Working with one of my children to feed a sourdough starter building a levain.

There’s nothing sweeter than little hands learning the rhythm of sourdough! 💛✨ Teaching kids to feed a starter (or build a levain) is a fun way to introduce science, patience, and the magic of fermentation.

Here’s how we do it:
🔹 “It’s like feeding a pet!” – Kids love watching the starter bubble up after a meal of flour & water.
🔹 Hands-on measuring – Let them scoop, pour, and stir (even if it gets messy!).
🔹 The “Float Test” game – “Does our starter float? Let’s check!” 🎉

I wanted to spend more time with my children and pass on to them some of these skills. Working with my son, he weighed and empty jar, he made sure to include a similar elastic band in attempts to be as accurate as possible. It was 291-292 grams. The jar with the starter was measured at 315 grams so a total of 23 grams of starter.

My son determined that we needed 100 grams of sourdough starter to make a loaf, to feed the starter he needed 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. I told him we wanted do a 50/50 mix of rye flour and whole wheat flour and he knew it was 25 grams of rye flour and 25 grams of wheat flour.

Building a levain together? Even better! Watching it double in size feels like a science experiment (and a little bit of kitchen magic). 🔍✨

Who else is raising the next generation of sourdough bakers? Drop a 🥖 below if your kids help with the starter!