Bits and Pieces

So you’re baby is finally old enough to eat solid table foods…well, soft ones cut into atom-sized pieces. Mealtime at my house can be quite an ordeal—between getting together components for a well-balanced meal, cooking vegetables until they’re soft enough to melt in Baby Bear’s mouth, letting them cool, cutting everything up into little pieces (I can cut off the skin of a grape and still slice the inside into 8 pieces)…I usually end up with three dirty plates, two forks, and three knives for one of her meals.

My easiest solution so far is good ‘ole Campbell’s soup. Soup has a nice variety of veggies, grains, and meat. But even better: everything is pre-cut! I strain the soup before giving it to Baby Bear (as well as let it cool). Some types of soup still need the vegetables cut, but not many. I choose varieties with small noodles as I despise having to cut them as well.

Although soup is often high in sodium, if I don’t have the time it takes for a full meal production, soup is perfect (there are also varieties with lower sodium).

Here are some that we (yes, I eat it, too) like best:

Muir Glen Organic Savory Lentil Soup: mainly lentils.

Amy's Soups Indian Dal Curried Lentil: this is also a lentil soup, with a kick.

Campbell’s Healthy Request Vegetable (made with beef stock): contains alphabet noodles, green beans, carrots, peas, corn, and potato.

Campbell’s Chunky Fully Loaded Turkey Pot Pie: contains dumplings, turkey chunks, carrots, peas, and celery.

Bon appétit!

Art Supplies for Elementary-Aged Kids...Oil Pastels

I have two children who love to create art. I am a writer who loves to write about art.

Doing research for an article, I ended up immersing myself in it—painting, drawing, and sketching. I interviewed art teachers, fine artists, and illustrators. I visited an elementary school art class, purchased new art supplies, watched demo videos online, and started creating art on my own. I learned way too much for a magazine article. So I decided to blog about the spill-over. Day one: oil pastels.

Recently, I was given a pack of Crayola oil pastels. These are wonderful! Although it will feel similar to using crayons, oil pastels are smoother—they just slide across the paper. And the colors are brighter—they really pop on color paper.  (Here was one mom's comparison: Oil pastel vs crayon) Oil pastels are messier than crayons, but great for sit-down projects.  My kids don’t even want a snack after school because they want to use these.

Some tips:

• Put newspaper underneath workspace.
• Don’t have your child cover the whole page in pastels (especially black).
• Wear old clothes.
• Have your child try overlapping colors—they totally blend together!
• Have them rub their finger over the color.
• Give your child different colors of construction paper.
• Look at famous artwork to mimic.
• Join in the fun. Not only did my kids love me joining in, but the conversations that naturally flowed when we were all busy was amazing.

What to do with Birthday Money

What my son's birthday money went toward: driving a taxi.

As my daughter’s birthday approaches, I have to be honest: I dread more stuff coming into our house.  It seems as if we finally picked up the wrapping paper from Christmas and her brother’s birthday.  But here we are: getting ready to bring in the loot.

Although there’s not much I can do about that (I do want my daughter to enjoy the gifts from her friends), I have decided that the cash she gets from relatives is not going toward more stuff!  So I’ve been brainstorming what to do with it (besides putting all of it in savings) and ways we've spent the money in the past. 

Classes: Since my kids don't yet know how much classes cost, I often say the money went toward a class they are currently taking.  Ballet/gymnastics/sports classes aren’t cheap.  I think it’s good for them to know that classes cost money and that Grandma is supporting their love of dance/soccer. Sometimes the class cost more than a $50 check, but that’s okay.

Rides I Normally Wouldn’t Spend Money On: My son loves the little train that travels around the mall, as well as play on those quarter-fed little vehicles at the mall.  On his last birthday, we put the money toward both of us riding the train.  We had a fun time waving to mall patrons.  I think he also realized that we won’t be riding the train every time we go to the mall—we were able to do it with his birthday money.  Although, to me, the ride is a waste of money, it’s a fun experience for him and there’s no take-way mess/clutter afterward (although he did play with that punched train ticket for days).

A Fun Day Together:  Although I can afford to take my children places like bowling or ice skating, it adds up.  By my children using their birthday money towards fun days out, I think they appreciate them a little more.  It’s also nice to be able to tell a relative that the money was spent on a family activity vs. another Barbie doll.

