Baking Chocolate Cookies

(44 Months)

My Aunt Geri sent down an adorable care package for the kidabunks.  Thank you so much!  As soon as they saw their new pumpkin aprons they asked to bake "something", then they pulled out a cute set of Sesame Street bakeware: cookie cutters, muffin liners and character picks, and a pull-apart cake tin.  I knew that even though we just made two batches of banana nut muffins yesterday, we were going to bake "something" today.

While Little Miss napped in her big girl room (they just moved into their own bedrooms- la sigh, wipe tear), Wild One kept asking me when are we going to bake "something".  I started searching for a healthy-ish recipe for a sugar cookie, but what I found was something so much better.

I went onto Weelicious and typed sugar cookie into her search engine, after a quick browse of the resulting recipes I chose her Chocolate Graham Crackers.  I read the ingredients and became instantly intrigued: a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat flours, unsweetened cocoa powder, honey and brown sugar, oh and of course butter.  I quickly assembled the list of ten ingredients and called the kiddos over.

This recipe is very kid-friendly.  Wild One, I mean Chef Wild One, went straight to work leveling cups of flour with the back of a butter knife and adding them to the food processor.  He poured dry and wet ingredients, while remembering to take care to work slowly and not drop or dump the ingredients, but carefully pour the ingredients into the processor.

He tried rolling out the dough, but it was a little hard to do. You need to push down quite a bit as you roll the pin.  He kept trying though.

I eventually took over that part of the recipe.  Then Little Miss came running over when she heard it was time to use the cookie cutters.  The two of them took turns pressing the cookie cutter into the dough.  This part was a bit time-consuming.  It took a little over a half-hour to press and place the cookies.

This easily makes two trays of cookies.  Which works out well, because these are soooo good.  They taste like a slightly less-sweet Oreo cookie (the outside part).  I know!

Little Miss kept saying that she ate one of Cookie Monsters eyes.  She thought that was hilarious.

Weelicious is one of my favorite recipe sites.  I began visiting Weelicious when the kids started eating solid foods.  Catherine has a lot of wonderfully delicious and healthy (or healthy-ish) recipes.  Some of our favorites that we have made, countless times over the past two and half years, are her Red Beet Pancakes, Red Beet Cupcakes, Spinach Cake Muffins (I know what you are thinking, you have to try these - they really are spectacular), Pumpkin Apple Muffins, Chocolate Zucchini Muffins, Gingerbread Pancakes and Spinach Ricotta Bites.

Thank you again Aunt Geri for the adorable care package, as you can see the kidabunks loved it!

Less Messy Way to Dye Eggs

(44 Months)

We dye eggs throughout the year.  Why have pretty colored eggs just for Easter?  We normally use food dye, vinegar and warm water to dye the eggs.  Sometimes we add stickers, or draw on them with markers.  Today, we decided to use Q-tips to paint the dye onto the eggs.

The setup was very quick.  We put two drops of liquid food dye into each paint compartment.  Next, I gently squeezed a little less than two mLs of white vinegar onto the food dye (we used an old medicine syringe).  Then, it was paint time!  We dipped a Q-tip into each of the color compartments and started painting our eggs.

This is another fun way to strengthen their fine motor skills to help prepare them for the intricacies of learning how to write and use scissors.  It takes a lot of control to hold the egg with one hand while painting with the other.  I loved watching their faces deep in concentration.

The end product was quite pretty.  I love the swirls of color.

A little extra bonus, we now can add some sliced eggs to a quick salad, have egg salad sandwiches, or a quick hardboiled egg as a pre-breakfast snack.

Mummy Friends

(44 Months)

We have been doing a lot of the same lately: reading our BOB books, practicing tracing and cutting, calendar time, play dough, Cheerios math, playing dress up and putting on plays, making our annual footprint ghosts, blocks, tennis, soccer, dance, play ground...  Our days, like yours, are always filled.  Even still, I've been feeling a bit guilty that we haven't made or done anything new.

We found the inspiration for our mummies from Happy Hooligans.  Thank you again Jackie!   I always love it when there is a quick and easy project that doesn't mean we have to run to the store.  We save our empty rolls of toilet paper for crafts, there are so many on Pinterest to choose from.  I pulled out two empty rolls, and gave Wild One and Little Miss an almost empty roll of toilet paper (there was about 1/3 left on each roll, and it was plenty).

