Girl's Club

Annie is part of a girl's club which we helped start last fall. I had been wanting to do some home ec-y type of things with her and thought it would be much more fun to do them in a group. So after emailing some friends we put together a group of 4 families, 6 girls in all. It's working out beautifully. It breaks down nicely into 3 4-month quarters. We just finished up our first "unit" on baking. We covered the following:

October-- Pumpkin bread
November-- Corn bread
December-- Cookies

January-- Muffins

Making cookies

Natalie explaining how to tell if your baking soda is fresh

Girl's Club members

The girls have learned how to measure ingredients, the importance of preheating the oven, what to do to get ready to bake, the difference between baking and cooking, the different types of leavening, why sifting is important, and the different types of measuring utensils among other things. They are also putting together a nice recipe book. While the oven is baking the goodies the girls participate in a little lesson/story/activity. Then they get to sample their wares and often get a little play time while the moms finish cleaning and packing up.

Next we will begin a unit on Sewing followed by a unit on Cooking. I have to say the guys at home will be sad for us to be leaving baking behind. But now that the girls have learned many new skills, they will be able put that talent to work!