Homemade soft pretzels. Making bread is such a great sensory play activity for kids. Squeezing, pushing, pressing and pulling the dough… smelling it as it bakes and then, of course, eating the finished product!

The dough only needs to rest for 10 minutes before shaping. All you need is warm water, one packet of yeast, melted butter, brown sugar, salt, flour and baking soda. We made a vegan version with plant based butter.

This pretzel recipe includes a baking soda ‘bath’ – this step gives pretzels that iconic flavor, golden brown texture, and super soft centre. If you get the water boiling ahead of time, it really only adds 5 minutes to the entire process. It’s worth it!

This dough makes 12 regular size soft pretzels, so we used two baking sheets, six on each.

Ingredients
Pretzels
1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) warm water (lukewarm – no need to take temperature)
1 packet active dry or instant yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar or granulated sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and slightly cool
3 3/4-4 cups (469-500g) all-purpose flour (spooned and levelled), plus more for work surface
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Baking Soda Bath
1/2 cup (120g) baking soda
9 cups (2,160ml) water

Method

• Whisk the yeast into warm water and allow to sit for one minute. Whisk in the salt, brown sugar, and melted butter. Slowly add three cups of flour. Mix with a wooden spoon (or dough hook on a bread mixer) until the dough is thick. Add more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. If it is still sticky, add 1/4 – 1/2 cup more, as needed. Poke the dough with your finger – if it bounces back, it is ready to knead.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough for 3 minutes and shape into a ball. Cover lightly with a towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes. (Meanwhile, you can get the water and baking soda boiling as instructed in step 6.)
• Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. If using parchment paper, lightly spray with nonstick spray or grease with butter. Set aside.
• With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into twelve sections.
• Roll the dough into a rope. Form a circle with the dough by bringing the two ends together at the top of the circle. Twist the ends together. Bring the twisted ends back down towards yourself and press them down to form a pretzel shape.
• (This step is optional, but promises a chewier pretzel and helps provide that traditional soft pretzel taste). Bring the baking soda and two litres of water to a boil in a large pot. Drop 1-2 pretzels into the boiling water for 20 seconds (any more than that and your pretzels will have a metallic taste). Using a slotted spatula, lift the pretzels out of the water and allow as much of the excess water to drip off. Place pretzels onto prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle each with coarse sea salt. Repeat with remaining pretzels. You can cover and refrigerate the boiled/unbaked pretzels for up to 24 hours before baking in step 7.
• Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and serve warm.

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These banana pancakes are SUPER easy to make – and SUPER yummy. Pop all the ingredients into a blender (or whisk in a bowl), leave for 10 minutes, then get flipping!

The combination of bananas, dairy free milk and oats make the perfect thick pancakes. The magic of the fluffiness comes from apple cider vinegar and baking powder – seems strange but really works. Lemon juice can work (but not quite as well).

A couple of tips:

• Thick batter is important to help make these lovely thick pancakes. The oats will help absorb some of the liquid so do leave the batter to stand for 10 mins before cooking
• Avoid using overripe bananas – they can make the batter too runny.

Makes 8 thick pancakes

Ingredients

• 2 cups ‘quick’ oats (gluten free)
• 1 cup plant milk
• 2 bananas
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp sugar (optional for sweetness).

Method

1. Add all ingredients to the blender and mix until smooth
2. Allow to rest for 10 minutes
3. Heat the pan and pour in about 1/4 cup of batter
4. Cook for 1-2 minutes until you can easily flip the pancake (be mindful that the first pancake is often not a very good one, for some reason!)
5. Repeat until you’ve used all the batter.

Add all your favourite toppings – we like to chop up nuts, banana, berries and have everything in bowls for the children to choose from. Some melted chocolate always goes down well!

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Emotional safety means that children feels safe enough to be vulnerable.

There are lots of ways to create emotional safety for children. By building a supportive space, we help them develop compassion, resilience and confidence.

Here are some ways to create a supporting environment:

~ Listen first; talk second. As carers or parents, we can often jump in to comment on how a certain experience might feel, or suggest what children might be feeling. Let them explore and communicate to you as much as possible. More often than not, attentive listening is enough.