I started each mummy roll for them, so they could learn how to twist the paper around the empty roll.  We tucked our ends underneath the bottom of the roll, instead of using glue or white yarn to secure it.

Next came those fun googly eyes.  I thought we were done, Little Miss asked if we could add a nose and mouth.  I was about to say no, then I stopped myself - it's not my project, it's their project.  If they want a nose and mouth, then that's fine.  Out came the scissors, crayons and paper.

This project only takes about five minutes and the result is so adorable.

Meet Slinkin and Frankin -where do they come up with these names?

More Sight Word Fun

(44 Months)

We have been having a lot of fun playing our sight word games (see here).  I've been trying to sneak in an extra few minutes of playing throughout the day here and there to reinforce those sight words.  We are only working on a few at a time.  I'm pulling the list mostly from the BOB books:
           the
           and
           is
           has
           said
           that
           his
           her

Last May, we worked on a b, d, p, q letter identification matching game (see here).  To help us practice our sight words, here is another activity and it involves stickers.  My kids love stickers!  It's almost guaranteed that if I create a learning activity that incorporates stickers, they are going to participate. By the way, this is quick and easy activity can also be used as a formal assessment (for those of you who need to document progress).

At first Wild One did not want to come to the table.  That's fine.  I knew the lure of stickers would get him there.  Sure enough, "What are doing?"

 Aaahhh, yes the elusive smile.  It amazes me how horrible I am at taking pictures, I can never get a smile picture that isn't blurry.

Heh heh heh, sticker lure worked!

Dot markers are another fun way to work on this activity.  Since we were on our way out the door this morning, I chose a less messy option.

Monthly Journals

(44 Months)

We began monthly journals last month, when we started our homeschool preschool year.  My plan is to have Little Miss and Wild One repeat the same format each month so that we can show their progress (and it can be a cute keepsake for when they are older).

We're working on drawing a self-portrait, writing their name and practicing tracing the six letters that only have horizontal and vertical lines (according to Kumon they are supposed to be the easiest to master):  E F H I L T.

Sadly, this hasn't been their favorite part of homeschool.  In fact, they reluctantly come to the table to work on journals.  I thought they would really enjoy this process.  Since they don't, we only spend a few minutes on it and then move on.

They do get a lot of practice writing letters on the iPad (see here for our favorite apps).  I was looking forward to some good old fashioned pencil and paper practice.  Maybe next month they will want to work in their journals.  We're going to go play with play dough now.  Have a fun day!

We Are Reading!

(44 Months)

We've been working on reading our BOB Books almost every day.  Here's what I've learned so far (for my two):
           *  they try their best in the morning
           *  we only read for about ten minutes or until we finish a new book
           *  before we read a new book, I look through it to see if there are any new sight words and we
               review the sight words we've already learned
           *  when we get stuck on a CVC word, we use a flip book or our Lego letters to form words (if
               we are stuck on the word "tag", we practice words that end in -ag, bag, nag, rag, wag, tag to
               reinforce the pattern)
           *  after we figure out what the CVC or sight word is, we go back and reread the entire sentence.
           *  having a friend read makes it fun - if it looks like their interest is waning, I'll invite them to
               choose a friend to have read to them.  They then read as if they are the pretend friend.
           *  learning to read takes a lot of repetition.  They need to see the word again and again for it to
               begin to stick.  To help, while I'm reading aloud to them I'll pause on one of their BOB
               words.  If they are able to read the word, that's great, if not then before we move onto the next
               book we'll do a quick learning activity (magic spoon, flip book, Lego letters, paint chip
               words...) to reinforce the word.

What I've seen in these past few weeks has been amazing!  They are reading.  They are sounding out words and remembering sight words.  They are excited about reading on their own.  I almost cried the first time they read the first BOB book in it's entirety.  They're doing it!  They are reading!  We are reading our first BOB paragraphs (four sentences on one page- Set One, Book Six).  It's happening.  If you haven't tried BOB, I definitely recommend it (no, they are not a sponsor, this is completely my own opinion).

Here's a Pinterest page of sight word and CVC word activities that my little ones like playing with.