Welcome to Shoreline Learning Center’s Blog
Hello everybody, and welcome to Shoreline Learning Center’s very first blog post! 🎉
I would love for this space to become a place where we can share information, ideas, and some of the fun we have here at Shoreline. Because Shoreline isn’t a daycare here in Austin, TX — we’re a preschool full of learning, enrichment, and love. ❤️
We’ll be posting helpful information for parents, updates on school happenings, and — of course — a few of my favorite recipes from Mr. Zack’s Cooking Class! 🍳
Teaching cooking has been one of the highlights of my time here. It’s such a great way to help children explore new foods, build confidence, and develop healthy eating habits. Food is an important topic that I believe should be celebrated and discussed — from being thankful for what we have, to learning how we can give back to others who may not have enough.
If you’d like to help families in our community this holiday season, here are three local food banks that would greatly appreciate donations of any size:
🧁 Kids’ Top 5 Favorite Recipes from Mr. Zack’s Cooking Class
It’s been such a joy teaching “life skills” to our school-age kids during our after-school program. Each week, we focus on cleanliness, knife skills, reading recipes, and my favorite motto — “Don’t buy it, make it!”
From hard-boiling eggs to making sushi, the kids have learned new techniques and discovered flavors they never expected to love. Here are the top 5 recipes the kids have said were their favorites this year!
🍞 #5: Banana Bread Muffins
Last week’s recipe was all about reading and following a recipe, which I like to compare to reading a map. The title is our destination, the ingredients are our supplies, and the directions are the GPS that takes us to Banana Bread Muffin-land! 🗺️
Everyone got a turn adding ingredients, and I shared that the best bananas for baking are the brown ones — they’re extra sweet! We followed the recipe exactly and ended up with a batch of warm, delicious muffins that disappeared fast.
🍺 #4: Homemade Root Beer
This one was a big hit and a great example of our “don’t buy it, make it” philosophy!
We made homemade root beer using dry ice — which was trickier to find than I expected. When we dropped chunks of dry ice into our root beer mixture, the bubbling vapor made it look like a witch’s brew! 🧙♂️
It was the perfect way to show that cooking is a lot like science — when you mix ingredients just right, you can create something magical. Once the dry ice dissolved, we enjoyed our creation as root beer floats, which made the lesson even sweeter!
🍕 #3: Mini Personal Pizzas
This lesson was all about creativity and courage in trying new foods. Each student started with a flattened Pillsbury Grands biscuit as the crust, then topped it with sauce, cheese, and their choice of veggies.
That week, I introduced our “Try It Chart” — every time a child tries a new recipe, they earn a star. After five stars, they get to pick a prize! But for this recipe, if they tried all five veggies (mushrooms, peppers, olives, pepperoni, and pineapple), they got an instant prize! 🏆
Almost everyone gave it a go — and it turned out to be one of our most colorful, veggie-packed, and fun cooking days ever.
🍓 #2: Smoothies & Knife Skills
During Week 2, we introduced knife safety and cutting techniques using our kid-safe knives. The kids learned the “claw,” the “bridge,” and the “plank” — then practiced on strawberries, bananas, and apples before tossing everything into the blender with Greek yogurt and apple juice.
That’s when I introduced the “Bravery Box.” If a child was brave enough to add spinach to their smoothie, they got to pick a secret prize! 🎁
To my surprise, about 99% of the class went for it — and most of them ended up loving the spinach smoothies! I couldn’t be prouder of all my brave little chefs.
🍌 #1: Frozen Banana Pops
Taking the top spot is a simple, healthy-ish, and super fun summer recipe — Frozen Banana Pops!
We practiced knife skills by cutting bananas in half, then inserted popsicle sticks and froze them. A few hours later, we dipped the frozen bananas in melted chocolate and chilled them again to set.
The kids absolutely loved this treat — and many even made them again at home with their families. 🍌🍭 Easy, delicious, and a perfect hot-weather snack!
💛 Thank You for Joining Us!
Thank you for following along on our new blog journey! Keep checking back for more fun updates, activities, and of course — tasty new recipes from Mr. Zack’s Cooking Class.
If you have any questions about our after-school program, or if you’d like to learn more about what makes Shoreline special, give us a call or schedule a tour today.
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At Shoreline Learning Center, we’re more than a daycare — we’re a full-service preschool dedicated to helping every child grow, learn, and thrive. 🌈