Preschooler & Playdough

Today is kind of a dreary, humid day. Two of the older kids have special events to attend, but the 3 youngest are here at home getting into things looking for something to do. Thankfully, my almost empty pantry had all the ingredients needed to make homemade playdough!

Ingredients Needed:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup of water
1 TBSP oil
2 TBSP cream of tartar
1 package of Kool-aid (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together in a pot and cook on medium heat. Stir constantly. You will think that it is not working out, but just when you're about to second-guess yourself, the dough will form into a ball. Remove from heat at this point. The dough is hot! Wait until it cools to mix in food coloring. I actually mixed in dye-free Kool-aid while making the dough on the stove. I did that so that our playdough would smell good :)

I let my 3 1/2 yr. old help make the dough. I doubled the recipe.

She loved pouring in all the ingredients and was so proud to be making her own playdough. I really need to come up with more kid cooking activities to do with her. She had so much fun.

I went ahead and mixed the food coloring with the dough because I wasn't sure how messy that would be. It wasn't too bad. You could start it, and then let the kids really mix it in. At this point you can also add glitter. That sounded like too big of a mess so we opted not to do that :)

For a printable recipe card and lots of playdough links, check out Jimmie's Playdough article. 

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Ice Cream in a Bag

This week on the HomeSchool Village the theme has been cooking with kids. I don't know if the activity we did is technically considered cooking, but it does involve food and is yummy!

Since it has been so hot out and we were celebrating my oldest daughter's birthday, I thought a fun thing to do would be to make ice cream. This was on our summer to-do list and since my nephews and niece were coming over, we thought making ice cream in a bag would be a special treat. I had originally planned on taking step-by-step photos but 1. it was hot 2. I'm preggo 3. high temperatures and being preggo don't mix well. :)

I did manage to take one photo of my 3yr. old eating her ice cream though :)  This recipe is so easy and yummy! The only thing you need to remember is to wipe the outside of the smaller bag once you take it out of the gallon-size bag. It is covered with salt and can ruin your ice cream tasting experience.

2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar
1/2 cup of whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
6 Tablespoons of rock salt
1 pint-size Ziplock bag
1 gallon-size Ziplock bag
ice-cubes

Pour the first three ingredients into the pint-size bag. Seal it tightly.
Fill half of the gallon-size bag with ice and then add the rock salt.
Place the smaller bag inside the bag with the ice. Seal it tightly.
Shake, shake, shake and shake some more!

When it looks like ice-cream, take the smaller bag out from the bag of ice. Wipe the outside with a wet rag, open the bag and eat with a spoon! It was very good!

So what things have you been able to cross off your Big Summer Fun list?

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Chalktalk with JDaniel4's Mom

One of the biggest struggles I have during the summer is coming up with lunches and snacks. My kids are constantly hungry! I'm always on the look-out for healthy snacks that are budget friendly. I've seen a lot of posts regarding Muffin Tin Monday and noticed that my friend JDaniel4's Mom participates in this regularly. I decided to talk to her to find out what it was all about and to see how she handleslunches with her crew.

1.What is Muffin Tin Monday? 

Muffin Tin Monday is a weekly blog carnival hosted by Muffin Tin Mom. Moms from  around the world gather to post pictures on lunches they have created for their children in muffin tins. Some weeks there is a theme posted that most of the moms follow and other week’s moms are asked to come up with their own themes. There is a list of theme or no theme weeks listed on her site. It is so helpful if you like to plan your muffin tin in advance.

2. Do you only do this special meal on Mondays as a treat?

 We do a special themed lunch once a week. I do meals in muffin tins a lot. At lunch time and sometimes dinner time I ask my son if he wants to eat on a plate or a tin. I have five or six tins in a cabinet that is at his level. He is able to reach in and select his choice of tin.

3. How do you plan what will go in your Muffin Tin meals?

If there is a theme I go by the theme the Muffin Tin Mom has listed. If there isn’t a theme, I create a tin based on my blog theme of the week. Monday through Friday all my blog posts revolve around a weekly theme.

I try to use foods we already have at home in my tins although I have been known to use Muffin Tin Monday as an opportunity to try new foods out on my son.

Some tins are planned during the week and others come together as stand in front of my refrigerator and see what we have.

