour in a bowl, add the unwhisked egg and milk, and mix really, really well!
   
4. Put spoonfuls into a frypan over medium heat, turn when bubbles start to form on the top.  Or you can use a squeezy bottle for kids to do them for themselves.
5. When they are bubbling they are ready to flip.  My 4 year old is just starting to do the actual cooking, I flip them in the middle of cooking and she lifts them onto a plate when they are finished..
6. Serve with butter, or we’ve used them instead of toast with savoury mince.  Ones flavoured with cumin can substitute for tacos or tortillas in mexican food.

So what are they learning?

English - Following an instructional text.  Many kids recipes come with simple illustrations and this is a form of literacy too.

Maths – Measurement, fractions, counting.

Science - Observation through taste, experimentation by varying a known recipe, following an investigative format, changes in properties with mixing and cooking, discussion about where ingredients come from, especially herbs.

Technology and Design – following a design brief, testing and modification, cooking skills.

Health – nutrition, self-care, safety

Cognitive/Social/Emotional/Affective learning – co-operation, patience, persistence in following several steps, authentic learning that has a genuine use, indpendence and negotiation if they prefer different herbs and have to make a case for their favourite.

And these are just from the basic activity, it could be extended in all sorts of directions depending on where it fits with what you are already doing and what happens while you are doing it!  The beauty is you don’t have to let the kids know any of this is happening   We are all learning all the time.

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be updated September 14 with all the carnival links.)

• A is for Apple {But right now it’s more fun to pick apples!} — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment has a four-year-old who wisely knows she must forgo the worksheets for now and do things with her mother if she’s going to learn.
• Baby Talks — Amy at Anktangle talks, talks, talks all day long to her preverbal baby, about simple things and complexities. (@anktangle)
• Baby University: Little Man, My Teacher — The ArtsyMama shares how her relaxed and patient “teaching” at home resulted in a confident little one when she returned to work.
• Creating a Sensory Garden — A sensory garden has given Marita at Stuff With Thing and her girls practice in math, science, budgeting, fine motor skills, and more. (@leechbabe)
• Despite the Big Yellow Bus — Seonaid at The Practical Dilettante has surprised many friends by sending her kids off to mainstream schooling — but their learning doesn’t stop there. (@seonaid_lee)
• Down on the Farm — Megan at Purple Dancing Dhalias describes the multitude of skills her children learn by homeschooling on a farm.
• Early Childhood Education — First Do No Harm — Laura at Laura’s Blog provides an incredible list of tips to facilitate learning at home.
• Education Starts At Home — Luschka at Diary of a First Child was happy to realize that learning at home isn’t limited to older children. (@lvano)
• Every Day Is A School Day — Summer at Finding Summer lists the ways her family learns in this poem of a post. (@summerminor)
• hands on — the grumbles at grumbles and grunts read her little one Sherlock Holmes in utero. She’ll continue to make learning fun now that he’s on this side of the womb. (@thegrumbles)
• Have a Happy Heart — Erica at ChildOrganics has days of poop on the couch and oatmeal down the pants when sending her children to school seems like the perfect solution — until she regains her perspective. (@childorganics)
• Home Sweet Home Schooling — Check out CurlyMonkey’s Blog for a photo montage of how her kids are learning anatomy, architecture, and more — all at home. (@curlymonkey_)
• Homeschooling — My Needs? — Do you homeschool for the kids, or do you do it for you? Read some thoughts from Home Grown Families. (@momtosprouts)
• Homeschooling: A Way of Life — Kimberly at Homeschooling in Nova Scotia has children who meet learning with enthusiasm and are becoming self-sufficient at a young age. (@UsborneBooksCB)
• How We Homeschooled — Deb at Living Montessori Now details in retrospect how her two lifelong learners spent their homeschooling years. (@DebChitwood)
• Learning at Home With a Preschooler and Toddler — Need some inspiration? Michelle at The Parent Vortex shares her tips and resources for lifelong learning. (@TheParentVortex)
• Learning at Home: Are We All Homeschoolers? — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings incorporates homeschool ideas even though she plans to send her kids to school. (@sunfrog)
• Learning From Life — Mamapoekie at Authentic Parenting doesn’t even have to think about how her daughter learns. She just does it. (@mamapoekie)
• Learning Through Play — What better way to learn at home than through play? Dionna at Code Name: Mama lists the many ways children learn through play, whether they know it or not. (@CodeNameMama)
• Learning With Savoury Pikelets — Deb at Science@Home breaks down how cooking facilitates learning. (@ScienceMum)
• Lessons Learned by Bowling (Yes, Bowling) — What life lessons can you learn from bowling? Ask Jessica from This is Worthwhile. (@tisworthwhile)
• Life is learning, learning is life. — Kristin, guest posting at Janet Fraser — Where birth and feminism intersect, defends the truth that children are hardwired to learn. (@JoyousLearning)
• life learning… — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children found that structured schooling is about teaching, whereas unschooling is about learning, and her family resonated with the latter.
• Live to Learn Together — RealMommy at True Confessions of a Real Mommy knows that children learn in all different styles, so only one-on-one attention can do the trick.
• Natural Parenting and the Working Mom — Jenny from Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares how natural parenting in the Philippines — and learning at home — includes “yayas” (nannies). (@crazydigger)
• Not Back to School: How We Learn at Home — Denise at This Holistic Life has learned to describe what unschooling is, rather than what it isn’t.
• Our Learning Curve — Andrea of Ella-Bean & Co. has a special bookshelf set up where her daughter can explore the world on her own terms.
• School at Our House — Where is learning happening at Kellie at Our Mindful Life’s house? It is pouring all over the floor. It is digging down deep in the earth. It is everywhere!
• Schooling Three Little Piggies — Despite the mess and the chaos, Melissa at White Noise lets her children into the kitchen.
• SuperMom versus The Comic Books of Doom! — Mommy Soup at Cream of Mommy Soup realized that if “getting the kids to read” was the goal, it didn’t matter what the kids read. (@mommysoup)
• The joy of learning at home — Heather at Life, Gluten Free has a daughter who sees magic in the stars and understands the honeybees. (@lifeglutenfree)
• those who can’t teach — Do you need a superiority complex to homeschool? Stefanie at Very, Very Fine wonders.
• Too lazy to unschool? — If unschoolers aren’t lazy, Lauren at Hobo Mama wonders if she’s too lazy to live her dream of free-form education. (@Hobo_Mama)
• Unschooling the School of Me — Rachael at The Variegated Life considers what she’s teaching her son about work as a work-at-home mother — and the extreme work ethic she doesn’t want him to emulate. (@RachaelNevins)
• What We Do All Day — Alison at BluebirdMama discovered that it’s easier than she thought it would be to quantify how her child learns all day. (@childbearing)
• Who taught that kid ‘exoskeleton’? — Nervous about how you will facilitate learning at home? Don’t be – they will absorb things on their own! Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma shares her story. (@kitchenwitch)

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