P is for Pancakes, Pancakes!: Library Notes

Today I ate a pancake so naturally, pancakes came to mind for the letter P.  I was about to do a book called Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie de Paola to introduce you to another popular author. It is a wordless picture book. I realize the value of this style of book as it gives children and their caregivers an opportunity to share their ideas based on the pictures without having to follow a set of words. This helps them to focus on the same things together and to build vocabulary and ideas at whatever level they are at from infancy through to grade school. In the story, the lady found a solution to the problems that came her way and finally got to enjoy pancakes for breakfast! It is an excellent choice of books and one I would recommend reading for pancake Tuesday!

However, I saw another book by Eric Carle and want to highlight it. If you ever want to spend quality time with your children and make your own pancakes for breakfast, this book will give you the information needed to make that happen successfully! I was surprised by the detail and the rich depth this book gives to what appears to be a simple request for breakfast. I think it builds a true appreciation for all that goes into our foods that we often take for granted and helps us to reflect on the conveniences of modern society.

When it comes to making a pancake, there are a lot of things the child can do and the mother in this book does a fabulous job getting her son involved in doing all the actions required to help her to make a pancake for breakfast. Number one. they would need flour. Not from the pantry though. He had to get a sickle to cut as much wheat as their donkey could carry and then take it to the miller. The miller wanted the boy's help to grind it into flour but first he was to help separate grain from chaff and straw by beating the wheat with flails to get the grain to be taken to the water wheel that turned the millstone around to grind grain into flour.  All that and he now has flour and runs home to mom for his pancake. However, they still need an egg, milk, butter, wood to start the fire and jam for on top!  The story goes through the tasks until finally all ingredients are laid out on the table as mother names them. She then begins to give instructions clearly and the progress is shown in clear steps. However, for the final step...Jack knew just what to do!  He got to enjoy his delicious, well-earned pancake for breakfast!

We may not have even realized all the tasks involved in making a pancake and probably never thought to get your child involved in completing so many helpful jobs to make it happen. However, he was motivated by the end result and mom gave each instruction clearly, one at a time, to help him complete it successfully. She was very methodical as she went through her recipe and in the end the plan worked! 

This story encourages us to set our children up for independence and success. It clearly provides an example of the types of clear instructions we need to provide to move through a sequence of steps correctly and offers a positive outcome of what can happen when you complete the task. I encourage you to try making pancakes or another recipe as an activity with the child(ren) in your life. Have fun. Learn something new and enjoy the 'fruits of your labour'/benefits of your hard work as this little boy did in the book "Pancakes, Pancakes!"