Honey Bees: Cooking in the Montessori Children's House

I am honored to share with you this simple food preparation activity from the Cooking in the Children’s House series by Megan Ray Durkin. Megan has a goal — to help children feel they are stewards of the earth and true citizens of the world. The projects from Cooking in the Children’s House blend her appreciation for children’s love of practical life work and cultural subjects with her expertise as a seasoned Montessori early childhood educator.

“Influenced, perhaps, by my early experience at a Montessori school…I am all for encouraging children to work productively with their hands. They learn to handle and care for equipment with respect…

The small rituals, like clean hands and clean apron before setting to work; the precision of gesture, the leveling off a cupful of flour; the charm of improvisation and making something new; the pride of mastery; and the gratification of offering something one has made—these have such value to a child. And where are they so easily obtained as in cooking? The patience and good humor demanded of you by cooking with a child are a good investment.”

–Julia Child

Cooking in the Children’s House: Honey Bees

By Megan Ray Durkin

Spring is in the air and we are as busy as bees making honey in the hive. Our garden planting season will soon be here and we eagerly anticipate digging in outside.

Any season is a great time to initiate, or expand on, a child’s role in the home or classroom kitchen.

Our garden-kitchen program at Montessori Children’s House follows the Montessori principles of empowering young children to be independent and feature hands on developmentally appropriate and fun projects.

In our weekly cooking class at MCH we discover the art of careful measuring, how to follow a recipe, and the joy of creating something delicious from scratch to share with others.

Each year we compile a cookbook of our child friendly recipes for families to try at home and have their children take the lead in the kitchen. Our hope is that you have as much fun making these recipes as we did at our school.

Tips for Cooking with Children

Wash and dry your hands carefully. Wear a clean apron. Push up your sleeves. Read the recipe all the way through.

Get out the cooking utensils and ingredients you will need. Put them on a tray. Then when the tray is empty, you’ll know you haven’t left out any ingredients.

Clean up as you go along. As you finish using a utensil, put it in warm soapy water to soak.

Finish washing and drying your utensils and put them away. Wash the counters and table top and leave the kitchen neat and clean.

Cook’s reward = delicious results to be packaged and taken home or served for snack the following day at school.