Making Bread

I often forget that kids have the same sense of accomplishment that adults do when they create something worthwhile and meaningful. You can see the pride on their faces when they paint a picture that's hung on the refrigerator or when they carefully put away a freshly folded basket of laundry or help me with something or another for Caroline.

Yesterday we needed to make bread. Madeleine and Hank wanted to do it and so I let them take the job over. I did supervise, of course, but that was about all I had to do. They've been helping me cook and bake for so long that measuring and mixing are second nature to them.

I demonstrated how to knead the bread, but they did it themselves.





They put the kneaded dough in bowls, they found a warm spot for the dough to rise, they punched the dough down, they shaped the dough for the bread pans, they baked the bread and they flipped the bread out of its pan.

When Joe got home later in the evening, the kids raced to show Joe their loaves of bread. Each child beamed with pride and excitement over the loaf they had created and couldn't wait to cut into it and sample a piece.