With great pleasure I introduce to you a very special guest- Caroline Mukisa from the Maths Insider blog. Caroline Mukisa is a mom of 2 preteens and 2 preschoolers. When not baking with her tribe, she runs the Maths Insider website where she shares tips and advice to help parents painlessly support their children's math learning. Caroline is an engineer, turned Maths teacher, turned kumon instructor, turned full time mom.
I happened to chance upon Caroline's blog when I was searching for resources to make maths fun for Joel. At Maths Insider I found not just a treasure trove of maths resources and tips, but I experienced a change of attitude as a parent towards teaching Maths. I simply love her DIY Guide to faster times tables where she not only tells you 'how to', but even considers the learning style of the child! Be sure to check out Maths Insider blog for yourself.
Caroline, I am honoured to have you as guest and its simply a delight to see your kids enjoy as they prepare this dish!

Carribean Fry Bakes (Maths with Kids in the Kitchen)
Math is one of those school subjects that gets a bad rap. Kids find it boring, parents find it difficult to help out and teachers don't have time to make sure their students are solid in their basic maths skills. One of the best ways to overcome this is to "play" with math. Baking is a great way to practice basic math skills with kids. In one cooking session your kids can play with:

counting
dividing
measuring
reading scales
fractions
ratios

Follow along while I bake and "play math" with my 2 and 4 year old.

Caribbean Fry Bakes

Mr Maths Insider is from the Caribbean and we like to make this recipe a few times a month. These tasty bread buns can be either baked or shallow fried, hence the name "fry bakes"

What do you need?

4 cups flour 1 cup milk ½ cup water 1 tsp yeast 1tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt Pre heat the oven to 400°F

Let's measure the ingredients

This is nice time to get younger kids reading scales, or counting out spoonfuls of ingredients. Older children can practice scaling the recipe up or down. Recipes that use weight are great for estimating quantity.

Mix that dough

Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, first with a large wooden spoon, then by hand, until you get a large ball of dough. Add more flour or liquid as needed.

Divide the dough

If you've got a few people helping with the baking, then do some basic fraction practice by sharing the dough between your fellow chefs. (By the way, I bought the cool addition placemat in a local toy store, but you can also buy it on Amazon : Painless Addition Placemat. Try exposing young ones to concepts before they have to formally learn them!)

How many fry bakes?

You'll need to divide the dough into small golf ball size pieces. Younger kids can count out the pieces. Older children can try to estimate how many fry bakes you'll need for the family (4 each is plenty!) and try dividing the dough to suit. Put the fry bake dough on a greased baking sheet and pop into the oven for 10-12 mins. Alternatively, shallow fry the fry bakes on a medium heat, making sure to brown each side.

How many do you want to eat?

If your family is like ours, you'll be fighting over these yummy fry bakes. There'll be some serious math going on as you try to work out how many each person gets! They taste great on their own or with soup or stew or even with a sweet treat like honey or cinnamon sugar. Enjoy!