I believe that there's a lot more to learn from failing than from succeeding. After all, if everything goes smoothly every time you're cooking, you're definitely not prepared for when things do not go well. It's only been 4 days since Tori finished fourth grade and also attempted to make brownies by herself. I was out celebrating the end of the school year with my colleagues and her dad was home to assist her, but she's fairly (abundantly) independent when it comes to baking. And Friday was no exception.
Tori began the process by checking to make sure we had all the ingredients for brownies; however, she did NOT read the instructions in full - or if she did read them, she read them wrong. Reading has never been her strong point. She prefers art and music and basically anything that doesn't require her to adhere to rules. Needless to say, this batch of Tori's brownies were not her best brownies ever. Nor were they her worst.
The pan of brownies looked like brownies. But they tasted QUITE bitter! I'm sure the bitterness was from the abundance of cocoa and the inefficient amount of sugar to go with it. My husband wondered if Tori had used too much baking powder. However, I am certain it was the cocoa powder that caused the bitterness.
I took a bite and walked away, wondering if it was possible to save this batch of brownies. My thought was to make it into cake balls. I executed my idea yesterday. Through the addition of frosting AND peanut butter, I made more edible cake balls. They're not the greatest by any means, but they leave a lot less of a bitter taste in your mouth.
Do I want my child to fail every time she cooks? Of course not!
But am I okay with her failing? Absolutely.
Why am I okay with her failing, you may ask. I'm okay with it because when she makes a mistake, especially one that is not consequential to her life, she's learning. And I believe that FAIL stands for first attempt in learning. Every time I allow Tori to do things independently and she doesn't do things perfectly, I am giving her an opportunity to learn - sometimes that learning comes from what not to do. Maybe next time she'll wait until I can help her make brownies from scratch (or find a box mix if I'm unavailable).