Summer Boost
Activity:
Mother's Day Cookbook
Looking for a thoughtful gift mom can enjoy and cherish for years to come? Help your child design a special recipe book just for her. Kid-made and packed with recipes for some of mom's favorite dishes, it's sure to be a hit on Mother's Day.
Not only is this activity a great way to give mom something extra special on her big day, it also helps your child get valuable handwriting and spelling practice as well as boost her fine motor skills.
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What You Need:
- Construction or printer paper (if you plan to print out the recipes from the computer, use printer paper)
- Hole punch
- Thin decorative ribbon
- Markers
- Computer and printer (optional)
What You Do:
- Help your child brainstorm at least 12 dishes that she knows mom likes. Organize them into categories such as breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
- Find a recipe for each dish online or in a cookbook.
- Stack several sheets of construction or printer paper together, one sheet per recipe plus four more for the title page, table of contents, and front and back covers.
- Make sure they're all lined up, then punch two holes in the left side of the stack, about 1" down from the top and bottom edges. If you can, punch through the whole stack at once; if it's too thick, punch the holes in batches, but make sure the holes all line up.
- Now invite your child to write the title of the book on the front cover. Some good titles are “Mother's Day Cookbook”, "Mom's Favorite Recipes", or simply "Mom's Favorites".
- After she writes the title, have her decorate the cover using markers. Encourage her to choose a design related to Mother's Day, food, or mom herself, such as a heart, flower, a dish in the book, a portrait of mom, or a portrait of the family.
- Now make the title page. Help her write a special inscription to mom, such as a heartfelt message or poem.
- After the title page, make a table of contents. Figure out how to organize the recipes; a chronological order works well, i.e. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Dessert.
- Now help her write or type out each recipe on the remaining sheets of paper, one recipe per sheet. Draw up an ingredient list followed by step-by-step instructions for each recipe.
- Place all of the pages in order and bind the book with decorative ribbon by threading it through the holes and tying a nice big bow.
Present to mom on Mother's Day and watch her eyes light up with joy.
Here's a quick and easy recipe for chocolate chip pancakes that you can add to your recipe book for Mom. And the best part is, you can make these delicious chocolate chip pancakes for her on Mother's Day!
What You Need:
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 ¼ cup milk
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips!
What You Do:
- Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together in a large sized bowl.
- Add the milk, egg, and butter (melt first!), and mix until you have gotten all of the lumps out. Add in chocolate chips.
- Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat.
- Pour the mixture into circles on the griddle and heat. Flip to brown on both sides.
- Serve to Mom with some her favorite pancake accoutrements!
