Banana Bread Granola - Kids in the Kitchen

(4 1/2 Years)

Do you like granola?  Little Miss loves crunchies (granola) in her yogurt and on the side of her yogurt.  Since Wild One and Little Miss love cooking, I thought granola would be a fun baking project for us AND who doesn't absolutely l-o-v-e banana bread?

If you haven't baked anything with your little one(s), this granola is a terrific one to begin with.  The measurements are very forgiving, especially with a little one doing the measuring.  I found the recipe on Pinterest, it's from The Minimalist Baker.  I love their recipes, they are one of my favorite sites to find something delicious and nutritious.

This Banana Bread Granola is as good as it sounds.  It's fantastic!  It's already almost gone (do you see the jar in the background- we only made this last week).  We'll be baking up another batch in a few days.

Banana Bread Granola
1 medium ripe banana (about 1/2 cup)
3 cups rolled oats (Gluten-free is fine)
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
3 Tbsp raw sugar
1 Tbsp flax seed, I used ground
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp honey or maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Measure and pour the rolled oats into a large bowl.

This is also a great time to practice leveling off dry ingredients- we usually use the back of a butter knife, but Wild One wanted to use his fingers like The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten (one of his favorite chefs).

 

 Measure and pour in the chopped walnuts.

We must sample the ingredients.  He said that on Master Chef, Chef Gordon tries the cooks's food as they are still cooking.

 Measure and add in the chopped pecans.

 Now add in the raw sugar.

Sprinkle in the flax seed and salt.

Mix well with a wooden spoon that can also be used as a drum stick (thank you again Aunt Jeanine and Uncle Keith).

In a small sauce pan, melt the coconut oil and then add the honey.  Add the bananas off the heat and mash.

 Pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry and mix well.

Spread the mixture evenly on a rimmed baking half-sheet, or jelly roll pan.  Bake for about 25 minutes.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the oats, nuts, sugar, flax seed,cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the coconut oil.  Add in the honey or maple syrup and vanilla.  Stir until completely incorporated.  Add in mashed banana, mix well.
4. Pour wet ingredients on top of dry ingredients, mix well.
5. Spread onto a half-sheet jelly roll (or baking sheet).  Try to flatten into an even layer.
6. Bake for 23-28 minutes or until golden brown.
7.  If you like it in a bunch of tiny pieces, break it up with a spatula as soon as it comes out of the oven.  Leave on the baking sheet to cool.  If you like it clumpy (like Little Miss and I do) barely break it up with a spatula.  If yolike it in a bunch of tiny pieces, break it up with a spatula as soon as it comes out of the oven.
8. Store in a glass jar for up to three weeks.

Rainbow Swirl Salt Tray

(4 1/2 Years)

Our latest "toy" is our Rainbow Swirl Salt Tray.  It's so much fun to play with.  It's very relaxing, it's almost mesmerizing.  Plus it took less than ten minutes to put together, and that's with two 4 1/2 year olds working on it!  Oh, and you most likely have everything in your home already.

My husband was going to toss a wooden box with a lock on it, but lucky for me he asked if I wanted it for something.  I knew right away, it would be used for a salt tray.  I've been putting off creating a salt tray, because... because... hmmmm.  Well, now we have a tray and it's time to add the colored salt- so much more fun than plain white salt.

Have you dyed salt before?  Here, let Little Miss and Wild One show you how.

Materials Needed:
1/3 cup measuring cup (optional- but I like having equal measurements of everything)
table salt (we buy whichever is on sale to use in our crafts)
artificial food dye or liquid water color
bowls
fork or spoon
tray(s) to help contain the inevitable mess (baking sheets and cake pans work well also)
tray with a lid (they sell salt trays, but a plastic take out container works well also)

Pour salt into a measuring cup.  Level off with the back of a butter 

knife (it's great practice for leveling off flour for your baking projects)

Pour the measured salt into a small bowl.  Add three drops of food coloring to the bowl.

Mix with a fork.

Continue mixing with your fingers (gloves are not necessary, Little Miss just loves them).

Pour your colored salt into your designated salt tray.

Have fun swirling.

Practice writing letters or drawing faces or swirling.

Everything is more fun with a magic wand!   Have fun getting ready 

for writing, or practicing writing.  Learning through play.

Easy Erupting Volcanos Using Homemade Play Dough

(4 1/2 Years)

This project is quick to put together, the kids love it and you probably already have everything in the house!  Look at that SMILE!

A few weeks ago we played with paper mache for the first time.   We made these craft bowls to hold our crayons, markers, scissors and glue sticks.  They are surprisingly sturdy.

I was going to have them help me create a paper mache volcano, but I think that maybe overreaching.   The bowls took a lot of dexterity, mainly from squeegeeing the paper and flour mixture through their fingers.  I had visions of Little Miss and Wild One eagerly beginning the project and then their interest go from waning to ending within ten minutes, I'd then be the one working on this project.

Instead, we created a homemade play dough volcano.  I found my inspiration on Pinterest, it's from Ashley West at Education.com.

Materials needed:
A tray with sides (we bought ours at The Dollar Tree)
A plastic water bottle or a small thin flower vase
Playdough (we used some of our old homemade play dough, this stuff stays soft for months- we used the brown play dough from Thanksgiving 2013!  Here 's the recipe.)
Baking soda - 1 Tablespoon
Red food coloring - 3 drops
Dish soap - 3 drops
Vinegar - 1/4 cup (a Pyrex measuring cup makes pouring easy)
Dinosaurs (not essential, but the kids thought it was hilarious that they were getting buried by the lava- hmmm, I'll have to look into that dark side later)

While the kids were busy creating pink Olaf snowmen and smashing rolled play dough letters (can you guess who was doing what?), I started placing the play dough around the water bottle, on top of the tray.  Wild One began helping, asking if he can put the dinosaurs next to the volcano.  Building a volcano out of play dough takes less than five minutes, it takes longer than that just to prepare to build a paper mache volcano.

Once we were all satisfied with our little volcano and dinosaurs.  We began adding the ingredients for our lava.

One tablespoon of baking soda.

Three drops of red food dye.

Three drops of dish soap.

Now the fun part, quickly add the 1/4 cup of white vinegar.

After Little Miss saw how much fun her brother had, she decided that she wanted a turn at pouring in the vinegar.  Take two!

While I was cleaning up our experiment (all I did was pour out the vinegar solution from the tray, and now we can do this again another day), the kidabunks took out their crayons and science journals and began drawing what we did, "Just like Sid the Science Kid Mom!"

Quick, easy, engaging, most of all fun!  Learning through play is really the best way!

UPDATE 8/13/14
We have now recreated this experiment four times!  The dinosaurs are actually stuck in the "lava" (the dried play dough).  Each time we do this, they are still amazed at how quickly the baking soda reacts with the vinegar.  They have experimented with adding extra baking soda, pouring the vinegar fast vs slow, adding baking soda to the outside of the volcano as well as the inside of the volcano.  They discuss their hypotheses before we do the experiment, and then the result of the actual reaction. I love how much fun homeschool preschool is!