Curries and Cookies

It's that time of year when we start doing curries on an increasingly regular basis. In late September, we might do the occasional curry, perhaps once a week, and by mid-October we cook one as often as four times a week. We love the smells and textures of the spices, the colours and, of course, the taste once it is done.
Sophie and Jake love curries, especially those that involve chicken and rice. This year, Jake has started cooking his own curries, with almost no help from us grown-ups. I needed to remind myself to be patient when he fiddled with the apron, trying to pull the strings together on his back. He bravely wiped away his tears while cutting onions. Before he ground the spices he wanted to know their names and where they come from. 'Are they healthy?', he asked inquiringly as he has recently become aware of the fact that not every type of food is actually good for you.
For a few days Jake experimented with fennel seeds, cardamon, turmeric, cumin and lots of other stuff, slowly making his way through an Indian cookbook. Sometimes he loved the result and licked the pan clean, long after everyone else had finished lunch. Sometimes he would cautiously say, 'I don't like it as much as the one we had yesterday', and prefer to eat plain rice and salad instead. But he was always proud of what he had achieved, because there always happened to be someone at the table who got himself a second helping and truthfully praised the curry to the sky.
Sophie has also been experimenting in the kitchen. We had realized that she finds writing numbers really difficult - but is desperate to do it. She's had no trouble with 0, 3, 4 and 7, but the others she found impossible to do. While her understanding of what the numbers actually mean and how to work with them has progressed rather fast over the past few months, she has become increasingly frustrated about writing them. We assured her that she can take her time with that and that there is absolutely no need for her to write them right now, but she insisted on trying, which almost always resulted in anger and frustration.
Yesterday we felt it was about time to help her relax a little. We suggested that she bake numbers rather than write. We prepared a huge amount of cookie dough and let her have a go. And she was so into it! Now she could try figuring out the numbers she found so difficult as often as she wanted. Whenever the result didn't please her she could roll up the dough and start again, with no 'ugly' numbers on the sheet that reminded her of not having written them correctly. The results were beautiful, trays and trays of beautifully formed numbers that were nice to look at and even nicer to eat.
The real surprise came the this morning though. 'I am going to write down all the numbers I know today!', Sophie announced very matter-of-factly over her breakfast cereals. A little later, she got herself some paper and a pencil and wrote a dozen of beautiful Twoes. All the other 'difficult' numbers followed, one more flawless than the other. She had managed to do something with ease and joy, something which she had found impossible to do just a few days before.
I'll write again soon.