Home Ed - Cooking Workshop

Last Wednesday we had our regular Home Educators meet up with our local Worthing group.  Last themed workshop was 'Family History'.  This one was a 'Cooking Workshop', and it was just as successful as the Family History one!  The big difference was the take-home items from this workshop were Yummy & Edible!

I pre-baked 22 small pizza bases the night before (in foil cases), as well as 22 chocolate chip cookies. (whew!), and also chopped up the fruit for our Fruit Kebabs.

We started the Workshop off with the Pizza Making Table. But before everyone embarked upon making their own scrumptious pizza, I did a little pitch about how Cooking involves Science, Language, Math and History. I handed out a little pamphlet I printed out at home, that had a Science Experiment using the same ingredients you make pizza dough with, a few puzzles, a temperature conversion table, some information on Nutrition and Vitamins from fruit & veggies, and the recipes I used for the Pizza and Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Further below I put a link to the pamphlet which can be used by anyone who would find it useful for their own home ed (or other) group.  The artwork on the pamphlet was created by one of our young Home Ed children (isn't it fabulous!)

I also just so happen to have some refrigerator reference magnets from a business I started years ago (and am trying to revise these days!), one magnet was a 'Cooking Conversions' table (since my measurements are always cups/spoons but here in England it's weights/volume), and the other was a 'British Seasonal Produce' magnet listing all the local seasonal produce by month.

Okay!... so back to the Pizza Making table.....after the children got a squirt of anti-bacterial hand wipe on their hands (Health & Safety!), the each got a pizza base and then headed to the table where they added sauce, cheese and toppings of their choice.  Everyone really enjoyed making their own pizza, especially the young lady who shaped her tomatoes and bell pepper in to a happy face, putting the fresh spinach as hair :)

After Pizza, everyone got to make a Fruit Kebab, because, as I mentioned at the Workshop, we always make sure we eat the healthy snacks before the Cookies!

After Kebabs, everyone ran off to enjoy some Birthday party games that another Home ed Mum had brought to celebrate her daughters birthday.  This was great timing for Pass-the-Parcel, because it allowed me to clean and and get ready for Chocolate Chip Cookies!.

For the cookie making table, each child got to put an ingredient in the bowl.  One young man impressed us with his ability to separate an egg! (he did it so gracefully).  When it came time to putting the chocolate chips in, I knew there'd be some problemo's if one child got to put those in and not the others.  SO, I acted quickly and handed the person to my left a tablespoon and said 'Here, put a spoonful in and pass the spoon', and it worked perfectly!  Each and every person around the table got to throw some chocolate chips in the dough, so was smiles all around.
Thankfully, I had pre-baked some cookies that morning so everyone could eat one then and there.  I put some dough in foil containers I brought, so each family could bring dough home to cook later.

Well that was it!  Pizza, Cookies and Kebabs.....a winning combination for a 2 hour Workshop.  Hopefully, everyone is enjoying their pamphlets and magnets as well.

Next Workshop is a 'Detective Academy' where kiddo's will complete detective courses for Fingerprinting, Invisible Writing, Decoding and Handwriting Analysis......as well as complete a challenging obstacle course.  Once completed, they receive a Certificate of Completion.......how cool is that!

But that's a week away from now.  In meantime, I must get back to my businesses I'm determined to launch sooooooon.


Here's the Cooking Workshop Pamphlet. I printed back-to-front then folded as a booklet.


Cooking Workshop Pamphlet - Cover Cooking Workshop Inside 1 Cooking Workshop Pamphlet-Inside-2 Cooking Workshop Pamphlet - Inside 3