Connecting School and Home Experiences

        I remember when I was about 9 years old, I had been given permission to spend the night at my cousin's house.  My cousin and I were so close and I was super excited!!  I hadn't been able to see her in a while and this sleep over was going to be epic.  We were going to stay up all night.

       I went over to her house and we just did everything that you could ever think of.  We painted our nails and danced an then we put on a movie so that her mom would think that we were going to sleep.  Once we were sure her mom was asleep, we thought that we could just keep partying.  We didn't take into account that we would have to be quiet so we decided that it was ok if we just kept watching movies.  As we went to the second movie, we were both dozing off so bad.  We realized that we would never be able to have an overnight-er if we were both sleeping!!  We racked our brains trying to figure out how we could make our goal become a reality and we decided that we needed to move around.  We couldn't dance or make too much noise so we decided that we could bake!!  

       We started off making our favorite kinds of cookies and then we ended up trying out our own kinds of inventions. We had so many mishaps and we had lots of successes.  From that night on, I realized that I can create masterpieces if I really wanted to.  I would bake every free moment I got and every time I did that I felt free.  I felt like I was in control and that I was being a little rebellious from that night.

        Having this as my own personal experiences, I would take a lab to let the students choose whatever they want to cook and then let them cook it.  They can do what they want and show case their love or their favorite recipes.  I want them to know that they are free to explore and create what they want!!