Kids of all ages enjoy getting involved in cooking… and it’s even more fun when they like the results! I recently tried a meal in a packet that I think kids will enjoy making. A quick and convenient meal in a packet. 
Grilled Burgers and Veggies in Foil Packets
Posted in Cooking and Food
Tagged cooking with kids, grilled burgers and veggies, meal in a packet
Leave a comment
Active Play Ideas
Play Catch
No matter how addictive a video game might become, this simple outdoor activity will always beat it. Hurl a baseball, kick a soccer ball, toss a football, fling a Frisbee, whatever works for you and your kids. Give pointers on the best way to throw, but don’t be pushy. Just enjoy the time outside together.
Posted in Games
Tagged active games, catch, four square, frisbee golf, games, H-O-R-S-E, hopscotch, sardines, wall ball, yoga for kids
Leave a comment
Making a Storyteller Animal Mask
The Native Americans offer us beautiful arts, crafts, and traditions. It’s fun to connect with their traditions through art with our children. Native Americans have long held a strong relationship with Mother Earth and have focused on preserving the environment long before the concept of ‘going green’ that we talk about today.
Gelatin Finger Paint
One of my favorite painting activities to share with kids of all ages is gelatin finger painting. There are a couple of reasons it’s a favorite… one is because it’s an amazing sensory experience, moving the artist from the dry and gritty to the slimy then sticky, all while smelling delicious… and the other reason is because I always have everything I need.
Posted in Art
Tagged children fingerpaint, childrens art, finger painting, gelatin finger paint, gelatin fingerpaint
Leave a comment
Games for traveling with kids by car
Traveling in a car with children can be fun… if you’re prepared to keep them occupied. Especially on those longer rides. 
Here are a few ideas for keeping kids of all ages busy when you find yourself on the road. Please share any ideas you have for the same! We’ll start with the very familiar -
Lizzy’s Crazy Cake
Cooking with kids is an important way to move them toward independence. It’s such a win/win that it amazes me to run across children who don’t get much cooking time. Cooking is a chemistry experiment with wonderful results — and over time will build your child’s confidence in the knowledge they can always feed themselves.
Rock Poetry
Long before anyone had heard of magnetic poetry, one of the summer activities at our house was creating Rock Poetry.
This is not one of those activities that can be done quickly as there are various steps involved. The beauty of that is that you can have a different kind of fun at each step of the way so why not simply declare the week ROCK POETRY WEEK!
Backyard Fun!
Lie in a Hammock
There’s no better way to spend a lazy afternoon than in a hammock. It’s a great place for kids to rest after a hike or a big backyard barbecue. Bask in the midday sun or cuddle under a blanket to watch the stars come out; there’s no wrong way to hang.
Water Activities
The Deep End
This is how some instructors teach children to get comfortable in deeper water: Toss a set of submersible sticks or rings in the pool and let the kids hop in and swim down to pick up as many as they can. Before they know it, their fear of the deep end is gone. (Whenever kids are in the pool, make sure there is an adult standing nearby who is able to jump in and help children who can’t swim well, and never leave any child unattended in or near a pool.)
Build a Dam
Getting wet and muddy is every child’s right, as well as a ticket to good times! Step into a local stream after a storm, scour the area for fallen sticks, leaves, and logs, and help your busy-beaver kids construct a minidam to temporarily divert the water. This simple task is great experience for future engineers, but mostly a great way to spend an afternoon.
A great alternative if you don’t have a ‘real’ stream handy is to grab a handful of toothpicks, have the kids color them in some way so each child can identify their own (dipping into various colors nail polish works great) and then take them out to race them in the stream by the side of the road that the rains have left.
Skip Stones
Head to the lake and spend an afternoon passing this skill on to the next generation. Teach kids how to find the perfect stone — the flatter and rounder the better — and how to toss it to get the most skips. (It’s all in the wrist.) They will love showing their friends the cool trick.
Hydroblast
Summer just isn’t summer without a water fight (or two). This amazing toy shoots water up to 25 feet. Get two and have a blast!
Marco Polo
This classic game is perfect for a day at the pool. Here’s a refresher on how to play:
A player, designated It, closes his eyes for a set number of seconds while opposing players disperse in the pool. It, with eyes closed, then swims around the pool, attempting to tag the other players. It may detect the presence of others by feeling around with his or her limbs, or by sound: When It calls out “Marco!” the other players, regardless of location, must respond “Polo!” When It tags another player, that swimmer becomes the new ‘It.’
