🥣 Breakfast in a Tub
A healthy, easy breakfast that your child can learn to make completely on their own. Prepare it together the night before, pop it in the fridge, and wake up to a ready-made breakfast! Perfect for busy mornings and brilliant for building independence.
📋 What’s on This Page
Benefits to Learning & Development
I know how hard it can be when your child finds learning tricky at school. This is one of those recipes where they don’t even realise they’re learning — they just think they’re making breakfast! With a bit of practice, this is something they can do completely on their own, and that feeling of “I did it myself” is worth its weight in gold.
🎯 Coordination
Using a spoon to move ingredients into the cup. Trying to get as much of the ingredients in as possible — it takes more concentration than you’d think!
📐 Maths
Learning about a quarter — and that four quarters make a whole. Simple fractions brought to life through measuring out oats, milk, and yoghurt.
📖 Vocabulary
New word alert! Stratified — meaning made of layers. In this Breakfast in a Tub you’re looking to form layers. A brilliant word to introduce while you build!
🧑🍳 Tools & Equipment
- Clean jam jar or lidded container
- Mug (for measuring)
- Dinner knife or child-safe knife
- Teaspoon
🛒 Ingredients
- ¼ cup / 30g oats
- ¼ cup milk
- ¼ cup plain yoghurt
- Kiwi
- Raspberries
- Banana
- 1 teaspoon honey (optional)
Step-by-Step Instructions
Wash Hands & Clean Up
Start by washing hands and giving the worktop a wipe. I know it sounds obvious, but getting your child into this habit from the start makes such a difference. It’s one of those things that once it’s automatic, you never have to think about it again.
Grab Your Container
Take a clean jam jar or a lidded container — anything that fits in the fridge with a lid on. Let your child choose which one they want to use. It’s a small thing, but giving them that choice makes them feel like it’s their project.
Add the Oats
Measure out ¼ cup (or 30g) of oats and pop them into the jar. This is a lovely moment to chat about fractions — “We’re using a quarter of a cup. How many quarters do you think would fill the whole cup?” Don’t worry if they don’t get it straight away, just planting the idea is enough. You could also ask “Where do oats come from?” and go on a little fact-finding mission together later!
Add the Milk & Yoghurt
Pour in ¼ cup of milk and ¼ cup of plain yoghurt. More quarter cups! By now your child is getting the hang of measuring. You might ask “Where does milk come from? How is yoghurt made?” You absolutely don’t need to know all the answers — honestly, part of the fun is saying “I’m not sure, shall we find out together?” That’s real learning happening right there.
Chop & Add the Fruit
Using a dinner knife or child-safe knife, let your child slice the banana, kiwi, and berries. Layer them into the jar on top of the oats and yoghurt. This is where you can introduce that brilliant word — stratified, meaning made of layers! “Look, we’re making it stratified — that means we’re building it in layers!” They’ll love using a big word like that.
A Drizzle of Honey
If you fancy it, swirl a little honey on top. Let your child hold the teaspoon and drizzle it themselves — getting just the right amount takes real coordination and control. One teaspoon is plenty!
Lid On & Into the Fridge
Pop the lid on and place it into the fridge, ready for breakfast in the morning. Your child has just made their own breakfast — how brilliant is that? Let them feel proud of what they’ve done.
Quick Tidy to Music!
Put on some music and have a quick kitchen tidy together. Everything back in its place, worktop wiped, hands washed. Make it fun — race to see who can put the most things away before the song ends!
💡 Tips for Parents
- Get the ingredients out into bowls or easily accessible containers before you start. It makes the whole thing run so much smoother, especially if your child is doing it for the first time.
- Start by doing the recipe together and then each time you make it again, see if your child can carry out a step by themselves. Before you know it, they’ll be doing the whole thing on their own — and that feeling of independence is priceless.
- To help with reading, highlight words or graphemes that your child is currently learning at school. Our children don’t want the pressure of thinking they have to read a whole sentence — break it down. Even reading one word each is a win.
- This is a recipe that gets easier and quicker every time you make it. Don’t worry if the first attempt takes a while or gets a bit messy — that’s completely normal!
- If your child doesn’t like one of the fruits, swap it out for something they do enjoy. The learning happens whatever goes in the jar.