Cookie dough is one of the easiest and earliest ways to get toddlers in the kitchen. I loved this variation on simply making cookies together, allotting Veronika her own portion of dough to play with in a log.

I kept this activity as simple as could be, whipping up a batch of chocolate chip cookies from a mix instead of from scratch. Because this only required three ingredients (the bag of mix, a stick of Earth Balance butter, and a flaxseed egg) it meant Veronika could stir it all together. She was so proud to help!

Once the dough came together, I divided it in half. Half was for real cookies (of course) and the other half I rolled into a log. I handed across a craft stick and she used this as a knife to “slice” the cookies.

And of course the stick was also useful for tasting. Then we divided the log into separate portions, and I showed her how to roll it into balls.

I thought she might want to play pretend bakery for a little while, but she was more interested in the real cookies that were now baking in the oven, asking when they would be done.

So then it was snack time!