Petaluma Mom

Preschool Cooking

2011-09-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

Our local bookstore, Cooperfields, hosted a cooking competition for kids. Each bought a cookbook and choose a recipe to make and enter. I picked out the cookbook Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes for Preschoolers for Thomas. This cookbook is awesome for non and early readers. Each recipe is four pages long, with the first 2 page spread for the adult helpers and the second 2 page spread in pictorial form for the preschooler. Thomas literally made several recipes with independently. He loves the book and uses it in his play kitchen and even requests it for his night time story! This is a must have for any pre-reader!

For those of you interested he didn't place at the contest, but had a great time! Here is his display:

Egg Carton Scavenger Hunt

2011-09-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered Pinterest. For those of you who have not checked this site out, it is a great way to both organize ideas that you get from the web as well as find new ideas. I highly recommend it! I saw several people posting recently about using old egg cartons for a backyard scavenger hunt and I thought it was a great idea.

First I googled some pictures for common items in our backyard and put them into a chart I could print out and glue onto the top of an old egg carton.

Then the kids had to head out into the backyard and find all the items and place one in each "spot."

I must admit I put the "?" spot on there because I was having trouble coming up with a 12th item, but the kids loved getting to look around the yard and deciding what would go in the last spot!

Make Your Own Snowglobe

2010-12-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

This was a fun project that I recently did with my three year-old and then again with his preschool class. They turned out super cute! (Note: Thomas helped with several of these photos!)

We used a baby food jar, mini-ornaments, glitter, glycerine, and an oven bake clay. We used regular glitter, though if you have it or are heading to Micheal's anyway I would suggest getting the larger sized glitter, it floats better.

Work the clay then make a mound on the cap of the jar. This allows the figurine to be seen past the lid. Be sure to stay a little bit back from the rim so that the jar will close correctly.

Choose which figure(s) you want to use and then place them in the clay to make an imprint before baking the clay. Be sure to remove the figurines before baking, you are just providing an imprint for them to be glued.

Bake according to the package directions.

While waiting for the top to bake, prep the figurines.

Fill the baby food jar about 3/4 of the way full with water.

Add a couple of eyedroppers full of glycerin.

Add the glitter. Careful, too much and you'll have a blizzard!

Whent he tops are out of the oven put the top on, add more water if necessary, then glue the top down. You can also glue a ribbon around the lid to give it a more festive look.

Shake and Enjoy!

Healthy Halloween Treats

2010-10-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween, all holidays really! With kids I think I love the lead up to Halloween the best; decorating, reading Halloween stories, watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and of course Halloween treats! In that vein I wanted to make some fun and spooky treats that were also healthy. Here are the 3 favorite that we discovered:

Vampire Apples

Sliced Apples (reddish look especially realistic)

Slivered Almonds

Slice your apples

Cut out a "mouth" in the center

Make fangs with the slivered Almonds

Carrot Eyeballs

Sliced Carrots

Cream Cheese

Raisins (or black olives)

Slice your carrots (about 1/4 of an inch)

Spread cream cheese on the carrots

Add the raisins or olives for the pupil

Also fun to combine the two together!

Cracker Spiders

Large round crackers

Pretzel Sticks

Raisins

Sun/Peanut/Almond Butter

Spread the Peanut Butter on the cracker

Add 8 pretzel stick "legs" and 2 raisin "eyes

Zucchini Nuggets

2010-08-12T16:47:00.000-07:00

We have two overproducing zucchini plants this year and while searching for new ways to prepare them I came across this great recipe on one of my favorite kid food blogs, Itty Bitty Bistro. Following the recipe below I made about 30 "nuggets" and was able to freeze the leftovers.

3 small to medium zucchini, grated

1/2 onion grated
2 cups coarse bread crumbs (used her idea of throwing the "butts" of my whole wheat in the food processor, in fact I used the food processor for the all the ingredients, super quick and easy!)
2 Tbsp flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup cheese
oil for frying

salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine zucchini, onion, crumbs, flour, eggs, cheese, salt and pepper.

Heat up oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Form small balls in your hand of the mixture and fry up in batches.

