Easter Eggs for Little Hands

Since Easter was this week, my Facebook friends have been posting loads of activities that they have done with their children. One of the links that I saw had a "click bait" title that was too ridiculous not to click. Man Squirts Food Coloring Into Cup of Rice. When He Adds the Egg? STUNNING. I kid you not, that is the title. In other news, I would love a job writing click bait titles. My best idea so far is "Woman Rubs Peanut Butter On Her Face. When She Opens Her Mouth, I Cried".

But, anyway, I clicked it, and while I didn't think the result was stunning, I thought it was a really great idea for dying eggs with the Bot. 

You will need:

• Regular (or gel) food coloring
• At least 3 cups with lids (We used sippy cups!)
• Regular white rice
• As many hardboiled eggs as your little heart desires! 

Start by, of course, hardboiling the eggs and drying them off. Fill each cup 1/3rd full of white rice, and then add a liberal amount of your desired food coloring. Add the lid, and shake-shake-shake until all of the rice is colored.

Then, toss your egg in, and start shaking again! Periodically check to make sure you like the progress of your egg. Finally, with dry hands, take the egg out of your cup, and flick off any remaining grains of rice.

Let the eggs dry for a few hours before you eat them!

I loved this activity for Snugglebot! It didn't make much of a mess, and it was easy for her little 22 month old hands to shake the cup. The resulting eggs, as you can see, look very unique, almost like they've been sponge painted. I'm definitely looking for excuses to make more with her. (Happy birthday, here's some eggs? Congrats on the wedding, would you care for some eggs?) I hope you and your little ones enjoy it as well!

Product Review: Teach My Baby Learning Kit

In my "previous life," before I was a stay-at-home-mama and snuggle expert, I was a choir director at a public school. I obviously don't have the training of an early child educator, but my background in creating and following lesson plans caused me to desire finding a curriculum that would be easy to implement and consistent, even at Snugglebot's young age. So, when Bot turned 1, my husband and I dipped into her education fund (yes, we are weird enough to have an education fund for her right now) to buy the "Teach My Baby" learning kit. Now that my daughter has "graduated" from this particular set of lessons, I see a lot of things I appreciated, and a few things that I felt could have been improved on. I hope my review will help you to consider whether this is a good purchase for your family, and also will help you in implementing the curriculum if you should choose to buy it.

(from the "Teach My..." store here)

Teach My Baby (For children 6 months and older)

Contents: The yellow Teach My Baby suitcase contains four lessons: "First Numbers," "Animal Sounds", "Self" and "First Words". Each lesson is in it's own plastic envelope for easy storage.
 

First Numbers:

As you can see, the First Numbers envelope contains finger puppets, a book, and a scene printed on cardboard for the finger puppets to pop in and out of.


Pros: The book teaches numbers one to five by showing each of the finger puppet animals. Bot really enjoyed the finger puppets, and liked putting them in and out of the scene provided. The opposite side of the zoo scene cardboard has an illustrated body for each animal, and a corresponding number.

Cons: The finger puppets are oddly shaped, and do not fit on adult or child fingers well. They would constantly fall of of my hands. I have heard of parents sewing them onto a glove to make it easier, but that would then cause problems with the puppet scene.

Additions: Bot learned her numbers 1-5 fairly quickly, so we began to use this kit to work on additional animal sounds (except for the penguin, of course!). We also used the cardboard scene to work on the fine motor skills necessary for her to put the finger puppets through the holes and out.

Sounds:
The Sounds packets contains a book which has pictures of a dog, cat, frog, pig and duck (more on that later), and the sounds that they make. There are pet-able flash cards, and small puzzles to supplement the lesson.

Pros: We enjoyed the flash cards in this packet. Bot would pet the feathers, bumps or fur and repeat the animal name and sound. I also appreciated the adjectives used on the back of each card, such as "fluffy", or "brown".

Cons: As you can see, the "duck" used by the curriculum is actually a goose. That's kind of a glaring error. And I cannot imagine a 6 month old who would be able to put the puzzles together. At 21 months, Bot still has difficulty making the parts match up just right. I would usually put them together and let her take them apart.

Additions: I would provide a better picture of a duck to go "quack quack", and teach that the book's "duck" is a goose that goes "honk, honk".
Once your child is ready, I would suggest doing animal sounds with the finger puppets from First Numbers in conjunction with this lesson.

First Words:

The First Words packet has a book full of words that your young child will come into contact with on an every day basis, such as "car", "shoes", and "ball". Every word in the book has its own cardboard puzzle where the picture can be taken out and put back in. 

Pros: The book has a very helpful list of words that address things that young children would be interested in. Pieces of clothing, particular toys, items they might see while they are eating, and certain vehicles are included in this book. 

 Cons: The puzzle pieces are difficult for young children to remove and place back in. I would generally give Bot three of the puzzles at a time (ex: a ball, a spoon and a cup), take out the inner pieces, and have her find the correct match ("Can you put the balls together?"). 