Food Related Fun:  My daughter loves to bake.  I think she would have fun buying supplies I’m to normally willing to buy: sprinkles, colored sugar, cupcake wrappers, you name it.  And I’d much prefer doing this than having a baking kit or Easy Bake Oven sitting around collecting dust.  What’s nice about creating with food is, when you’re done creating it, you eat it!  (See my post on this: Anti-Crafting: Crafts That Don’t Use Paper, Scissors, Glue, or Tape)

Seeds and Such:  It’s getting warmer, and my kids and I are excited to begin planting.  What fun it will be for them to pick out their own plants or seeds and pay the cashier with their own money.  This can also be a learning experience as to what else they’ll need: soil?  gardening gloves?  Do they have enough money? If not, what is the most important items they need/want? Can they share certain items?

I believe a whole roll of tape was
 used for these lovely stuffed animal garments.

Supplies They Borrow from You:  Anyone else out of tape every time you need it because your little one used it to wrap a gift for her stuffed possum?  Instead, I might have my daughter buy her own tape/Post-Its/whatever gets swiped from my desk for projects.  This may sound greedy, but I have a feeling that if my daughter paid for tape, she might conserve it a little more than when it seems there’s an endless supply.

 

Sharing the Wealth: I have two children.  They might (MIGHT) buy into getting something the two of them can both enjoy, such as treating their sibling to ice cream.  It's a win-win  It's worth a try.

(Please note that that my kids are still little pipsqueaks.  I don’t think they're quite ready to donate money to charity.  I’d rather wait until they truly understand the concept.  We do donate in their teachers’ names for the holidays/end of year).

 

If you look through my suggestions, you should note that almost all of these end up adding 0% clutter to the house and 100% happy children.

Do you have a good use of birthday money?

Neighborhood Clue Game with Rocks

Want something different to do on your next walk with your kids?  Try this clue game.  It’s especially fun with little ones who get very excited about finding the clue rocks.

Preparation

Print out TWO copies of a map of your neighborhood.  I just went to www.maps.google.com and entered in my address.  Then I zoomed out as much as I wanted included in the map.
 

Think of locations or intersections where the clue rocks can be dropped.  Label these on your maps with symbols (I used colored shapes, such as a red triangle, a red square, a green triangle, a green square, etc.)  I’d suggest only having about six to nine total clue spots.  Be sure both maps end up with the same symbols at the same points—they need to be identical.
 

Draw the same symbols on rocks or other small objects (see picture below). 

How to Play

You will need two adults and at least one child.  Break off into teams, each with at least one adult.

The Hiders’ Job

The Hiders will secretly pick a spot on the map to begin the game.  They will then leave that clue at the house (we leave ours by the door).  They will take the rest of the rocks with them (we use the fun little pouch shown here), as well as one of the maps.  (I also recommend the adult brings a cell phone in case of rock-placement error.)
 

They then hurry to that first spot and leave their next clue rock.  We set ours along the edge of the sidewalk where the Seekers may need a minute to find it rather than in plain view.
 

They continue doing this at at least one other point on the map.  They will wait at the last point and watch for the other team to arrive.

The Seekers’ Job

The Seekers will stay at home until the Hiders have had a little bit of time for a head start.  I suggest five minutes.
 

Once five minutes is up, the Seekers pick up their first clue and head out to that clue spot.  They should bring with them the map and a small pouch to collect the rocks in.

At the first clue spot, they will search for their next clue rock.  Once they find that symbol on the map, they will go to find another clue.  They continue doing this until they end up locating the Hiders.

Alone Time for All

A couple of months ago, my four-year old stopped needing a nap.  Great.  Nap time was the only time during the day I had to myself to write and veg out a little (okay, and eat chocolate). 

Soon after, I was given a double-whammy: my two year-old also felt he could live off bedtime alone. 

I began scouring pages of Pinterest for activities they could do alone.  I went through my hoarder-style closet full of toys I bought for a rainy day but had never given them. 

As a former teacher, I thought it’d be best to create a calendar arranged by theme of what they could do in what I dubbed “Alone Time” while I continued on with my old routine.

I planned to have the kids work on math-related activities one day, art another, etc.  I created boxes with fun math things, brand new art ideas…

FAIL!

The activities and toys were so foreign, the kids had no idea what to do with them.  I was called in again and again to help them.  My son plain wasn’t interested in the toys he’d never seen before.  I didn’t get it: on Pinterest, these Alone Time bins worked like magic.

As I was rearranging toys in my bedroom, my daughter came in and began to play with something we had done together a bunch of times and then I had put away.  Well, what do you know: now she was ready for it to be played with solo.

And that’s when I realized something: we could still do the fun activities I had planned, but we’d need to do them together first.  They needed to explore them when I could answer questions and show them how fun they could be.

I needed to flip the toys in my house.  The toys that were in the living room that we played with together a million times could be used in their bedrooms for Alone Time.  The new toys would then go in the living room where the kids and I could play with them together.