Enjoy! And check out the orginal recipe here.

Wheels on the Bus iphone app

2010-07-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

Wheels on the Bus by Duck Duck Moose

I love using my iphone for many reasons, not the least of which is its ability to distract my kids! This great little app sings the wheels on the bus song to the kids as they are able to manipulate the pictures on the screen. You can set song to be sung in several different languages, just the music, or record you or your child's voice. All for only 99 cents!

Photo Scavenger Hunt

2010-07-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

My son loves using my camera! He is always asking me if he can take pictures of his trains and then wants me to show them to him. With this in mind, and a need to decide on some new plants for our front yard, we headed out for a photo scavenger hunt. He was on the lookout for fun grasses and flowers for our house. You could also "hunt" for animals and bugs, or certain colors, whatever you think might interest your little one. You can easily adapt this for older kids too, make up a picture list or written list and time them or have them compete against a friend or sibling.

Make your own Bubbles

2010-07-16T14:44:00.001-07:00

A few months ago, after a few lousy bottles of bubble juice, I was inspired to make some homemade bubble solution. I did a little research, got a couple of recipes, even bought a bottle of gycerin, and then, well, forgot completely about it! :) So yesterday when my son was starting to go a little (okay a lot!) stir-crazy in the afternoon I said let's make bubble juice. It took less then a minute to whip up. We then tried to find things around the house to create our own wands. The bubble juice worked fabulously, though the two store bought wands were by far better then our homemade wands.

Bubble Recipe:

1 cup water (Petaluma tap water worked great, though according to the internet distilled is best)

4 tablespoons dish soap (according to my research dawn and joy work best, we used dawn)

2 tablespoons glycerin or light corn syrup (tried both and they worked equally well)

Some more recipes and information:

http://babyparenting.about.com/cs/activities/a/bubbles.htm
http://science-fair-projects.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_make_your_own_bubble_blowing_solution
http://bubbles.org/solutions/

Possible Literature Connections:

Maguire's Pub- 1/2 off Monday and Tuesday

2010-07-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Maguire's Pub

Every Monday and Tuesday Maguire's Pub, in downtown Petaluma, has half-off everything on their menu. By half-off everything, I mean EVERYTHING, all food and drinks. I had lunch there with my two kiddos and ordered an entree and a pear cider for myself and a kids meal that included a good size entree, a side salad, a drink and a scoop of ice cream. Our bill before tip was only $11.62! Gotta love it!

Book Review- Monday

2010-07-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

Busy Horsies (A Busy Book)

This is one of a several books in the "busy" series by John Schindel (a Bay Area author). The sharp full page images of horses really grab a toddlers attention. As you look at all through the pictures you learn what that the horsies are eating, talking, walking, rolling, racing, chasing, sleeping, leaping, nuzzling and more. I love how engaged my kids are with the book and how much rich vocabulary they are hearing at the same time.

Simple Games on a Rainy Day

2010-04-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

So it is raining.... again... and I am trying to come up with some new and exciting activity to keep my crazy, I mean active, three year old entertained, when he asks to play in the kitchen sink. He grabs his stool and announces that he is going to make waffles in the sink. I go with it, asking what kind of waffles, maybe blueberry? Pretty soon he is pouring water back and forth between a mason jar and a measuring cup and using a wooden spoon to stir his waffles. This lasts about 20 minutes then I add ice to the picture and he is off again. Sometimes I have to be reminded how simple it really can be!

Book Review Monday

2010-04-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

I Love You Stinky Face

by Lisa McCourt

My son received this book as a Christmas gift from a friend this year and it has quickly become a favorite bedtime story. It manages to be both funny and heart warming, as a mother reassures her son that she would love and treasure him no matter if he was a meat eating dinosaur, a super smelly skunk, or a green bug eating alien. A definite must read!

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

2010-03-31T19:42:00.000-07:00

I love zucchini bread! As much as I would like to convince myself how healthy it is (it has a green vegetable in the title!) most recipes are high in sugar and oil and low in actual zucchini. This is my latest version in which I have tried to up the veggie portion and lower the oil and sugar portion. I have to say I think it turned out quite good! As you can see above my favorite way to prepare them is in mini-muffin form. This makes for great snacks for all and easy finger food for my littlest.