Additions: Match up the cards with the real-life examples as much as you can. If we just saw a plane outside, for example, the next time we were inside, I'd pull out the "plane" card and remind her of what she had seen.

Self:
The Self envelope contains a book that labels parts of the face, flash cards with close ups of facial features on the front as well as a mirror on the back, and cardboard nesting blocks that display parts of the face as well as a mirror.

Pros: Bot loved all of the mirrors on the products, and I loved that she could see each part on the sample babies before pointing it out on herself.

Cons: The nesting boxes are advanced for the age group that this product is geared toward. We just ignored those all together, as they contain pretty much the same pictures as the book and the cards. I also would have preferred that the book talk about other body parts, not just facial features.

Additions: In order to discuss the full body, we added "My Body" by Jill Ackerman.


Thoughts Overall:
Bot started this series at 12 months, and had "graduated" by 18 months. She really enjoyed her school time, and actually asked for it daily (sometimes even twice a day!) As a first time mama, I liked the structure of the lessons. If you are willing to be flexible, I think it's a good purchase.

Button Snake! Fine Motor Skills!

Sorry it's been awhile, everyone! It's opera season, so my free time is a bit smaller than it would be otherwise. Snugglebot is down for her afternoon nap, so time for a quick post about

BUTTON SNAKES!

I took this idea wholesale from Happy Hooligans, as I was looking for small activities I could take to keep the Bot happy during time in the dreaded doctor's waiting room!

I followed all the directions on the website, but I bought felt of all colors on the rainbow. This meant that I had enough felt squares to make 4 snakes, each with 2 squares of each color. It also meant that I could use the snake to reinforce color recognition. I love being able to use a toy to meet more than one goal!

Snugglebot is 21 months right now, so the concept of buttons is a bit too difficult for her. At the moment, this is a two person activity. I hold the button hole open, and she feeds the button in. I made a big knot at the bottom end of the ribbon so that it would be harder for the squares to fall off. I think it might be nice to have another button at the bottom to act as a stopper, or an option to reverse and add squares to the other side. 

I'm looking forward to this activity being one that the Bot can do on her own, but for now it is very enjoyable for us to do together!

Secret Carrot Banana Muffins

I had a twofold problem today--- First of all, I opened my freezer to discover two completely black, Frankenstein-esque bananas. My friend Erin had suggested that I put my bananas that were turning in the freezer with the skins on, and it worked really well, but the resulting color, texture, and general drippy-ness is going to haunt my dreams forever.

My second problem is that Snugglebot is on a veggie strike. I convinced her that peas are awesome for a little bit, but that seems to have lost it's charm. I gave her a bowl of green beans today, and she looked at me as if to say "Really mom?"

So, I knew that I needed to make banana bread, and I knew that I wanted to be covert and sneak some vegetables into my daughter's tummy. I used this recipe, which is very oat-filled and yummy, and added a bit more nutrition to it. It's definately not a low-calorie muffin anymore, but it's so full of nutritious, filling yummies, I'm sure no one will mind.

Secret Carrot Banana Muffins

(Mommy made, Snugglebot approved)

	1 1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour ¼ cup honey ¼ cup butter
	1/2 tsp table salt
	1/2 tsp baking soda
	1/4 tsp baking powder
	2 eggs
	2 large, ripe bananas 3 medium carrots, steamed
	1 cup(s) uncooked old fashioned oats ¼ cup almond meal/flour ¼ cup ground flaxseed Tools:
	Muffin pan Optional food processor

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees!

1) Peel the three carrots and steam them until they're very soft. When you are done, remove them from your steamer, and place them in a bowl with your 2 peeled, ripe bananas. Mash them together in whatever way you typically would mash your bananas. (I used a food processor because I was feeling lazy.)

2) In a saucepan, melt your butter and your honey together. Mix the resulting liquid with your banana and carrot mash.

3) Mix all of your dry ingredients together in a second bowl.

4) Gently, bit by bit, mix your dry ingredients into your wet.

5) Canola spray or butter your muffin pan. Spoon out the batter out (it's a bit sticky!) and try not to lick the spoon afterwards, coz, you know, raw eggs.

6) Bake for 23 minutes, or until the center is firm, and the tops are golden brown. 

Please comment and let me know how you modified this recipe, and if your little ones noticed the hidden carrots!

Honey Blondies--- Wife win!

I was totally going to save this post for a later week, but I just made these blondies for the second (and third) time(s) ever, and oh my gosh. They are addictive. So, I have to share.

This recipe is from this year's February "Martha Stewart Living" magazine, with only minor adjustments to make it easy for those of us who rock the "bring your own bag, bring your own quarter" awesomeness that is shopping at Aldi.

Honey Blondies

1 stick unsalted butter

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan

½ cup honey (we used "Organic Wildflower" honey)

¾ cup packed light-brown sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon coarse salt

4 ounces baking semisweet chocolate chips

½ cup walnuts or pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray pan, then coat with flour, tapping out excess. (The original recipe suggests using parchment paper, but I haven't had any problems getting the final product out at the end using this method alone)

2. Melt butter and honey in a saucepan. Stir in brown sugar. 

3. Transfer the hot mixture to a bowl, then stir in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt. 

4.Let the mixture cool down for about 30 minutes, then mix the chocolate and nuts in. Spread batter in your prepared pan.

