Summer Camp and Some Fuzzy Fun!

Big Bro and Little Bro are really enjoying summer camp!
Today, they shared a little of what they loved so far at their summer camp...

Both loved:

• Getting to spend time with new friends.

• Listening to Miss L as she read two of Eric Carle's books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Busy Spider.

• Playing different Eric Carle inspired board games.

Big Bro enjoyed "making fuzzy caterpillars out of cardboard egg carton sections and some paint." Little Bro liked "working with tissue paper, paint, and glue."
Yes, we love Eric Carle and all of his wonderful books...

So glad that this Eric Carle themed camp is a huge hit with the boys! 

We looked up a bit about Eric Carle and read some of his blog posts...the boys and I liked that his dad used to read comics to him (or, as he referred to them The Funny Papers) and tried to share about how the artist made the pictures and the perspective the artist used.
We also liked learning that sometimes, even Eric Carle has struggled with keeping his creative juices flowing.
This is a great life lesson for the boys, because they got to see that even if a person is very talented and famous, that does not mean that they don't run into challenges...
The thing is that Eric Carle always has managed to take a break when necessary and then, he comes back and is all the more creative.
Eric Carle also shares about making pretzels and the background of his book, Walter the Baker.
After reading this post and sharing it with the boys, I have a feeling that making homemade German style pretzels will be something that we do in the very near future...
Just in case you share the blog post with your children and they get hungry for pretzels, too:
Here is a German Pretzel recipe from Cookography, who got the recipe from Fresh Loaf...

Today, in addition to sharing what they liked about camp and about Eric Carle, Big Bro and Little Bro both decided that they wanted to play with a new sensory item we picked up called Moon Dough (perhaps because it was kind of like the idea of making pretzels...)

Moon Dough is a new Swedish-made product that is wheat free, does not dry out, and is incredibly light.***
The fact that it is wheat free is a big deal, as there are children in the boys' homeschool co-op who are allergic to wheat, so this will be nice that they will be able to all use the dough. 
When I asked Little Bro to describe it, he said" It feels fuzzy and smells like crayons."

When I asked Big Bro to describe it, he said " It is so light and fluffy and is easy to form into a ball shape."

We purchased a total of four small containers of Moon Dough.
The boys selected the colors: red, yellow, blue, and white.

They loved playing with it!
They were intrigued by the feel, the smell, and the properties of it, as far as how you can mold with it, etc.The boys really enjoyed working with the dough, along with some items from their kitchen play set on our lanai...
Moon Dough is fairly crumbly..but this can be overcome if you have children use a bin to work with it, almost like a mini sand box.
Little Bro and Big Bro agreed that "the dough needs to stay in the box like sand stays in a sandbox...so if a little spills, you do your best to clean it up, but you don't put all of it on the outside of the box on purpose."
As far as an extension that could take Moon Dough from just being a modeling dough into a math material, think that this dough would be awesome to use if you happen to have 3D shapes that can open to be filled...such as a cone or cube shape, as the dough would work beautifully in this scenario...


***I was not asked by anyone affiliated with Moon Dough to do a review of Moon Dough...only am giving  my honest opinion of this as it was something that my sons really enjoyed and that was an activity that was part of our day today. 


Please be sure to check out all of the other cool We Play links over at Childhood 101!

Making Memories Monday & Montessori Monday: Summer Food and Fun!

Peanut Butter Cup Time...A memory and a Montessori tie - in!

(The Montessori tie-in is a bit of a stretch this week, but the recipe is Italian, so homage to Dr. Montessori's country of origin!)

When I was little, summers were always kicked off with a school-wide picnic day spent at Waldameer.

Waldameer, which is German for "Woods by the Sea", is situated right by Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania, my hometown. At the time, it was a picnic grounds and amusement park...it has grown into a much larger entity and now boasts fancier, more modern rides and a water park, but back in the day, it was pretty simple.

Here is a link to Waldameer and its interesting park history.

Waldameer is One of the 10 Oldest Parks in the USA.
Waldameer was and to some extent still is an old fashioned style amusement park, complete with two kind of  haunted house attractions  Pirate's Cove and the Wacky shack, as well as a real wooden roller coaster.
It also had bumper cars called Dodgem's, a water ride / flume run called Old Mill, and several twirly rides, including the Paratrooper, the Spider, the Scrambler, and the Tilt-a-Whirl... these rides made me a little queasy, but we rode them anyhow...

You did not pay for the whole day there...instead, you paid by the ride.

