Why Mess Matters

Why embracing the mess and chaos when baking with children is a good thing

Oh, I get it! You’ve just cleaned the kitchen and your toddler utters those words “Can we do baking?”

Are alarm bells going off or are you imagining the perfect hour spent with your greatest girl or best boy resulting in a huge pile of cookies on the kitchen table?

I’m guessing that you are now trying to figure out how to turn the alarm bells off.

There is a sign in my kitchen that reads “A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen”, here’s why.

Baking is building self-confidence, developing gross and fine motor skills, it’s sensory play, it’s creative, it’s developing independence and autonomy, it teaches responsibility. And finally, it gives you cookies!!

The last one is reason enough, but let’s look at them all in turn.

Self-confidence is a belief in your abilities and skills. It comes from trying, maybe failing and ultimately learning. Cracking eggs isn’t a skill you master on your first go, but by slowing it down into different steps, a child can learn to crack eggs, safely and without mess. Using balance scales to measure out flour takes trial and error, but with practice, a child can recognise that if they add too much flour to the scales, the bucket will drop until they remove some of the extra flour.

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn” (Benjamin Franklin).

Motor skills can be easily worked on in the kitchen. Stirring, grating and mashing help with the gross motor skills. Rolling dough, pinching spices, shaping and cutting all encourage hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. These will help when the children move on to colouring and writing. All this can be achieved with play-dough, but remember to keep your eye on the prize. Baking gives you cookies

Sensory play isn’t to be underestimated, especially in children who are resistant to eating certain foods. If we are making a recipe in class that contains green vegetables, we will use our senses to investigate more green foods when the food is cooking.

Can you see the different shades of green? How much noise does celery make when you crunch it? Can you smell the mint before or after you crush it? What do the peas feel like when you smoosh them?

And finally, we get to taste. Which tastes best, spinach or lettuce? Squishy peas make the best mess, so an oilcloth or plastic tablecloth is best as it can be wiped clean.

Creativity is the best. We can make cookies using circular cookie cutters, but if we can use our hands to try and shape a heart or make a batman, or even to add food colouring into small amounts of dough, we can try to make Bluey and Bingo!!!

When you are baking the mess is part of the journey and the journey is more important than the destination. Any cookie tastes better than no cookie.

Now, I’m not going to sugarcoat this, baking can be messy. There are some things that you can do to minimise the mess.

- Choose an age-appropriate recipe. If you try and bake a quiche there is more scope for mess and spills than if you make cupcakes.

- Pre Weigh most of the ingredients, so that they can just be dumped in order in the mixing bowl.

- Put a wipeable cloth down or use a wipe-clean table.

- Use child-sized tools.

- Don’t try and multi task, you need to be fully present when baking with a preschooler.

If your child asked to do the baking, use this as a chance to teach responsibility. Once the baking is done, ask them to stack the ingredients bowls and cups inside the dirty mixing bowl. Get them to take this to the sink along with the wooden spoons etc. before they grab a damp cloth to wipe the table down. Afterwards, they can wash their hands and run off and play. It doesn’t matter if you wipe it again, you are sowing the seeds of shared responsibility and teamwork. Pop the baking tray or cake tin in the oven and set a timer. You can get washed up, or load the dishwasher in the time it takes to cook the recipe. You can also pop the kettle on and make a brew to enjoy with your goodies.

Finally, you have cookies, sit down with your little baker and enjoy the fruits of their labour. They and you should be rightly proud of what you have accomplished. Do you remember the last time you tried something new and nailed it?

That is the feeling your little one has right now. Feels pretty good doesn’t it?

Maria x 🧁

Categories: Learning through cooking