Ari’s half-birthday is approaching so I’m going to be baking a half-of-a-cake cake with him. Thing is, his half birthday falls during the week so in-between homeschooling, trying to get work done, and writing, I’ll be baking a cake tomorrow. Knowing this is going to make for a TIGHT day, I thought it would be a good idea to have all of the ingredients — except for the ones that require refrigeration — laid out on the counter tonight.
Thing is, the mise-en-place-the-night-before idea came to me while I was cooking dinner — a new recipe — this evening. Therefore, I couldn’t read off the list of ingredients to Ari, who knows where most things are kept in the kitchen. Even if he cannot read the ingredient names, he knows the difference between even more obscure ingredients, such as the look of the regular cocoa powder and my dutched cocoa powder. What he doesn’t know, by sight, is the difference between bittersweet and semisweet chocolate bars.
Isabelle knows where nearly none of the ingredients or baking tools are kept. BUT, she can read! So, I enlisted her help to read through the ingredient list to Ari so he could gather everything up and place it on the counter. They were quite the pair!
Everything is ready to go, waiting for us, for the morning. I cannot believe I’m going to start baking at 7 a.m. (Because our homeschool day starts at 8:00!), but that’s the plan… as of now.
Raising Literate Humans 
I love that they worked together to get the ingredients – and how one knows things by place & the other by words. I also cannot quite believe that you are going to start baking at 7am, but… then again… I can believe it. I mean, we’ve done stranger things with our kids, no? May the baking be easy & the cake be delicious.
What a great team you have there. I’m sure the cake will be fantastic. Perhaps it could work into some of tomorrow’s lessons.
Teamwork makes the dream work… or in this case the cake! As I sit here thinking about what I might write about, I enjoyed your small moment which is building up to a big, early morning effort!
What a wonderful family activity, which will pay sweet dividends.
Love the teamwork – use each other’s strengths, right?! You’re a great momma to bake that half birthday cake before school. I hope it tastes delicious.
I love a good half birthday celebration and can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with half a cake! Good luck !
Awh! This will be an incredible memory that they hopefully carry with them.
Multitasking and team work at its best! I love the idea of half a cake for a half birthday. Keep us posted with the results!
I love that you celebrate half birthdays! 💜 They make quite the team. Good luck on the early morning baking!
I love it! Baking in the morning. A cake for a celebration. This is what happiness and world peace are made of.
You are one strong mom, to bake before the homeschool day starts!
It was a wild morning! I had to juggle a lot.
I had to read this because I can tell you who else would bake in the morning … My 15 year old. The other day I came downstairs, 10 minutes before we had to leave for school and he was making cookies! He said “You told me we were leaving in 10 minutes, and this will only take me 10 minutes.”
I’m definitely in for getting everything ready the night before and baking in the morning… I hope it all worked out!!!!
That’s awesome that he bakes cookies before school. Perfect to have fresh cookies as a snack!
Love how they worked together! Hope the cake baking went well!
Thankfully, it did. (Isabelle didn’t partake in the baking, but she ate the cake!)
What I really like about this is that you put the responsibility on them to figure it out and work together. You built on each of their strengths and made true teamwork of it. Hopefully, this will rub off in other areas! Hope the cake turns out well! YUM!
It’s sweet when they work together. He listens pretty well, but can’t always follow through on tasks because he’s still little. Then, he asks his big sis for help. Thankfully, she’s always willing to lend a hand.