This was a much better set up for our family, as my mom did not go on the rides so she did not have to pay. She would watch us go on the rides and would stay with my much younger brothers while the older kids in my family (including myself) would go on the rides. 
My younger brother rode on some of the kiddie rides but were too young to ride on the bigger rides, so they stayed close to my mom and walked around by either the picnic grounds or else the arcade.
My dad did not go with us to this picnic, as it was always held on a weekday, when most dads were at work...so the entire picnic was pretty much staffed by moms, maybe with a few dadss who took the day off to help set things up for the picnic.

For school picnics at Waldameer, they always served food in tents.
The food almost always included two main food items:

Ox Roast, which is not made of ox but of roast beef and spices. Everyone would eat this sloppy but delicious roast beef on a bun, but you actually needed a bowl because otherwise, you would drop it, due to its sheer massive size and juiciness.
Smith's Hot dogs. Smith's Hot dogs are a local specialty and they are still quite popular today for picnics.
Anyone from Erie, Pennsylvania would most likely associate the smell of Smith's Hot Dogs and the Ox Roast as summer smells.

Alongside the hot dogs and Ox Roast, they would serve Troyer Farms Chips, locally grown potato chips that were just great, as well as pototo salad, baked beans, and watermelon.
We also got to have "pop" (aka soda for the rest of the world), mainly cans of Coca Cola all wrapped up in tin foil to help keep it cold. 


Once the picnic was over, then it meant the start of summer.
Then, the rest of the summer was pretty much spent at the pool.
Our family lived close enough to the pool that we could either ride our bikes or walk to the pool.
Generally, my sister, my one brother, and I would ride our bikes to the pool. 
In the mornings, we had swim team practice.
we would swim until I felt like I could pass out and then, just before doing so, they would blow the whistle and practice had come to an end.

Then, after practice, we would have lunch, usually at the pool and then, we would stay and swim for the remainder of the day. Sometimes, we would get food from the snack bar, but most days, my mom would pack lunch for all of us.
My mom would usually come down to the pool with my three younger brothers. She had so much to lug in with her...three little tots, plus a play pen and pools toys, along with our lunches that she would usually pack for us.
For the most part, it was a great way to spend our days.

Well, wouldn't you know it, lo and behold, Dear Hubby spent his summer days in a pretty similar fashion? 

He would wrap up his school year and then, would head to his neighborhood pool. He spent many hours at the pool, but also managed to find time to add baseball and a
family vacation with his grandparents to the beaches of Maryland to his summer routine. 

While I was in Erie, Pennsylvania, spending time at the pool and stocking up on Smith's Hot Dogs and Ox Roast sandwiches, Dear Hubby and his family were enjoying Italian Beef sandwiches and Nathan's Hot Dogs...and doing laps at the pool, too.

A while back when we were sharing our respective childhood memories of summertime, we discovered the similarities to our summers.

We also found out the Ox Roast and Italian Beef are pretty much the same thing!

Well, there is not too much of a Montessori tie-in today, except that Dr. Maria Montessori was originally from Italy and who knows, maybe she enjoyed some of these great sandwiches during her summers, too...

Here is our combined version for what I call Ox Roast and what Dear Hubby calls Italian Beef:, in case you would like to make some:

In a crockpot set to low, add the following:
4 or 5 pounds of very rare roast beef from the deli.
2 packages of Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix.
1 can beef stock
1 can beef broth
"Juice" (really the water) from 1 large jar of Pepperoncini peppers (you know, the light green kind of pepper that you get with a pizza in Erie)
You can add one or two peppers too, but this is optional

Now, since Dear Hubby is originally from Chicago and they serve up something very similar to ox roast called Italian Beef, he prefers adding one or two pepperoncini peppers and a few roasted red peppers.
I prefer to go lighter on the pepper flavor and use mostly the water from the jar to give it a little kick, but not too much of one...but I have to admit...the addition of the roasted red peppers is awesome!!!
1 - 2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1  - 2 teaspoons oregano
( Again, Dear Hubby goes more for the oregano...with this, I say a little less is more...)

Let it slow cook all day so that all of the flavors are absorbed into the meat.

Season with ground pepper to taste...should not need any salt to be added, unless you used low sodium broth or stock.

Have not found any bread that resembles the marble rye my mom always served the sandwiches on, so we do the Chicago thing and serve it on a nice kaiser roll...

Dear Hubby also adds a few slices of provolone to his, but I skip this step...

So, there you have it...a dinner idea, a memory, a stretch of a Montessori tie-in, and a recipe that is worth trying...