The kids didn’t need to do art alone.  Instead, we can do art together—this also allowed for messy supplies and scissors.  The cool princess dice and graph paper with dry erase markers would also be fun to do together.  Once she gets it, then it can be an option for alone time.  And I didn't need to be all teacher-y and have a planned agenda.  It would require too much work on my part and not really matter to the kids that much.

I’m excited to try my new plan.  I’ll report back on how it went.

Anti-Crafting: Crafts That Don’t Use Paper, Scissors, Glue, or Tape: Graham Cracker Robots

If there’s one thing I learned having preschool-aged children is that just about every activity ends in a product. 

Don’t get me wrong—I love doing crafts of all sorts.  And Pinterest has really fun ones.  But I think I’m…over-

crafted at this point. 

Not only do I not know what to do with the finished product (I feel guilty getting rid of them when they turn out so cute), but my kids don’t really care about it either—they just enjoyed the process.  So why not focus on the process?

Lately, I’ve been trying to do more activities that don’t use traditional craft supplies, not even reused items such as toilet paper tubes, craft sticks, etc. 

Many of our projects have now been food related.  We make things out of yummy things, and then eat them.  This is good for three reasons: 1) the kids still are doing fun “crafts,” 2) they end up eating something they normally might not because they were distracted making the product, and 3) there’s no worrying about where to hang it or how to sneak it into the recycling bin—the kids munch it right up.

My four-year old's robot.

So, here is Project #1:

Graham Cracker Robots

Ingredients:

• graham crackers, broken into squares and the smaller rectangles
• “glue”—we used cream cheese and sunflower butter, but you can also use peanut butter or frosting
• small foods, such as small circular crackers, raisins, cut grapes, various kinds of cereals, chocolate chips, sunflower seeds

I got inspired to create robots after my kids and I read the book Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit by Chris Van Dusen.  My kids seemed interested in robots, so I thought they’d have fun making their own.  Instead of getting out paper, though, I showed them how we could use graham crackers to make a 2D robot.  I then gave them knives (they sell toddler knives, but my kids like my decorative appetizer knives which also are dull) and a muffin tray of fun things to attach as buttons and gadgets.  They used the cream cheese and sunflower butter as glue.

My kids had fun with this and ate all of their supplies—there was really little clean up with this.  It also was a good chance to talk about shapes with my little one, as well as give him practice in fine-motor skills. 

Stay tuned for other Anti-Craft Projects.

Scavenger Hunt Walks—Making the Most of Nature

Stop to smell the flowers.

My kids and I love going for walks around the neighborhood.  To me, it’s the perfect chance to teach them about their environment.

When we first started to look for items, we made a list of things we hoped to see and hear, such as a cat, a dog, things that are red, different kinds of wheels, and a panda bear (

my two-year-old’s suggestion). 

Since then, we’ve added natural things to look for:

If we find pinecones: Where is the pine tree? 

If we find helicopter seeds: Where is the maple tree?  (These seeds are fun to raise up over your head and drop, watching them propel back to the ground.)

Pointing out a maple tree.

If we see acorns: Where is the oak tree?  Are there any squirrels around?

If we hear birds: Do you know what kind they are?  I bring my smartphone with me—a great app with bird calls (at least for an iPhone) is BirdCaller.  Can you see the birds?  Be sure to check out my bird crafts, too: Bird Crafts

If we see ants: Is there an anthill nearby?  How many ants are there?

If we see yellow, blue, or purple flowers: Are there any bees in the flowers?  (Don’t get too close!)  Bees are attracted to these colors more than to others.

Do we see anything flying: What do we see?  Airplanes, birds, fluffy seeds?

If you walk after there’s been a storm: Are there any changes since the storm?  Puddles, large branches, bunches of leaves/seeds on the ground?  How about worms in the grass?

If we see an interesting-colored tree, bush, or flower: What would you call that color?  What other objects does that color resemble?

Look at the bark on different trees: How does it feel?

Can you find any leaves with munches in them?  Are there any creatures around that could have caused those munches?  (Remind them of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.)

Although wheels aren’t found in nature, we still like to look for them.  If we see anything with wheels: How many are there on the object?  How many different objects can we find with wheels (think wagons, bikes, garbage cans, cars, flatbeds, wheelbarrows—it’s surprising how many my kids can find.)

It’s also fun to collect things.  We sometimes bring a reclosable plastic bag with us on our walk to collect various nature objects, such a cool-looking leaves, acorns, sticks, and pinecones.  When we get back, we empty the bag, and the kids sort the items into piles, make a face with them, trade objects, etc.  What’s nice about doing this is that, once you’re done, you can just dump the items back outside and reuse the bag for next time.

Once you start pointing things out, it’s amazing all that your kids will notice.  Note: we're still waiting to see a polar bear..