When I taught elementary school I had a love-hate relationship with summer. I loved the carefree, lazy days of summer, relaxing by the pool or hiking through the mountains. I didn’t love returning to school to find all the knowledge the kids had absorbed over the year had seemed to leak out during those summer days. I had to to spend several weeks doing refresher work to make sure everyone was back up to speed. This made me think long and hard about what to do with my kids over the summer. They were resistant to what they deemed my “attempts to educate them” during the summer, often complaining to their father, “Dad, make Mom stop trying to educate us! It’s our break!” I had to spend plenty of time finding sneaky ways to throw in education. One of my favorite ways to introduce science and math concepts was baking with the kids. They got a treat and totally did not realize they were learning.
If you want to sneak in some science this summer with your kids, why not have them try to make these “chemical cookies?” They can look up the science terms for the cookies and still have something tasty.
Here’s the recipe:
1/2 cup H20
1 teaspoon sodium bicarbonate
1/2 teaspoon soda chloride
2 cups sucrose
1 egg
3 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate or peanut butter chips or vanilla chips (or a mix of all three!)
1/2 cup nuts of your choice, optional
I’ve also included the “nonchemical” recipe for the butter cookies.
1/2 cup water (can substitute milk)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 egg
3 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate or peanut butter chips or vanilla chips (or a mix of all three!)
1/2 cup nuts of your choice, optional
How do you keep your kids learning over the summer?
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Those sound wonderful! What a nice summer snack, love Reese’s!
How fun! I’ve never seen a recipe put together with the names that way!
What a fun recipe!! I had never heard of chemical cookies. I love my netflix, I would often be bored with out it!
How fun.. my Teen would be all over the “chemical” version… and I just checked out our Netflix and found a lot of great shows for the kids to keep busy during the summer…thanks for sharing, where would I be without my netflix?
This is an awesome idea. Ya! Science!
My kids have been OBSESSED with the Magic School Bus lately. Mostly my little man, but he could sit and watch it all day if I would let him.
I LOVE that you did the chemical names… my niece will LOVE deciphering this recipe!
We made chemical apple pies in science, the kids loved it! Even adults couldn’t comprehend that they were “fake.”
What a fun recipe! My son is really into science experiments, so we’ll have to try this. Plus, he loves cookies. 🙂
How fun… I am a huge fan of sugar cookies… oh my goodness, they just melt in my mouth and are so yummy! Thanks for posting the recipe.
What a neat idea. I was probably a bad mom cause when it was summer I really didn’t want anything to do with learning or a schedule! I love how you incorporated a tasty treat to keep them learning without knowing it.