It is so helpful to look at what other Muffin Tin Moms have done and try to replicate them with my own twist. Muffin Tin Mom has a gallery set up on Flickr.

4.  What types of snack foods do you usually serve in the summer?

We are trying to eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables this summer. My son loves fruit chews. I am hoping to wean off them to real fruit.

5.  Do you have a set snack-time?

JDaniel gets a snack after naptime in the afternoon. We don’t have a set snack time in the morning. If we are going to eat lunch early, he doesn’t usually need a morning snack.

6. Where do you find your cute shaped muffin tins? 

I have found them all over. Target has had some their dollar section. I have purchased some from A.C. Moore and Michael’s with 40% off coupons. I have a bunny egg plate that I found on clearance at a grocery store for 75 cents. Some Muffin Tin Mom’s have talked about great tins they found at Goodwill. Holiday related tins seem to go on sale right before the holiday. Hobby Lobby has great cupcake liners that you can pick up very cheaply there.

7.  What is your favorite Muffin Tin meal so far? 

I loved creating the tins during the color series. It was fun to come up with all red, purple, blue, green, and orange foods. 

JDaniel loves the tins that I have used cookie cutters to make letters or shapes with. He loved his Dad lunch.

8. Do you have any tips for preparing and/or cutting down the cost of snacks and lunches?

We coupons and stock pile based on store specials at my house. I use Southern Savers and other deal sites to plan my shopping.

9.  What is your favorite recipe?

I made a quinoa salad recently that my family really enjoyed.

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup rinsed quinoa

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons of honey (My friend Kathleen says honey is supposed to help with JDaniel's allergies.)

1/4 cup of lemon juice

1/2 teaspoons of coarse salt

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 cup of cut up pieces of apple (It calls for Granny Smith and we had Gala.)

1 cup of finely cut celery

1/3 cup of raisins (It called for golden raisins and we had regular brown ones.)

1/3 cup of finely chopped parsley (We didn't have parsley.)

1/2 cup of chopped almonds, toasted ( I took a handful of almonds from a can of mixed nuts.)

Directions:

Bring the quinoa and water to a boil.

Reduce heat and let simmer for 15 minutes. The quinoa will be tender and the water absorbed.

Let it cool.

Mix the honey, lemon juice, and salt. Slowly add oil until blended.

Add remaining ingredients to the quinoa and toss well.

Add the dressing and toss.

Season with salt and pepper.

Serve cool.

This recipe will feed 6 to 8 people. Both JDaniel3 and JDaniel4 has seconds of this

JDaniel4's Mom is a former teacher and educational technology trainer who now blogs at JDaniel4'smom You can find reflections, reviews, resources for moms, giveaways and more on her blog.

Melt in Your Mouth Muffins

Recently someone on the Sonlight boards wrote about a terrific muffin mix. Since my family likes to eat muffins for breakfast or a snack, I was interested in trying it out. The recipe makes a big mix that you can store in an air-tight container for several months. The best thing is that you can use this mix and then customize the flavors. Today I made banana chocolate chip muffins -----and they were awesome!  I can't wait to try other fruits and see how well it tastes. So thanks to Diane in TX for sharing this wonderful recipe!

MUFFIN MIX

8 c. all purpose flour
3 c. sugar
3 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. nutmeg

Combine all ingredients. Place in a large, airtight container. Store in a cool, dry place. Use within 6 to 8 months.

MELT-IN-YOUR-MOUTH MUFFINS

2 3/4 c. muffin mix
1 egg, beaten
1 c. milk
1/2 c. melted butter OR 1/2 c. vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees; grease muffin pan.
Combine egg & milk in small bowl. Add all at once to mix. Stir until just moistened (batter should be lumpy).
Fill muffin pan.
Bake 18-20 minutes.

May add 1 c. dried fruit, diced peaches, blueberries, or 1/2 banana, 1/2 c. choc. chips

I sometimes make a coarse mixture of flour, sugar, and butter & sprinkle that over the tops before baking. That makes them seem more like bakery muffins. These are my family's favorite muffins.

