What Do We Do All Day?

Leaves of Gratitute

2009-11-13T03:59:00.005-05:00

It seems everyone and their mother has a thankful tree this month. Here is ours back on the first day. We each hang a leaf before dinner and I also try and read a Thanksgiving book at the same time (see below for some decent ones). I hunted in the park all of October to find the perfect branches, but it wasn't until after a big wind storm that I found some good ones. I was going to use real leaves at first but then I remembered that one of our cats ate a leaf display I put out one year. I love using that little bowl on a pedestal for the leaves-in-waiting. My great-grandfather made it.

Reading Assignment:
In November (my favorite)
Thank You, Thanksgiving
Thanks for Thanksgiving
The Thanksgiving Door
The Ugly Pumpkin
Thanksgiving With Me
Setting the Turkeys Free

Kid-Friendly (sort of) "Pumpkin" Pie

2009-11-12T10:12:00.000-05:00

In case you are wondering, I am aware that my posts have been a little bit meh lately. I sometimes wonder if I should try to post everyday even if some of the posts may be uninteresting, or should I do fewer posts and try to make them more fabulous? But then sometimes posts which I think are great get no comments and the ones I think are meh ones get tons of comments. There's no science to it.

Anyway, back to the pie. It's kid-friendly in the same way my apple pie was kid-friendly: no dough rolling. Plus, the recipe uses heavy cream instead of condensed milk from a BPA lined can. So, lots of saturated fat and white sugar, but no toxins... theoretically. It's "sort-of" kid friendly because there is a lot of waiting (read recipe and you will see what I mean). And it's "pumpkin" because, in fact, I used butternut squash. To me, it has way more flavor than pumpkin. I guarantee that if you substitue butternut squash for any recipe that calls for pumpkin, it will be yummier.

The recipe is from the Nov 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living.
Shortbread Crust:

4 T. unsalted butter, softened
3 T. sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. salt (I don't think you need this much)

Stir together butter and sugar in a medium bowl. Stir in egg yolk. Add flour and salt, and stir until mixture is dry and crumbly. Press dough into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie dish. (This is the part you kid will love!) Freeze until firm, about 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375. Bake crust just until crust turns golden brown, 20-22 minutes. Cool completely in dish on a wire rack.

Filling
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin --I used Butternut Squash Puree. Much yummier!!
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. salt
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. ground allspice
2 large eggs, slightly beaten

Preheat oven to 325. Whisk together all ingredients in large bowl. Pour filling into crust.

Place dish on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until filling is just set and slightly puffed but still a bit wobbly, 65 to 70 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 6 hours.

Enjoy!

Transportation Tuesday

2009-11-10T11:02:00.002-05:00

Dado Squares as tunnel.

Leaf Pile at Wave Hill

2009-11-09T00:15:00.001-05:00

This past weekend we visited the beautiful Wave Hill. They had some leaf arts and crafts for the kids. But Kiddo was totally uninterested. Instead, he spent all his time in the gigantic leaf pile.
I love that Wave Hill had this activity for the kids. Apartment dwellers don't have their own leaf piles. If you live in the area and haven't visited Wave Hill, you are missing out. If you have a yard and haven't raked a pile of leaves for the kids, what are you waiting for?

Dominoes for Babies

2009-11-05T11:59:00.000-05:00

Don't tell Kiddo, but I let New Kid play dominoes so I can have my daily dose of caffeine.

Going Dotty

2009-11-04T11:15:00.003-05:00

We love our "dot-makers!"

Required Reading:
The Dot
One Red Dot
Ten Black Dots

The Little Weasel (Transportation Tuesday)

2009-11-03T11:12:00.004-05:00

I have long been a fan of mamaroots' charming handcrafted wooden figures. And guess what? I won this little weasel in a giveaway! Hooray! Upon his arrival, I placed him among our autumn bounty. However, he soon weaseled his way onto the N Train. He's been joyriding ever since.

Thanks mamaroots and Herbal Roots Zine!

