image from Family Fun
Here are some recipes that I have on file. Hope you enjoy them.
Homemade Playdough Recipe #1
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups of salt
3 cups of water
2 Tbsp of vegetable oil
1 Tbsp cream of tartar
food coloring or 1 package of unsweetened Kool-Aid
1) Mix all ingredients in large saucepan over medium heat until dough comes away from the edge. Remove from heat.
2) Knead 3-4 times and store in an air tight container.
Homemade Playdough Recipe #2
1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon oil
1/4 cup salt
food coloring of choice
1) Mix all the ingredients, adding the food coloring last.
2) Stir over medium heat until play dough has a smooth consistency. Remove play dough from the pan and allow to cool for a few minutes (we always put ours on an empty desk in the room away from the children).
3) Knead until smooth. After it has cooled, place it in a plastic bag or airtight container to keep it soft.
Edible Peanut Butter Playdough
2 cups peanut butter
6 tablespoons honey
nonfat dry milk or milk plus flour
cocoa or carob for chocolate flavor (optional)
edible treats for decoration
1) Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix, adding enough dry milk or milk plus flour to reach the consistency of bread dough.
2) Add cocoa or carob, if desired.
3) Shape, decorate with edible treat, and eat!
Edible Frosting Playdough
1 can frosting mix
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
Mix together until it reaches your wanted consistency.
Oobleck
1 1/2 cups corn starch
1 cup water
green food coloring (few drops)
Mix the ingredients together and allow children to play with the mixture. When pushed together, the mixture will appear dry and solid; as children let go of the mixture, it flows like smooth liquid.
I have another recipe for Oobleck here.
I found this cake idea today at Betty Crocker. Looks like a cute and easy cooking project to involve the kids. For older children, you could talk about fractions. This would also make a cute and thrifty cake for a birthday party. Go to Betty Crocker for complete instructions.
Other easy cake ideas:
Butterfly Cake
Spring Cupcake Baskets - Very cute!
Birthday Cupcakes
Goin' Fishin' Cupcakes
I'm sure you can browse around their site and find more great ideas!
Better Homes & Gardens has some really cute treats that kids can make. You don't have to be into Halloween to enjoy a lot of these. Some of them would be neat just for fall. Check out the twinkie owl and the cupcake spider. So cute! You could always make the owl for "O Week" or the spider for "S Week". BH&G always has great ideas!
October is Fire Prevention month, so why not teach your kids something while allowing them to have fun?! Here are some links to some great fire prevention activities:
DLTK Kids
Activity Idea Place
Angel Fire
Preschool Education, snacks, songs.
USFA Kids, here too
Perpetual Preschool
Home fire plan coloring pages
Sparky the Fire Dog
Staying Alive
Apples 4 the Teacher
Do 2 Learn
Firefighters are My Friends Coloring Book - I did this one last year with my preschoolers.
If you've used homemade play dough before, then you probably like it better than the store bought kinds. I think that homemade play dough has a better texture and is softer, therefore easier for the kids to press and make things.
Here is a recipe for making your own play dough. When I was teaching the 2/3 year old class, we would multiply my recipe times 4 so that we had enough for at least 8 kids to play at one time. Also, each month we made a new batch of play dough to go along with our color of the month.
Animal Crackers
serves 8
1) Grind 1/2 cup oatmeal in blender until fine.
2) In a bowl with the oatmeal, add 2 teaspoons honey, 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup flour, and 1/4 teaspoon soda. Stir.
3) Cut in 1/4 cup softened butter.
4) Add 4 tablespoons buttermilk and stir.
5) Roll mixture until very thin. Cut with animal cookie cutters.
6) Bake at 400 degrees until brown for 10-12 minutes.
Extra:
1) Make up a story about the animal crackers you made.
2) Make one cracker in the shape of Aa.
Recipe from Kinder-Krunchies.
Only a couple of days until Mother's Day?! How did it catch me unaware?
Mother's Day is the perfect time for your child to get creative and for you to emphasize the importance of thinking about others. Encourage your child to make something for the special women in his/her life (grandmothers, aunts, teachers, etc.).
Here are some of my favorite presents I have received for Mother's Day.
I just recently found Mom's Niche Blog. I was going to link to a couple of posts that I think are really relevant for this blog, but I REALLY like the whole blog so I decided to devote a whole post to sharing this wonderful place with you.
Mom's Niche Blog is written by a work-at-home mom who also has 3 children. She regularly shares recipes, offers honest reviews of various products, talks about her family and life experiences, and just creates a warm place for moms.
Here are some of my favorite posts:
While I enjoy providing links to helpful resources, I have realized that I have been linking to other useful sites more than I have been posting original material. I sincerely apologize! I do not want this site to just be a linking site; I want it to be a place with original ideas as well.
Without further ado, here are some activities to try with your children:
Create a play. You can write a simple program for them or, if your children arecapable, let them create their own skit. Encourage them to adapt a familiar story or to create an original play. Help them make simple costumes and/or props to flesh out their program. Have them rehearse several times, and then, with all due pomp, let them present their play to the non-participating members of the family. My girls love to act out segments from Peter Pan and other favorite stories.
Hold a treasure hunt. Children just love to hunt for treasure, and the prizedoesn't have to be anything huge. I remember one year when my mother gave both me and my older sister a treasure hunt birthday party. We were all divided into teams of 2, and mother wrote out clues that sent us from place to place both inside the house and outside in our yard. (You could also create a treasure map in lieu of writing individual clues.) Each new clue was located with a small prize for each player: a headband at one place, (sugar-free) candy at another. The treasure was a pair of handmade teddy bears.
Create a stop-and-go story. Sit in a circle with your children. You start outtelling a made-up story; when you stop (usually at an exciting point in the story), have the child to your left add to the story, and continue around the circle. This can be a lot of fun with young children because you never know what they might say. Obviously, this doesn't really work for infants and toddlers, but around 30-36 months, my girls have been able to begin creating rudimentary stories.
When the weather turns MUCH warmer, make some homemade ice cream. My kids love to help us make the ice cream and definitely enjoy eating it, too!Here is our favorite ice cream recipe. My husband particularly likes it because it reminds him of snow cream. We've made vanilla, banana, and strawberry ice cream using this recipe.
A lot of people have been looking for crafts and activities to do with Hershey's Kisses. I've found a few of those crafts as well as more Valentine's-related ideas.
Family Fun.com offers this very cute Valentine's Day Blast Off Rocket Candy Card. (Whew! That's a mouthful!) This craft features both a Hershey's Kiss and a roll of hard candy, such as Life Savers.
Perpetual Preschool offers many, many Valentine's Day ideas submitted by readers. Submissions include instructions for creating candy necklaces, handmade cards, hand print flower bouquets, play dough hand print hearts, Valentine's mailboxes, room decorations, and so much more.
BlessingsforLife.com offers unique ideas including Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookies, several varieties of Homemade Hearts, Hershey Kiss Roses, and A Box of Love. You can also read about the Origins of St. Valentine and Valentine's Day or choose a special saying from three pages of Valentine's Day quotations.
It is once again time to post about the alphabet theme. Today's post is (quite obviously) about the letter S.
In an earlier post, I encouraged you to educate your child in practical ways. Maricar at Keeping the Castle must have read my mind because she posted her thoughts about children cooking and provided links to her recommendations for children's cookbooks.
photo courtesy of Keeping the Castle