My Favorite Thanksgiving Dessert

Pumpkin Squares have been a Thanksgiving dessert staple in our family ever since I can remember. Made with a yellow cake crust, it is a little sweeter than a normal pumpkin pie and tastes awesome cold with a little whipped cream on the top. I've written out the recipe with photo steps for a charity cook-off on Squidoo: Pumpkin Squares Dessert.

What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving desserts or recipes? I'd love to know.

Ice-Cream in a Bag

We had a jam-packed week last week, so I never got my Toddler School photos up. In fact, I'm still loading and editing them. One of the things that my kids got to do was make ice-cream in a bag. Just so you don't go thinking I'm some creative, super-cool mom who lets her kids do messy things---I didn't plan this. Yep, I got to watch my kids have fun and not have to clean up the mess :) We have a wonderful lady in our lives named Mamaw. She's not our Mamaw, but has adopted all the kids in our small group as her own. She and her daughter have done all our science experiments this year. Whohoo! What that means is that my kids actually got to do science experiments this year--lol.

I couldn't believe how easy this was and thought that we actually might do it again at home this summer. Here's the recipe:

2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar

1/2 cup of whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon of vanilla

6 Tablespoons of rock salt

1 pint-size Ziplock bag

1 gallon-size Ziplock bag

ice-cubes


Pour the first three ingredients into the pint-size bag. Seal it tightly.
Fill half of the gallon-size bag with ice and then add the rock salt.
Place the smaller bag inside the bag with the ice. Seal it tightly.
Shake, shake, shake and shake some more!

When it looks like ice-cream, take the smaller bag out from the bag of ice. Wipe the outside with a wet rag, open the bag and eat with a spoon! It was very good!

Cloe's Virus Killing Soup

We've had some sniffly noses around the Spell household that just don't seem to want to stop dripping. And since the world seems to be talking about swine, I figured it wouldn't hurt to boost our immune system. You might be thinking, "Oh you're just one of those homeschool, health -food nuts!" I am sooo not there yet, but I find myself slowly creeping in that direction :)

I have to admit that I was out of my comfort-zone making this soup. I have never made homemade soup. I have never bought fresh garlic, rosemary or thyme. I had never seen a leek nor did I know what to do with it once I found one. I have never seen nor heard of a fennel bulb (I used some fennel seeds just in case that was close to the same thing?) I have never bought a head of cabbage, I had no idea what flat-leaf parsley was so I just bought what I could find and the veggies in this soup were more than I have ever eaten at one time. Yes, I live such a sheltered, unhealthy life... ;)

Finally after days of getting all the ingredients ready ---ok I'm exaggerating just a little---the soup was finally done! I have to admit that I felt pretty good about making something healthy for my family. I have been trying to create more things from scratch other than baked-goods---so this was a great accomplishment for me. I was very hesitant to post my photo---so sorry Cloe if this isn't what it is suppose to look like! LOL! (My family likes a thicker soup) And guess what---it was pretty good!

Oh what? You want the recipe? Well here you go: Cloe's Virus Killing Soup

Playing with Playdough

DD#3 is two years old. At two, she thinks she should be able to do everything the big kids do. So when we are working on school stuff, she wants to be right in the middle of it. Sometimes that is a good thing---other times it's not. In order to keep her busy, one of the older kids has Toddler Time with her. On this particular day it was DS's turn to have Toddler Time with DD#3. It was the first time he was given this particular task, and I have to admit, I did not have a pre-planned activity. That thought scared me, so I quickly went through my idea file (aka--my brain) and rummaged through my cabinets to see if I had all the stuff to make playdough. Yes! I actually had cream of tartar on hand! Not only that, the kids had talked me into buying Koolaid packets at Aldi the other day (I rarely let them have it), so not only could I make playdough, but I could make scented playdough! :) The playdough was a big hit. In fact, I had to keep reminding the older kids that they needed to share some with their younger sister. I will definetly be adding playdough activities on the list of stuff to do during the week. And I've kept my homemade playdough in the fridge for several months with no problems.

Scented Playdough
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 package unsweetened Kool-Aid
1/4 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
Mix flour, salt, cream of tartar and Kool-Aid® in a medium pot. Add water and oil. Stir over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes. When mixture forms a ball in pot, remove. Knead until smooth. Put in a plastic bag and refrigerate.

Even more playdough recipes