Color Yourselves in the Rain
Here’s a great rainy-day (or sprinkler) activity: Put on bathing suits, then color all over yourselves with bathtub crayons or other washable colors. (Make sure that whatever you use will wash off easily.) Draw silly faces on your stomachs or write funny messages on your arms. Go wild! Then get out in the rain or the sprinklers and wash yourselves off. Ready for more? Dry off and start all over again.
Mix Your Own Bubbles
Follow this recipe to make superstrong bubbles. Add food coloring for extra fun.
You will need:
1 package unflavored gelatin
1 cup just-boiled water
1 1/2 to 2 ounces glycerin (available in the skin care aisle or at a health food store)
8 1/2 ounces Johnson’s Baby Shampoo
Stir the gelatin into the hot water until it’s dissolved. Mix in the glycerin and shampoo, stirring gently. The solution will gel as it cools.
Play Splat
Fill a dozen water balloons and take turns throwing them high into the air over the driveway or sidewalk so they’ll pop on impact. Compete to see who can make the biggest water splat. Use chalk to trace the outline of each watermark to determine who won.
MEASURE UP!® POTS and SPOONS
This cool set of spouted pots and measuring spoons will have your little ones stir, pour, measure, and pretend play their way to important early math and science concepts. These marvelous manipulatives are volumetrically correct and sized to interact with Measure Up!® Cups. From number associations, to stacking & sorting, to molding & stamping, this discovery cooking set builds a host of important preschool concepts and is a perfect addition to water and sand play. Includes: 5 Pots, 5 Spoons and complete Activity Guide
Popsicle Stick Explosion?
Okay… I admit it hardly qualifies as an “explosion”… but since we’ve always called these Popsicle Stick ‘bombs’ — a politically incorrect word these days… I decided I’d better come up with a different word for my subject line.
Regardless of what you call them… they are simple fun and I’ve seen them played with in a variety of ways by kids of all ages.
The biggest challenge here is finding 5 Popsicle sticks – and since summer time and Popsicles go together like bread and butter… that shouldn’t be a major challenge. (Not to mention you can buy a box of 1000 for a mere $2.49 over at S&S Worldwide)
Here’s How-To create them:
Pick up 2 sticks and create a V
Grab a third stick and set it onto the center of the V – It’s important to pay attention to this placement as the whole ‘bomb’ is held together just by pressure.
Now you hold these three sticks in your left hand (if right handed – notice I am left-handed so I’m doing the reverse:) and you pick up a fourth stick, inserting it so that it goes on top of the middle stick but under the two outsid
e sticks that form the V (like weaving, but you slip it down from the top) note: you’ll find you must keep a bit of pressure in the spot where you’re holding those first three sticks forming that V shape.
And finally, you pick up the fifth stick, sliding it over the three but woven in the opposite way from that fourth stick. In other words, with the fifth stick you will insert it under the middle stick and it will be over the tw
o outside sticks.
It should look something like this:
That’s it! You have your Popsicle Stick Bomb ready and loaded…
for your kids to do what they will! When you toss one of these they fly apart. The best part is that even if you get hit with a flying popsicle stick it doesn’t hurt. They’re a novel way to play tag. Today I had 14 month old twins giggling simply when I dropped these ‘bombs’ in front of their stroller!
Here are a few things to be aware of:
These are a bit unpredictable… that’s part of the fun! Some are really touchy and fragment quickly even when gently bumped… some surprise you and even survive the first toss.
If you have a LOT of sticks, it’s fun to make many, many of these, carefully lay them down in a pattern of your choosing (they’re triangles, after all, kids will come up with amazing geometric patterns… then create one that you’re going to use to toss at the pattern and ‘explode’ them ALL. It’s almost guaranteed to produce giggles! (I say almost because if a brother or friend comes and bombs your pattern unexpectedly it’s not quite so delightful)
Sometimes before creating them kids will color their sticks… one color for all five sticks and a different color for each child. That way they can create some competitive games and easily keep score.
Sometimes we’ll draw a circle in a patch of dirt or sand and everyone aims for the circle. The one with the most sticks inside the perimeter WINS!
Have Fun and PLAY WELL TOGETHER!!!