Plus, if you ever go to Erie Pennsylvania in the summer, be sure to check out Waldameer, the beaches of Presque Isle, some real Ox Raost and literally, the best hot dogs ever made by Smith's Provisions!

Yummy!


Enjoy!!!


Please be sure to check out:
Jennifer's Making Memories Monday link-ups,
Jody's Montessori Monday at Mommy Moment link-ups,
and Nicole's Montessori Monday link-ups.










Happy Monday, everyone!

Playing with Your Food

Since I am rather spent from the last few days, thought I would just share this cute Food Network video clip of Giada De Laurentiis about how to make food fun and enticing for children.

The Mac and Cheese Cupcakes she mentions look like they would be a hit with my sons, especially Little Bro.

Click here for the recipe.

They could easily be something that a child could help make either as a snack or as a meal.
The Mac and Cheese Cupcakes sound very simple to make...

Although she does give a great, straightforward recipe, what is really nice is that there is so much flexibility with it depending on what your child likes to eat...basically, a little hodge-podge of penne, some bits of meat, veggies, and fresh cheese grated on top, baked into muffin tins.

Big Bro would probably want to load his up with either hamburger or grilled chicken pieces, whereas Little Bro would rather skip the meat altogether and would have mounds of cheese in his.
I would probably end up covertly slipping in the veggies to both of their creations. 

Will share some ways we make food an enticing experience at our home with our sons soon, but for now, hope that you will enjoy this nice video clip.

If your children make some of these Mac and Cheese Cupcakes, hope that you will share some cute photos and link to this post.
Also, be sure to check out what Muffin Tin Mom and all of the other creative mommies that link up for Muffin Tin Monday have made...they really know how to make food exciting, easy, and fun for children. 

Totally Out of the Blue Tuesday!

So, what is totally out of the blue, you ask???

The urge to make a homemade meal that actually requires some planning and cooking!

During the week while we are homeschooling, and when the weather is beautiful and warm enough to hang out at the pool, we usually have very basic meals (mostly sandwiches or a quick pasta dish that do not require much as far as cooking, meal prep, or even a recipe).
We tend to save more involved meals that actually require a recipe for the weekends, when we can kick back and relax and enjoy them.

But while Big Bro was working on his desert animals project this morning for his homeschool co-op class,  Little Bro was doing his Montessori work very diligently, and our pup took a nap,
I actually had a few minutes of just sitting there and it hit me... 

Why don't you make a nice dinner tonight?

So, lo and behold, right in my inbox, was something from the Rachael Ray Magazine's Weekly Bites from Rachael Ray.

It was about great burgers...yummy!

Dear Hubby loves burgers made of beef.
I am kinda thinkin' chicken...as the Adirondack Red Wing Burger sounds awesome!
He is more of a red meat and potatoes sort of guy, and he said he did not know whether he "could commit to agreeing to eating ground chicken or ground turkey."
(Felt like saying to him..."Honey, you don't have to marry the ground chicken burger...just eat it", but I held back and said "Okay, I will make something a little different..I now have the taste for these burgers, so I have had to come up with a plan...)

In the middle of glancing over her fab sounding recipe for Adirondack Red Wing Burgers, it dawned on me that with a little tweaking, these could be converted to a nice grilled chicken dinner, with a salad and something for a side...still not sure what that will be, might go for mashed potatoes...
So, here is the plan...I am going to take her recipe, buy the ingredients, and then, tweak some of it into a marinade for the grilled chicken and use some of it as seasoning for the salad.

Hopefully, Dear Hubby, Big Bro, and Little Bro will rate it in RR terms as Yum-O!

If it turns out, I will let you know and share the way I tweaked the recipe.
If it does not turn out, you may want to just check out Rachael's recipe, as her food is always delicious!

Here is the original recipe for the Adirondack Red Wing Burgers from her Weekly Bites newsletter.

Adirondack Red Wing Burger Recipe - Every Day with Rachael Ray

Some Nice Homemade Spa Gifts You Can Make as Party Gifts or Favors

Since this is the Ultimate Blog Party week, thought that I would share some homemade spa gifts that you can make either for yourself or for gifts for others...great way to recycle those teeny tiny first foods baby food jars, too!