Leaf Art

2009-11-02T10:07:00.005-05:00

You've seen lots of leaf art on kid activity blogs lately (see below for some good links). Why should you be interested in ours? I don't know, except that we took an ultra simple approach. All you need is some glue, paint, paper and, of course, some beautiful autumn leaves.Since New Kid was snoozing, I was able to get in on the action. I may have had more fun than Kiddo. Required reading:
Leaf Man
Fletcher and the Falling Leaves
Autumn Leaves
Other Not-so-complicated Leaf Art Projects:
Beautiful Leaf Lantern at 5 Orange Potatoes
Leaf Garland at Frugal Family Fun Blog
Preserve Your Leaves at mama smiles
Fall Colors Suncatcher (it reminds me of falling leaves!) at Superheroes and Princesses
Paper Bag Fall Leaves (okay, this one's more complicated, but so cool!) at Creative Kismet

Enjoy the Autumn leaves before they leave! (so cheesy, I couldn't resist)

Why I Didn't Blog This Week... in Pictures

2009-10-30T00:56:00.000-04:00

OK. ONE photo. I'm trying to Blog Without Obligation, but it's hard!

Kid-Friendly Apple Pie

2009-10-23T16:00:00.005-04:00

Kiddo helped me make a delicious apple pie -- it was really ugly -- but really delicious. I wanted to make apple pie with some of the 40 lbs of apples from our recent apple picking trip and a fellow mom gave me this recipe. The dough for this recipe requires no rolling or futzing around with ice water and cold butter. This was great, because I really hate rolling dough. It was so simple that Kiddo could do most of the work for the dough while I cut the apples. I also love that helping make a sweet treat can be a cover for teaching fractions.

For the crust:
2 1/2 cups flour: all purpose, whole wheat pastry or combination of the two
2 TBSP sugar
1/2 c oil (next time I am going to use cooled melted butter)
1/3 c milk

For the filling:
1/2 c sugar
2 TBSP flour
1 tsp cinnamon (I also think cardamon would be lovely -- my favorite spice!)
about 6 cups chopped apples (I never peel them, do you?)

preheat oven to 375
prepare the crust:
stir together milk and oil; mix flour, sugar and salt in large bowl, add milk and oil with a fork until it all comes together, adding a bit more oil if too dry. Using hands, form ball and divide into two. Tear off pieces of dough and press into bottom and sides of pan.

prepare the filling:
stir dry ingredients together and toss with apples

Tear off pieces of second dough ball and smash flat. Kiddo used the bottom of a glass. Place smashed pieces over top of apples.

Bake 60 minutes. You will probably want to cover pie with foil for last 15 minutes to keep from burning top crust.

Enjoy!

Oldie but Goodie

2009-10-22T01:37:00.000-04:00

Sorting: it never gets boring. We added shells to the beans and pasta routine.

Practical Life: Filling a Jar

2009-10-21T01:21:00.000-04:00

As part of my master plan to get Kiddo to do all of my chores, I showed him how to fill a jar with the bulk quinoa. I usually pour it from the bag, but for obvious reasons, this was not the way to go with Kiddo. I gave him a funnel and scoop and showed him how to scoop without overfilling, slowly pour the contents into the funnel and then lift the funnel base off the quinoa already in the jar to allow the new to fall in.

52 Card Pick-up

2009-10-20T01:27:00.001-04:00

Keeping a baby occupied so you can get something done can be a bit of a challenge. I like to put a bunch of playing cards at a standing level, which New Kid can push onto the floor. He likes to plop down and throw them around. It keeps him busy for about 5 minutes, which we all know, in baby time is the equivalent of 5 hours.

Pumpkin Prints

2009-10-18T23:48:00.005-04:00

We were rained out of our pumpkin patch trip this weekend so we had some indoor pumpkin fun. I roasted and pureed some cooking pumplins and made pumpkin butter and pasta with creamy pumpkin sauce and we did some pumpkin art.
Split open a mini pumpkin or use carrots (or potatoes) and have at it.Kiddo actually preferred to use a brush. Look closely at the moon!Earlier last week we made some crazy model magic pumpkins.

