If you want to introduce your kids to math and science concepts through a hands-on approach, canning jam is a great place to start! Keep reading for homeschool cooking suggestions for introducing these concepts.
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Homeschooling to Teach Both Life Skills and Educational Concepts
Prior to staying home and homeschooling my kids, I taught first grade in a public school. The times when my students retained the information best was when learning was practical and hands-on.
Unfortunately, due to the size of my class, time constraints, and my own capacity–these hands-on lessons were few and far between. One of the things that drew me to homeschooling was the ability to integrate learning into daily life–every single day.
While I do believe there is a time and a place to take a more formal approach, I do not think we should negate the value of learning that happens through real-life experiences such as gardening or cooking.
This year, I am teaching my kids how to can jam not only as a practical-life skill–but also as a means to introduce math and science concepts.
Teaching Math through Homeschool Cooking and Canning
For younger kids, like mine, canning introduces concepts like counting, fractions, and division. For example, you count the ingredients, measure in eighths and fourths, and divide the fruit evenly to fit into each jar.
You can practice multiplication by doubling or tripling a recipe for older children. You could also offer the challenge of practicing measurement conversions from the U.S. customary system to the metric system. Additionally, you could encourage them to determine the volume and the capacity of each jar.
If you are covering one of these topics in your homeschool curriculum, I recommend setting aside an afternoon to practice these skills through canning for a practical-life application of the concept.
Teaching Science through Homeschool Cooking and Canning
I never really enjoyed science in school, except on experiment days, because so much of my learning was textbook heavy. But science can and should be both fascinating and exciting!
Canning is a way to introduce countless scientific concepts–sterilization, boiling points, creating a vacuum, removing oxygen, pH values, food safety, and more!
As I mentioned above, you can set aside a day for canning after introducing these concepts. Or, you can casually introduce the concepts through canning and refer back to them as you teach these concepts.
Canning Tools You’ll Need to Get Started
I go over water bath canning in detail in this post. But, here is a quick list of some tools that I recommend for getting started!
- Water bath canner with rack
- Pressure canner (for low acid foods)
- Canning kit
- Jar lids and rings (save with my code THEMILLERACRES)
- Mason jars
- Sharpie
There are some foods that must be pressure canned in order to be safely preserved, so I recommend this Beginner’s Guide to Canning by Prairie Creek Homestead and this canning cook book to help you know how to safely preserve food.
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