Chocolate Moisturizing Face Mask 

(This recipe is an adaptation of a recipe by Ruth Ann Byrd, a clinical aesthetician, as it appeared as part of her wonderful article entitled Benefits of Chocolate)


You will need:

• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon high quality organic cocoa powder
• 2 Tablespoons organic, raw honey 
• 2 Tablespoons finely ground oatmeal, made from steel cut Irish style oatmeal
• 1 teaspoon water
• some small baby food jars and a spoon to stir the mask mixture
• Pretty fabric and matching ribbon to cover jar lids
• Cute Chocolate Face Mask labels

Directions:

Grind the oatmeal very finely in a blender or food processor.
Add the other ingredients and mix well.
Add cute little labels to the jars  telling your guests that this is a Chocolate Moisturizing Facial Mask. You may wish to type directions for use:
Wash and completely dry your face gently with a towel. Then, apply a thin layer of the mask to your face and add some warm water to help it spread evenly.
Leave on for 5 to 10 minutes, and then, rinse and gently pat your face dry with a towel.
Add a light layer of moisturizer or lotion.


Homemade Sugar Scrub Party Favors
 You will need:

• Small baby food jars with lids 
• Cotton fabric, cut into a square large enough to cover and hang down from lids
• Ribbon 
• 2 Cups Sugar in the Raw
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Spoon
• 2 - 3 drops organic essential oils (suggestion: 1 drop peppermint and two drops vanilla)
•  Small bowl and spoon to stir up the scrub mixture 
• Neat Homemade Sugar Scrub labels 

Directions:

Cut cotton fabric to fit over lids of four tiny baby food jars

In a small bowl, add ingredients and stir scrub mixture with a small spoon.

Spoon the scrub mixture into the baby food jars.

Screw on lids.

Cover lids with fabric and trim so that the fabric hangs down but so that you can still see the scrub mixture in the jar.

Add a ribbon to hold the fabric in place.

Optional: Make tags with each guest's name. 

Make cute Sugar Scrub labels and place on the jars.

I had posted before about making homemade soap balls
and you could also make these and add these to your party favors.

Then, to go with the spa theme, give everyone a glass with their name added to it, using glass paint. 
Fill the glasses with water, ice, and thinly sliced lemon and lime slices.

Have fun pampering yourself and your friends too!

Please remember to enter my giveaway for the Earth Day Prize Pack. 

To enter, simply leave a nice comment on this post for me to read, along with your blog URL or your email so that I can reach you to notify you. 

If you win the Earth Day Prize pack, in addition to the goodies for your children, I will throw in some neat downloads for you for the labels and tags for the spa party favors.



Drawing is on the 16th of April, at the close of the Ultimate Blog Party!

Two Festive Christmas Crafts - Cinnamon Spice Ornaments and Soap Balls

Two tried and true activities during the holiday season are cinnamon spice ornaments and homemade soap balls.

Both of these activities are ones that young children can do, but may need some assistance with doing. You can still make them in a very Montessori inspired way, although they are best as something done in a fully stocked kitchen and not sitting in a classroom as shelf work. If you want to have them as "shelf work", you can have some of the tasks on trays, such as:
Tray Option 1 (for soap ball craft):
A template for cutting the fabric, some holiday fabric, scissors, and a pen or pencil...
Tray Option 2 (for either craft):
you could also set up a tray with the card stock and colored pencils to make the gift tags for either gift, etc. That's about as far as it will work as shelf work, though...

If your classroom has access to water from a sink and a microwave, or if not, a microwave or a hotpot...it still is possible to make these. If you do make these in the classroom, you might want them to be something done at a small table in the hallway or in a corner of your classroom, with a parent volunteer who understands the importance of a calm classroom and can work incredibly quietly without disturbing nearby children.
The volunteer can assist each child if the child needs any assistance...
Making these in the regular classroom setting is just a little more of a challenge than in a regular kitchen. One of the schools I worked at had a fully stocked kitchen...the other had a sink in the room and a microwave across the hallway.
I made these every year when I was in the classroom, so it can be done successfully.

Cinnamon Spice Ornaments:
This recipe will make somewhere around ten ornaments, so if you are making ornaments with your entire class, you will have to do this same recipe three times. Do not attempt to double or triple the recipe, as it is too much to stir at once, gets too hard too fast, and makes too much of a "cinnamon cloud"...believe me, I know from personal experience...I tried to save time once...lesson learned!
You will need:
A large container of cinnamon (Sam's, BJ's, and Costco all have big ones that work great)
A few lunch sized cups of applesauce (get the thinnest, cheapest kind you can find...it works better for this recipe...)
Approximately 2 T. Elmer's School Glue
A few toothpicks
Some "doctor's office" type gloves
Some thin ribbon in holiday colors
Parchment paper
Cookie sheet
Child sized rolling pins
Child sized spoons, 1 per child
1 adult sized spoon
Optional:
1 to 2 T. of other spices, such as Penzey's Baking Spice Mix, or ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, or orange peel.
Tiny buttons
Low temp. glue gun and low temp glue sticks

I have tried several different versions of this recipe.
The version where you add glue seems to work out better, as the ornaments seem to be less fragile.
My favorite way to make these is not a very easy recipe to duplicate, though, because you keep adding the various ingredients until everything is the right thickness. I have never in all the year of making these, measured out exact amounts for these...the children and I just keep adding in the ingredients and mixing until we have a very stiff dough...
Basically, I always gets a big container of cinnamon, some additional baking spices I have laying around, some school glue, and a few containers of lunch portion cups of applesauce.