Required reading:
Pumpkin Town! Or, Nothing Is Better and Worse Than Pumpkins
the Biggest Pumpkin Ever
Runaway Pumpkin
Pumpkin Moonshine

Montessori Mornings

2009-10-16T01:46:00.001-04:00

In his "jambas", Kiddo has been putzing around with his Montessori materials.
Building tens.Building hundreds.Building more numbers. Building the binomial cube.And of course, using the materials "inappropriately"... depending on your view. I thought it was great. You can also see we don't use a mat. For one thing, that means my floor need to be vacuumed more often, and for another, New Kid would disturb the fun.

¿Cómo se dice...?

2009-10-15T13:27:00.004-04:00

Kiddo began a Spanish class this fall. I am so grateful that I am able to give him the opportunity to learn a foreign language when he is this young and that some of his friends' parents are fluent and can speak to him in Spanish as he learns. I took Spanish in college, but we all know what happens when you don't speak a language... plus, I can't say I was ever fluent. I also know you don't become fluent just by attending a weekly class.

Each day I try to speak a few words to him myself. I ask him questions which he can answer using the vocabulary he has learned, such as ¿Dónde está..? or ¿Qué color es...? or ¿Cuánto...?, simple questions which are small, but daily reminders of the second language he is learning. Soon his skills will greatly bypass mine, but it is helping me, too!

I put up a few visual reminders, too.... just for fun.

Go Fish!

2009-10-13T10:05:00.004-04:00

Kiddo loves games and one of his favorite is Go Fish! We play it a lot. Don't pass this old standard by... ...it's great for: recognition of numerals and quantities, matching pairs, listening and memory skills (Last time Mommy had a 5, but I didn't. Now I do have a 5. "Mommy, do you have a 5?"), learning how to take turns, and, of course, good sportsmanship.

Autumn Activities

2009-10-12T03:03:00.002-04:00

All of Internetland has been waxing poetic about Autumn. And why not? I feel like doing the same myself. In lieu of an Autumn Rhapsody, here's a little reminder of what we've done in addition to apple tasting and cookie making.

We displayed the Autumn Wreath we made last year.
Kiddo has been adding to his seed collection.We planted another paperwhite.
We went apple picking for the first time and made loads of apple butter and applesauce.We made apple prints (who hasn't?) (two ways).Next week we are off to get our pumpkins!

Urban Picture Books: How Do You Wokka Wokka?

2009-10-09T00:55:00.004-04:00

Brand-new on the shelves is How Do You Wokka-Wokka? by Elizabeth Bluemle. Neighborhood kids dance and shimmy past brownstones, skyscrapers and taxis. This book celebrates that crazy way kids move and play. You don't always need an open field to hop, skip rope, climb and hang out with your friends. Sometimes the sidewalk is just as inspiring, but it does help to have lots of silly, rhyming words. Kiddo really enjoyed the silly language and Randy Cecil's illustrations are wonderfully representative of the amazing ways kids seem to be able to move their bodies (unlike us old fogies). His pictures also capture the way living in such close proximity with your neighbors fosters a unique and wonderful comraderie. Wokka-wokka on over to your library and check out a copy!

Great for silly kids 2 and up.

P.S. I just want to say that none of my book reviews or suggestions are sponsored -- they are all books I found at the library or were suggested to me by friends.

Moon Activities, Phase 5

2009-10-08T01:11:00.003-04:00

In the back of one of our Moon books was an activity for making moon craters using flour.
OK, let's be honest. This activity was waaaay more about having fun making a mess than it was about learning how moon craters form.
Witness:
Supplies needed.
Kiddo really liked measuring to make sure there was one inch of flour.Drop rocks or marbles into the flour. When you remove them you will see craters (and handprints). The concept is that the larger the object the greater the amount of flour (ie. moon dust) that explodes into the air, thus the larger the crater.
He did this over and over and over again.
If you are afraid of mess, do this outside. Personally, I am not afraid of mess. I am afraid of my children making me crazy. My child was not making me crazy while he made this mess AND he was willing to help clean up with the promise of being able to do it again sometime.

