How to make lemon squares
Are you social distancing or self-isolating due to COVID-19? Then cooking lemon squares will help you pass your time. There are so many great reasons to bake – to treat someone you love, to increase serotonin levels when you eat something sweet or just for something to do to pass the time. Here’s something I think we both can agree on – eating dessert is wonderful!
Benefits of Baking
Here’s the interesting part: Baking can be educational. Here’s the secret…Baking with children reinforces many skills learned in the classroom. It works like this. Choosing a recipe to bake begin offers children the chance to work on making a decision. Can your child look at ingredients in your cupboard and decide if a recipe can be made, if given a choice of recipes? Decision making occurs because you want something to happen and that skill can help our children tremendously.
Lemon Squares or Musical Chairs?
Let me tell you more reasons why baking lemon squares (or any baking for that matter!) can be educational for your children.
1. Reading: As your child is reading the recipe, decoding and understanding are happening. Teaching reading often involves reading, understanding and storing that information for a later time. Here’s how you can do the same thing. Making lemon squares together, or with siblings can help with any new words, processes or ingredients your child may not be familiar with.
2. Mathematics: Making lemon squares is applied addition. As ingredients are mixed, beaten, and baked together a new whole is made – something delicious to make. In addition to this, fractions are a BIG part of reading recipes. Practice reading the values of each ingredient and then measure together.
3. Executive Functioning Skills: Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Self-regulation can be challenged when baking. Let me tell you that my own kids have abandoned recipes before but over time they have learned how to motivate themselves to finish the recipe.
Lemon Squares for baker kids
In this video, you can watch an elementary-aged child make lemon squares.