Chocolate Isn't a Vegetable?

Here is a fun way to turn an inexpensive clipboard into a message/photo board: Cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit the shape of the clipboard. Cover the board with a thin layer of Modge Podge and carefully place the scrapbook paper on the clipboard. Decorate the paper with die-cuts, stickers etc. and cover everything with another layer of Modge Podge. Add a ribbon to the board's clip and place on a plate holder (available at craft stores, Walmart, etc.) to display. Now you can clip photos, shopping lists, recipe cards, and other fun things on this pretty, yet functional, clipboard. You can also cover your clipboard with chalkboard paint and then embellish it with stickers and ribbons, for an erasable message board.

Swim lessons at the Y are a wonderful idea for little ones. Swim lessons at the Y in the middle of winter - still a great idea, but getting from the building to the car - brrr! To keep Boo warm after her swim lesson, I sewed a hooded towel/cover up for her, based on tutorials I found here and here .This was super-easy to make with inexpensive towels and fabrics scraps at a fraction of the cost of commercially made, personalized hooded towels. The hooded towel above is based on the tutorial found here. A hooded towel all wrapped up - a gift to a preschool friend who loves ladybugs.  This hooded towel also served as a cover-up. I added the butterfly applique and letters for personalization.

Making marbled paper is a fun and educational activity that builds vocabulary and small motor skills! To create the marbled effect, pour liquid laundry starch into a shallow baking sheet. The liquid should cover the sheet about 1/4 inch deep. Next, mix a tablespoon of acrylic paint with two teaspoons of water, and stir well. Repeat for additional colors you would like to use. Drop as many colors as you like on the laundry starch surface. Next, use a chop stick or the wrong end of a pencil to create swirls and other paint designs. Cover the design with an 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper and lift it up by the edges a few seconds later. Briefly dip the paper into a pan filled with cold water to wash off the starch. Let the paper dry on newspapers or on a thick old towel. Throughout the whole process, talk to your child about the colors and patterns she is creating. Discuss the names of the colors and point out the color names on the paint containers. After the paper dries you may have to ca...

Making homemade butter is a fun and educational activity that increases vocabulary and knowledge of science concepts, such as states of matter. Pour 2 cups of heavy cream into a plastic jar with a tight-fitting lid. Add a pinch of salt. Now, shake the jar, roll it on the floor to your child, then shake it some more. After MUCH shaking, you will see the liquid cream change into solid butter and liquid buttermilk. Pour off the buttermilk, then put the lid back on the jar and shake it some more.  Carefully, pour off more of the buttermilk. Add about 3 tablespoons of ice water to the jar and...Shake again. Pour off as much of the buttermilk/ice water mixture as you can, then place the butter into a bowl.   You can now add spices and herbs (I used organic chives, parsley, and red pepper flakes). Just add as much as you like. Here is a link to some great flavored butter recipes . Enjoy!

Today, explain to your children that you will mix milk and food coloring without stirring them! Add 1-2 cups of milk to a pie plate. Let your child add drops of food coloring to the surface of the milk. Next, take a dish-washing liquid such as Dawn, and drop a teaspoon of this liquid into the middle of the milk. The food coloring drops will swirl and begin to mix with the milk in beautiful patterns. Explain that the food coloring floats on the surface of the milk due to the fat molecules creating a flat surface, this surface tension is broken when the grease-fighting dish-washing detergent is added, sending the food coloring swirling. You can also magically move toothpicks by floating them on the milk in a star pattern before adding the soap.

One Simple Thing you can to today to increase your child's pre-reading skills is to create a photo book of his or her daily routine! Purchase an inexpensive photo album (the Dollar Store is a great source for this), or three-ring binder. Tell your child you are creating a book of him that he can use later to remember his daily routine/chores etc. Take pictures of your child making his bed, brushing his teeth, going to school, reading a bedtime story etc. Add one of these pictures to each of the pages in the photo album or three-ring binder and label it with that part of the daily routine ("Liam brushes his teeth before bed" etc.). Your child will love reading about his day and will be able to use the book to assist him in accomplishing all parts of the daily routine. Babies love photo albums too, but you may want to use page protectors for your binder pages. You can also purchase a "baby-safe" photo album here .

Today I want to tell you about one of my favorite children's books, written by one of my favorite people: My Mom! The book is called "Max and Maexchen" and each story found in the book is now available in Kindle format! Even though the stories are currently only available in German (one of her favorite daughters is helping her translate them into English ;-)), the illustrations alone are worth the purchase. For those of you who do read German, you will love the animal stories told by a loving dad to his son "Little Max." My mom did a fantastic job integrating scientific facts about each animal into each of these engaging children's stories. You can order the first story (for Kindle)   Max and Maexchen here. Happy Reading!!

Glue pictures are fun to create and make wonderful, artsy decorations for your home! Begin by encouraging your child to draw pictures using a thin stream of Elmer's glue (I always stock up on glue at back-to-school sales) on construction paper or left-over pieces of cardboard. When the glue is completely dry, use liquid tempera paint and a paint brush to paint over the glue pictures. This is a great sensory experience that also helps your child practice hand-eye coordination. You can also use this technique to create Montessori-style letter cards. Draw glue letters on cardboard rectangles and have your child trace each letter with his or her fingers. Have fun!

 You can make amazingly creative ice cream with your little one by doing the following (the original recipe can be found here ):   Whip 2 cups of chilled, heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, mix one can of sweetened condensed milk with any mix-ins you like. We stirred in 1/4 cup Nutella and 1 tsp espresso powder for an amazingly rich Nutella ice cream. Later, we used chocolate chips and vanilla extract to make Stracciatella ice cream (shown below).        Fold the condensed milk/mix-ins mixture into the whipped cream. Transfer this mixture to a plastic container and cover with a tight-fitting lid or aluminum foil. Freeze for 6 hours.      Voila! Perfectly creamy ice cream! No ice cream maker needed! This was such a fun and creative project for the kids! They had so much fun making pineapple ice cream (adding 1 can of crushed pineapple) and chocolate (adding a chopped up chocolate bar and chocola...