Autumn Cookies

2009-10-07T00:54:00.000-04:00

I completely stole this idea from Mama in Wonderland. As penance I will promote her recent publication: an essay in the book P.S. What I Didn't Say, Letters to Our Female Friends. Click here to read an excerpt from her essay.

The autumnal effect was simple to create. Since I prefer to use natural food coloring I just mixed turmeric in 1/3, cocoa in 1/3 and left the rest of the dough uncolored. I didn't get a nice orange, but they came out good enough for us. And in case you are wondering, no, they did not taste like curry. You need only a small amount of turmeric to create yellow dough.
Before rolling:
Unfortunately, I could only find plastic autumn cookie cutters in our neighborhood -- they do not work as good as metal ones.This concept could easily be replicated for any holiday/occasion/color combination you like.

Fog in a Bottle (Unplugged Project: Weather)

2009-10-06T12:37:00.005-04:00

An easy-peasy science experiment: make fog in a bottle!
If your kid likes to write his name in the bathroom mirror he may enjoy this experiment. Best of all, it requires little preparation and almost zero cleanup.
1. Fill a jar or bottle with HOT, HOT water for 60 seconds.
2. Pour out most of the water and then place a plastic bag with ice cubes over the top.
3. Fog will start to form inside the bottle. And here's the interesting part... while the adult will find watching the bottle akin to watching paint dry, the kid will be fascinated with watching how the fog forms, then water droplets form and then water drops run down the inside.You can mess around with explanations if you want to. Kiddo was not really into the whole air condensation explanation and truthfully, our science experiments are mostly about laying a foundation and fostering curiosity.

Of course you can always fog up a bottle, by just breathing into it.

For more weather Unplugged Projects visit Unplug Your Kids.

Next time we are making a cloud in a bottle!

Practical Life: Setting a Table

2009-10-05T11:14:00.006-04:00

I don't know about you, but I usually write a bunch of posts and save them in drafts. I can't usually deal with blogging everyday. There. My secret is out. But sometimes this means a post I have in draft then becomes a replica of something I see somewhere else while it patiently awaits its publication date.
Learning how to set a table, of course is nothing new, but Nellie, of the lovely blog Herding Crickets posted about her charming learn-to-set-a-ta ble placemats that she crafted just before I was going to publish this post.
My placemat learning tool is not nearly as nice. It's just paper and pen. I added the numbers for some structure when, for some odd reason, Kiddo was not putting down his placemat first, which was weird since he's been putting his placemat on the table for more than a year. I guess I confused him with trying to teach something he already knew. Silly me. But you know, he loves numbers!
Before:
After:Um, yes. I am fully aware that nothing matches.

Comparing Apples to Apples

2009-10-02T08:37:00.006-04:00

In anticipation of our trip to the apple farm this weekend, Kiddo and I performed a taste test on 6 apples I bought at the farmer's market. Kiddo likes charts and categories, so it was fun for him. Plus, as we have been reading a ton of apple books he has gotten into all the different apple names. He always wants to know what kind of apple I am giving him.

The set up: To keep Kiddo busy while I cut up the apples, I gave him stickers to label everything. Then I secretly wrote down the names of the apples to be revealed after the taste test.He chose either sweet or tart, crisp or soft, for each kind.His favorites were Yellow Delicious, Empire and Jonagold.

Reading Assignment:
Apples, Apples, Apples (pictured)
That Apple is Mine!
Our Apple Tree (my favorite of the myriad of "this is how an apple grows" books that are out there. It has less of the excruciating detail, which may not be of interest to the preschool set and has whimsical drawings.)

New Kid Rule #485

2009-10-01T11:18:00.002-04:00

... all things on shelves must be put on floor.