Note:
For this recipe, do NOT use chunky, natural applesauce.
Get the thinner, cheaper applesauce for this.

I also throw in some additional spices, such as ginger, cloves, allspice, or nutmeg...many times, I just end up adding a few shakes of Baking Spice from Penzey's. These additional spices just enhance the smell of the ornaments, but are really not necessary to the recipe.
Straight up cinnamon gets the job done, too.

As far as having children in making the recipe, they can help to add the applesauce, but I highly recommend that an adult carefully pour out the cinnamon into a bowl and add the first bunch of applesauce and glue and give it a few stirs before having children involved.
The reason for this is that the cinnamon is very strong and especially if you have children with allergies and asthma, it is better to get the recipe to the point of being a dough before children start to work with it.
I also have my sons wear doctor's office style gloves when they help with this, as the dough can be harsh on sensitive skin...with all of that, basically, you mix up the ingredients until you have a nice, stiff dough.
Then, your children can help you to fold the dough out onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
They can then use their child sized rolling pins to roll out their portion of the dough.
Once the dough is rolled out, your children can them cut out shapes with gingerbread cookie cutters, or any other appropriate holiday cookie cutter.
You then should demonstrate for your child how to poke a hole through with a toothpick at the top of the ornament so that you will have a hole to string a thin ribbon through when the ornaments dry.
Let ornaments dry for a few days until they are totally dry.
You then can string ribbon through and can then add additional items, such as tiny buttons, by using a low temp glue gun on the ornaments.

Homemade Soap Balls:
You will need:
Bar of soap, such as Ivory
Cheese Grater
Essential oil
Microwave safe container
Water (approx. 1/4 cup)
Child's Sized metal pitcher
Parchment paper
cookie sheet
Index cards or card stock or pre-made gift tags
Pencil (to sign name on gift tags and to label whose soap balls are whose on the parchment paper)
Ribbon or yarn - holiday colors
Fabric - holiday patterned or in holiday colors
Optional: Mellon ball scooper or ice cream scooper

Directions:
For homemade soap balls, take a bar of mild soap, such as Ivory or any sort of lightly scented white soap. Using a cheese grater, have your child help to grind up the soap.
Heat up some water in the microwave.

Note:
Some recipes call for the water to be boiling, but I have never found this to be necessary...I just heat the water up for about 30 seconds...

You will need about 1/4 of a cup of water.
Add a few Tablespoons of essential oil to the hot water.
You can use something like Bath and Body Work's Gingerbread Oil or their Frosted Cranberry Oil. If you want to use something more organic, that will work great as well.
Just depends on what you have on hand.
Let the oil and hot water mix sit for a few seconds and then, slowly start to pour the mixture over the soap shavings.

Note:
If you transfer the hot water from the microwave safe container and the essential oil from its bottle mixture to a small child sized metal pitcher, they can help with this step.
If not, you can do the pouring and then, your children can help you to stir and to form the balls.

The mixture will be a little warm, but after stirring for a few minutes, it should be warm but not too hot. At this point, you can transfer the soap mixture to a flat surface covered with parchment paper. Give each child a portion of the soap mixture to roll into a ball. If you have anyone who wants to make these but has some challenges in the area of fine motor, you can have them scoop out small balls with an ice cream scooper or melon ball scooper.

Let the balls dry on the parchment paper. This will take a few days.
Then, to make the presentation more decorative, cut out circles of fabric that are large enough to hold your soap balls. Tie the soap balls inside the fabric with yarn or ribbon. Have your child make a personal tag to attach to the soap balls.

Note:
Depending on the age and cutting skills of your children, they can help with this step. You may even want to have a variety of fabrics for them to choose from, along with a variety of yarn and ribbon for them to choose as well.

Have fun making these gifts!
They are very fun to make and smell great!

We will post recipes when we actually make ours this year.

We are holding off on cooking, as both Big Bro and Little Bro are sick at the moment.