January - Apple Pie Healing
The Bitter Cold of New England
February - Chocolate Brownies
Valentine’s Day
March - Maple Syrup Cheese Cake
Massachusetts Maple Syrup Factory
April - Boston Cream Pie
Boston and Boston Bags
May - Giant Decoration Cake
The Star of the Graduation Party
June- Bake Sale
Labor, Reward and Fun!
July - Strawberry Shortcake
Independence Day
August - Cranberry Bread
Farmer's Market
September - Muffins
Memories of a College Student
October - Punpkin Pie
Halloween
November - Indian Pudding
Thanksgiving
December - Fruit Cake
Christmas
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One spring day when I finally didn’t have to wear my thick jacket, I saw some kids and their teachers from day care handing out some flyers on the street. The flyer was about their bake sale at school.
A bake sale is a fundraising activity where baked goods like cakes and cookies are sold. School kids will raise money by selling baked goods so that they can buy materials for their class rooms. When I was in university, I also have been involved in fundraising for my department but I never thought that small kids could fundraise this early. I decided to take a walk in the daycare indicated on the flyer.
The class room I visited was full of five years old kids and they seemed to be kneading play dough at their small tables. However the dough they were kneading was in fact some cookie dough. They made them from beginning to end, starting with measuring the right amount of ingredients with their teachers support. Mixing butter with a generous amount of sugar and adding some flour to the mixture. Kids love kneading and whatthey knead here is neither clay nor mud, they knead edible cookie dough for fun.
After kneading the cookie dough, they would grab a small handful of cookie dough and place it on the baking tray. A cookie cutter is not necessary since the typical American cookie dough has a high proportion of butter and sugar so the texture ends up becoming really loose.
Putting the tray into the oven is teacher’s job. The kids don’t have to use knives and the oven is safely mounted in the wall so they don’t have to worry about touching the hot oven. They learn how to put away all the kitchen equipment as well. After the clean-up, they go to play in the sweet smell of cookies baking in the oven. When the cookies are out of the oven, they eat some of them and the rest will be sold at the bake sale.
I believe what they learn from this bake sale is not just work and rewards. They learn how to make nature’s ingredients into delicious food by their own hands and once they eat them, they will become their source of energy.
I think cooking will bring you a sense of peace and it’s so nice that these kids can learn this important lesson from an early age.
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