~ Avoid squashing emotions. What seems ‘small’ to us might feel really big to a child. Rather than dismissing feelings, allow a child to feel them, and then move on once the emotion passes through them. It can be helpful to remind them that they own their feelings, not the other way round.

~ Reserve judgement. When adults engage in negative behaviour, children develop negative core beliefs. They might not understand sarcasm at a young age, but they do pick up on tone of voice and expressions.

~ Express your own emotions. It’s healthy to allow children to see the range of emotions we go through as adults. It shows them that it’s part of being human. By talking about emotions, children learn that we all have big feelings.

Emotionally safe relationships are built on trust and acceptance. When you show your child that you accept and love them, you are doing them – and their development – a world of good.

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“Art is a place for children to learn to trust their ideas, themselves and to explore what is possible.”
Maryann F Kohl (award-winning art activity book author)

Art is an amazing opportunity for children to invent, experiment, take risks, grow, break ‘rules’, make mistakes and have fun. As well as being fun and explorative, art plays a more important role in child development than we might think.

Art helps develop:

~ fine motor skills (holding pens, crayons and paintbrushes)

~ cognitive development

~ visual-spatial processing

~ creativity

~ language skills

~ self esteem

~ maths skills (shapes and sizes).

How can we encourage children to engage in creative activities?

Most children don’t need much encouragement and love to get stuck in! There are a few things that are worth keeping in mind as a carer/parent to make the experience as empowering and fruitful for a child as we can:

~ provide children ample time and space 

~ provide safe and interesting materials that kids can use on their own. Try textured cardboard, paper, boxes, bottle lids, play dough, crayons, paint, chalk, potato stamps… the list is endless! 

~ use open-ended comments that will encourage child to explore.

~ remember that the most development occurs in a ‘free play’ state when it comes to art – try not to lead or direct.

~ No agenda is the right agenda – try to avoid having a specific plan or goal in mind and let the creative process make its own way.

Finally, it’s important to remember it’s all about the journey, not the end destination or product. Unstructured play helps kids work with intrinsic motivation and builds self confidence. 

Most importantly – have FUN! 

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“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Mary Ann Radmacher

By teaching our children to be courageous, we arm them with the tools they need to thrive.

Sometimes, ‘safe and certain’ might be the perfect place for our kids to be, but so much growth and the things that will enrich them will happen when they explore courage, even if just for a few seconds.

Ways to encourage courage:

~ Show them what bravery looks like – if we want our children to be brave, then we have to be brave!

~ Invoke culture and heritage

~ Point out real life role models

~ Build confidence and try new things

~ Speak of their bravery as though they’re already there

~ Challenge and praise

~ Give them space for courage of thought.

When children feel good about themselves and see that they have the personal power to make courageous choices, they are more likely to lead personally satisfying and successful lives.

“Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little better and the world a little braver. And our world could stand to be a little kinder and braver.”
Brené Brown

 

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All you need is 5 ingredients to make these vegan, gluten free chocolate cookies!

Baking with children is a great way to incorporate sensory experience, counting and being creative in their development. This recipe is incredibly easy and just requires a bowl and fork for mashing everything together before spooning onto a tray to then bake.

Ingredients (makes 5 – 8 cookies depending on how thick you like them)

• 4-5 mashed ripe bananas (1 1/2 cups)
• 120g nut butter (almond or peanut works best (1/2 cup)
• 50g cocoa powder (2 tablespoons)
• 50g sugar (2 tablespoons)
• 50g chocolate chunks

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. and line a tray with baking paper.
2. Mix all the ingredients (leaving some of the chocolate chunk) until smooth.
3. Using a spoon (the mixture will be very runny), drop chunks of the dough onto the tray.
4. Top the mounds with the remaining chocolate chunks and bake for 12 minutes.
5. Remove and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.
6. And you’re done! 5 ingredient, vegan and gluten free chocolate cookies!

Looking for more inspiration? Visit our blog for more recipes.

This recipe is by one of our favourite vegan bakers, Yum Vegan Treats, who you can follow on instagram here.

Although all children develop at different rates, there are six general key stages of play development.

Unoccupied play (birth-3 months)
Babies are learning about their body and discovering how it moves – there’s lots of wiggling and testing to see what works, and what doesn’t!