Ingredients
3 1/4 cups flour (I like a combo of whole wheat and white whole wheat)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
4 eggs beaten
1/3 cup of water
4-5 medium zucchini grated
3 carrots grated
1 tsp lemon juice
*chopped walnuts or pecans or shelled sunflower seeds (optional)*

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. In a large bowl combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon, and sugar

3. In another bowl combine eggs, oil, applesauce, zucchini, carrots, and lemon juice

4. mix wet into dry, fold (don't overmix)

5. Bake: loaf pan = 1 hour, muffins = 20-25 minutes, mini-muffins = 13-17 minutes

Quad Camera

2010-03-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

I love my iphone! I am always looking for new, fun, and cheap apps, so I was quite excited when another mom at preschool shared her latest find with me today. It is called quad camera, and it allow you to turn those quick camera phone pics into little works of art! You set how many photos you want to take, the timer speed and some basic color settings. The results are awesome! Here are a few examples from today:

Veggie Pancakes

2010-03-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

Lena is at that age where she just wants to feed herself. This is both freeing and restrictive. It is great having her able to eat along side of us and being able to eat myself! But with only 2 teeth, I also find myself limited in variety, especially in the veggie department. Recently I came upon this great recipe on Parents.com. The results were awesome! Silver dollar corn-cakes full of veggies that both my kids have eaten! They also freeze great. Next time I think I am going to try spinach and maybe carrots or sweet potatoes. Please try it out and let me know what other combinations worked for you!

Veggie Corn-cakes

Ingredients

1 box of Jiffy cornbread mix

1 egg

6 tablespoons of water

2 medium zuchinnis shredded

1/2 can of chopped canned beets

2 tablespoons of canola oil

Mix everything but oil together in a medium bowl. Drop silver dollar sized pancakes into hot canola oil. Cook until brown (about 2 minutes) on each side. Makes about 24 pancakes.

Book Review Monday- Dr. Seuss' Birthday

2010-03-01T18:20:00.000-08:00

Dr Seuss was born Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904. During his career he wrote over 40 children's books. By the time of his death in 1991, his books had been translated into 15 different languages and sold over 200 million copies. In honor of Dr. Seuss today's Book Review Monday will be a little different. Instead of reviewing a favorite book I am going to share with you how we plan to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday tomorrow.

No Dr. Seuss birthday party would be compete without reading Green Eggs and Ham and then eating some! For our birthday breakfast we are going to make a green eggs and ham scramble. To make just add some green food coloring and chopped fried ham to your scrambled eggs. Finish them off with a candle and sing happy birthday.

Then it is time to make some Oobleck, like that which rains down on the Kingdom of Didd in the Dr. Suess classic Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

Ingredients:

2 cups cornstarch

3 drops of green food coloring

1 cup water

Directions:

Mix ingredients together in a bowl adding water slowly (you may not need the entire cup)

After playing and experimenting with the oobleck then read the book together.

UPDATE: Here are some pictures from this morning

MoYo's Frozen Yougurt

2010-02-27T20:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.moyos.com/

The other night my family and I went for a walk to enjoy the short burst of nice weather. We ended up downtown in the theater district and decided to try out the new frozen yogurt at moyo's across from Powell's Candy shop. The shop features several flavors of organic Straus yogurt and an island full of toppings. The set-up is a lot of fun, you self serve both the yogurt and the toppings and then pay by weight. My favorite was the cheesecake flavor with bits of real cheesecake on top. Yummy!

Book Review Monday

2010-02-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

Tuesday by David Wiesner

This is a beautifully illustrated story about the adventures of a group of frogs who suddenly find themselves capable of flight. The story is told with almost no words so it provides a great way for older preschoolers and early elementary students to "read" the story to themselves or elaborate together with a parent. Tuesday won the 1992 Caldecott Medal and, among other honors, was named as an ALA Notable Children's Book.