5. Bake for 30 minutes. Let the pan set for a while before removing and cutting into squares.

Or whatever shape you can cut them into... I just have a lot of circular pans!

4. Put them in your belly, nom nom nom.

My husband was less than impressed with the first one he ate... then I saw him sneak a second. When I saw him eat his third a few hours later, he told me they were amazing. I agree.

The original recipie calls for dark baking chocolate, which would be delicious, I'm sure, but that's not a typical Aldi product, which is why we made the switch. 

I put one batch in the freezer, and I'll update this post to let you know if they freeze and thaw well. If so... game changer. I can picture myself always having a batch of these on hand in case of an emergency... or a last minute party or get together.

Color Matching File Folder

Since Snugglebot was born, we have intigrated school time into our daily lives. This looked totally nuts when she was brand new. (Picture a month old baby propped up by a Boppy pillow while I show her flashcards about farm animals.) But, as time has gone on, school has gotten more age appropriate. Since she's my first, I'm still learning how best to educate her. In the next few weeks, there will be a few posts about her curriculum these days.

But...

Okay, I'm a Pinterest geek. So, I searched for "file folder games", which is something that I'd seen used at daycares and preschools, and I found quite a few neat ones. This color matching game from Littlefamilyfun.com seemed easy enough for my first try.

You Need:

• File folder
• Rainbow colored scrapbook or construction paper
• A glue stick
• Adhesive Velcro

Optional:

• Laminator
• Lamination pages 

So, following the directions in the above-listed blog, I made hearts out of scrapbooking paper. The hard part was making sure that every heart was identical. Next time, I'll make a pattern heart out of cardstock. This time, I continually traced my first scrapbook paper heart, which meant I had to do a lot of erasing of pencil marks from it.

I glued the first set of hearts to the folder, then folded it in half, heart side out, and put it through my laminator. My laminating pages are not wide enough for a folder, so I had to put it through 4 times in all-- twice for the top and twice for the bottom. By the end, it was so thick that the automatic feed on the laminator wasn't working, and I had to help push it through.

Next, I pasted the second set of hearts onto a piece of cardstock, and laminated that.

I differed from the directions in that I put a bit of velcro on each moveable heart, as well as on the folder's hearts.

Results: Snugglebot seems to like her folder game. She named the colors for me as she put the hearts on, but the real joy comes from peeling the hearts off and sticking them back on. Girl loves her velcro!

I'll keep looking for file folder games that are suitable for a 1 and 1/2 year old, and post them as I find them! I hope this has been helpful for you!

Meatloaf Casserole--- Kid tested, husband approved!

Well, I posted my first journal entry in July and it is now February. I'd say that time flies, and that is partially true, but time is also filled with library visits, play dates, park adventures, and, of course, snuggling. So, we'll try this whole blogging thing again!

I recently started getting "Martha Stewart Living" in the mail. It's basically like getting a magazine filled with pictures of what your home will never look like--- ever. Which is fine, of course! We like our cluttered apartment living. "Snugglebot Living" magazine would basically be Martha Stewart's nightmare.

Anyway...

I've decided to take one recipe a month from the magazine--- something that doesn't look too daunting--- and see what I can find at Aldi to fit the ingredient list. I've done this a few times so far, and they've mostly been winners. I figured I'd share the first one with you all! The original recipe is from the January edition of "Martha Stewart Living"!

Aldi Meatball Casserole

1 lb ground pork sausage

1 lb ground beef

1 cup Italian breadcrumbs

1/2 tsp coarse salt

2 large eggs

1 clove minced garlic (used pre-minced garlic in oil from Aldi)

1/4 cup dried parsley

2 tablespoons virgin olive oil

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

pinch of red pepper flakes

1 28 oz can crushed tomato

8 oz presliced mozzarella

1) Mix pork, beef, breadcrumbs, salt, eggs, garlic and parsley in a large bowl. Form into 2 inch balls.

2) Heat oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add meatballs: cook for 10 minutes until brown all over. (I cooked for closer to 20 to make sure they were all the way done. The recipe wants you to get them all the way done later, but I didn't have any over-cooking problems the way I did it) Remove meatballs with a slotted spoon.

3) Reduce heat to medium. Add onion and pepper flakes; cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes and basil, simmer for 8 minutes

4) Return meatballs to pan, simmer for 20 minutes (I simmered for 15)

5) Heat broiler. Arrange mozzarella on top. Broil until melted, 2 to 3 minutes. (I had to transfer everything into a pan because we don't have an ovenproof skillet)

My husband thought this was amazing! The flavor was much more complex than what we're used to eating. It was a bit more time consuming than most things that I bake, and I was very thankful that my husband was working from home when I made it, so I could ask him to watch our kiddo here and there while I tried to figure out what I was doing. So, all in all, great recipe for a weekend!