Solitary play (birth-2 years)
At this stage, a child puts all concentration into what they’re playing with and there’s little interest in playing with others just yet.

Spectator play (2 years)
Now a child becomes much more interested in watching other kids play, although prefers to be on the periphery rather than engage.

Parallel play (2+ years)
A child becomes increasingly interested in other children and what they’re doing – edging closer to play alongside them (still not fully engaging in joint play).

Associate play (3-4 years)
At this age a child starts interacting much more with others, however still not fully! They might be doing something related to children around them, such as playing in a playground, but might not actually be interacting with the others.

Cooperative play (4+ years)
Now children become much more immersed in collaborative play, making up games together and acting out stories. Friendships take on a new lease of life!

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, kids interact at their own pace and these are indicative stages of play development.

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As parents or care givers, how can we empower our children to be the best version of themselves? Naturally, we want them to grow up confident with self-worth, resilience and respect for others.

Here are some tips to empower them so they can develop into fulfilled, confident, respectful, well-adjusted and resilient adults.

End the day on a positive note – as your child drifts off to sleep, whisper something positive about the day that relates directly to them. Going to sleep feeling loved, save and positive is empowering!

Give your child choice – from a young age, encourage your child to make decisions that directly relate to them such as choosing between toast or cereal for breakfast, or which coloured t-shirt to wear.

Listen – stop what you’re doing and really engage.

Allow your child to take risks – trust your child to explore their environment and this means taking small (monitored!) risks.

Encourage your child to follow their interests – even if they’re not your interests, allow them to pursue what makes their heart sing.

Encourage perseverance, resilience and integrity – life is not always easy, so encourage your child to try and keep on trying until they succeed or come close to it!

Teach your child the ‘super hero pose’ -this fun and actually very empowering! Encourage your child to place their hands on their hips, their legs slightly apart and their shoulders back for 30 seconds. Surprising empowering – try it yourself!

Fundamentally, we can empower our kids in a number of ways. Trust them, model respect towards them and encourage them in all they choose to do!

If you enjoyed this, please have a look through our blog for more research based articles.

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It’s perfectly normal for a child to find it difficult to share. They generally understand the concept of sharing at about the age of three, but it might take a while longer before they are actually prepared to do it.

True sharing implies empathy, the ability to get into another’s mind and see things from their viewpoint. However, the power to possess is a natural part of the child’s growing awareness. During the second and third years, as the child goes from oneness to separateness, this little person works to establish an identity separate from mother. In fact, “mine” is one of the earliest words to come out of a toddler’s mouth.

A growing child develops attachments to things as well as people. This ability to form strong attachments is important to being emotionally healthy.

Although children develop empathy, and learn the concept of taking turns, at a young age they’re not necessarily mature enough to resist all of their impulses.

You can sow the seeds of generosity by gently encouraging your child to share.

Here are some things to try:

Give your child opportunities to share – create attitudes and an environment that encourages your child to want to share – “Look how happy you made Tommy by sharing that toy with him”.

Start young – Learning how to take turns is the first step in sharing.. From the time your child can grasp an object, you can teach sharing by passing the object back and forth while saying “your turn, my turn.”

Make it fun – share games like puzzles, and projects like watering the plants or unpack the shopping together.

Respect your child’s possessions – don’t punish your child for not sharing – not everything is shareable and that’s ok: we all have prized possessions that we prefer not to share.

Talk it out – If they’re reluctant to share a particular toy, ask them why. Healthy conversations encourage healthy development.

Give children time and space to work it out among themselves –  Self-directed learning — with or without a little help from caregivers — has the most lasting value. If the situation is deteriorating, intervene.

Set a good example – the best way for your three or four-year-old to learn generosity is to witness it. Children who have been on the receiving end of generosity follow the model they’ve been given and become generous persons themselves.

Finally, remember to use descriptive praise when your child does share. Instead of vague phrases like “You’re such a good boy,” say something like “Did you see the smile on Sammy’s face when you gave him the truck? He really liked that.” That draws his attention to concrete details of what he did.

Selective sharing can happen up to the ages of 4 or 5, so be patient and reward great behaviour.