Some other David Wiesner Favorites:

Book Review Monday

2010-02-15T13:56:00.000-08:00

Machines at Work by Byron Barton

This had to be one of my two year-old's favorite books. The pictures are simple, bold, and colorful. The language is simple, but stretches a young child's vocabulary. A perfect fit for any child who is fascinated with construction or trucks!

Some other gems by Byron Barton:

Glitter Art

2010-02-12T07:29:00.000-08:00

I got this idea from my son's preschool and I love it! It is a fun and simple art project that kids will enjoy. All it requires is some cookie cutters, glue, glue and glitter. First you dip the cookie cutter down on a paper plate with some glue. Then you press the cookie cutter down on a piece of paper. Finally you spread on the glitter.

I bought a tub of cookie cutters on amazon, which I love because it includes cutters for all the holidays, plus some trucks, trains, and other goodies and all the letters and numbers. This way you can just have some art fun, or make it a little more educational, like our heart counting for Valentine's Day (see above).

Starting Seeds

2010-02-08T15:31:00.000-08:00

Every year we plant some tomatoes, basil, and a few other summer veggies in our backyard. Now, I have a truly black thumb, once I managed to kill a cactus, but with a toddler in the house I thought it would be worthwhile to try and start our veggies from seed this year. I was also inspired by the wonderful heirloom tomatoes at last year's farmer's market and the new seed store downtown (http://rareseeds.com) to try some varieties that I wouldn't have been able to find at Osh.

Just like I hoped this turned out to be a great activity. Thomas had fun both planting the seeds and being the photographer to document our planting session. He loves to get to use the camera and I have been surprised at how well he can use it at 2! Below you will find our planting session through his eyes.

Possible Literature Connections

Cleaning Pennies

2010-02-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

This has certainly proved to be a rainy winter! Here is an activity I had come across several times and always thought it looked a little silly and passed it up. On the recommendation of a friend I finally gave it a go, and boy was I glad I did! Thomas LOVED it and insisted that he help Daddy clean his pennies when he got home. I loved it because it involved materials I already had and some great learning opportunities!

Materials:

baking soda
vinegar
pennies
eye dropper (or medicine dropper)
measuring spoon
small bowl
large bowl of water
towel

First, I showed Thomas what a penny was and had him go through our coin jar and find all the pennies he could and pull them out.

Next, he put one penny in the small bowl, measured out 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and dumped the soda on top of the penny.

Then he filled a dropper full of vingear and carefully counted out drops on top. Of course it then it erupted in bubbles which got Thomas VERY excited.

After all the bubbles died down he transferred the penny to the larger bowl of water to "rinse" the penny off and then on a kitchen towel to dry. Then it was time to do another one!

He was happily occupied for about 45 minutes! The whole time he was learning: what a penny is, visual discrimination, remembering and following steps, counting, and observing chemical reactions. All in all a great activity!

Possible literature connections:

"Snow" Fun

2010-02-01T15:01:00.001-08:00

We have been having a lot of rain lately and more rain is coming! Being trapped inside with two little ones, one of which is a 2 year-old boy who doesn't seem to stop, can cause the best of us to look for an exit! So over the next few days I am going to post some of the activities that we have been doing at our house recently, and hopefully your guys will enjoy them as much as mine did!

"Snow Fun"

Materials:

shaving cream
small objects to find (we used Rub A Dub Abc & 123)
large dish
cup of water

First put down what you are going to have them search for in the "snow." We used some foam numbers.

Next have them bury the objects in the "snow," also known as shaving cream. Any shaving cream will do, though my son loved this activity so much and wanted to redo it over and over again, that I recommend buying some super cheap stuff at target rather than leaving daddy without shaving cream the next morning!

Then have them search for the objects in the snow. They can then clean them off in water and identify what they found. As you can see from the pictures I had my son complete this activity in the bathtub which helped keep the clean-up to a minimum!

All in all a very successful rainy day activity. My son wanted to repeat this game over and over again. I also really liked that not only did it keep him entertained for almost an hour, but all the time we were working on identifying numbers in a fun way!

Possible Literature connections: