Baking bread with children can be one of the most rewarding experiences, second only to the joy of eating it. We take it one step further by drawing a story into the experience.

Stories help us tie our imaginations into the web of reality at our fingertips, in this case the dough. By listening to a story and helping in the kitchen, we bake a rich experience out of simple ingredients, a process we call the Storytelling Loop.

The Storytelling Loop is a journey we take with our kids. We start with something real (like dough), then “plant” a story in it. When we finish, our kids are left with something very real that sparks both memories and their imagination. Play is often a further component, as children commonly repeat or act out the story with a favorite doll or stuffy. Tasting the fresh baked bread makes this experience one of the sweetest.

In This Episode

• Learn how to bake bread as a storytelling experience
• Visit our website for ingredients and a video tutorial
• As the dough rises, listen to the recorded story of “Baker Lou & The Mouse King,” or tell your own
• Explore how storytelling can change your relationship to real things. Can you see each ingredient - water, honey, grain, and salt - as a character in your story?