Winter Sandbox Fun for Kids

Make some "Geography" with Homemade Sandboxes

While the sandbox is buried under layers of snow and frozen solid you can still provide sand fun indoors and keep a tidy house. It’s hard to believe but this recipefeels better than damp beach sand. It is soft and velvety yet holds its shape when building castles and roads.  It also adds moisture to dry winter hands.

Homemade Sand

You will need homemade sand (recipe below), spoons, plastic measuring cups for pails, plastic people and animals, small cars and trucks, Legos, and other plastic pieces like trees to make scenes.

  Mix 8 cups white baking flour and 2 cups baby oil.  Add a little more oil ( ¼ cup) slowly  and mix  if it feels too dry. The mixture should clump together when you hold it in your fist. Continue to mix well. The sand can be stored it in a sealed container or freezer lock bag. Do not mix with water. 

What Can You Make in the "Sand?"

  Put it in a cookie sheet or several large cake pans so each child has a private sandbox. For easy clean up, place a large beach towel on a non-carpeted floor or table. Spilled sand will make the floor slippery. After sweeping, wash with dish detergent. If play cars get covered with sand or sand gets into toy crevasses just brush or knock off the sand from cars with a paint brush and wipe them off. You can keep a special bag for small sand toys especially for sand playtime. This silky sand will probably become your children’s favorite toy.

Imagination

   You can decide the kind of geographic features you will create with your child. Will it be your community, high mountains, Great Lakes, river basin, plains with roads, a cityscape with buildings and rivers, an island with a volcano, or an imaginary 

planet? Will the period of history be time of the dinosaurs, castles, in the future? Where will your imagination take you? Many children like to rescue or act out a story they have heard. 

  Features might include roads through mountain passes, coral reefs, plateaus, an isthmus, islands, archipelagos, peninsulas, plains, basins, or steppes. Water features can be a piece of paper colored with blue markers. Children can make wetlands for turtles and snakes, straits, oceans, gulfs, glaciers, deltas, lakes, bays, harbors, canals, channels, harbors for ships, and a river’s source and mouth. Just choose a few that fit your plan. You will be amazed at the new vocabulary and understanding your young children will develop.

Build It Together

 You can build, have conversations, and make decisions together. You and the kids can use the geographical terms and start your favorite or imaginary story with plastic figures, cars, and trucks. For more learning fun see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com; wnmufm.org/learning through the seasons, live and podcasts, Facebook, and Pinterest. 

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fofos

Tea Partying with Grandkids

Help Children Learn the "Art" of Tea Time

What is better than scones and adults’ attention? Grandparents can help young children learn table manners, the art of conversation, and feel comfortable using them during an English Tea. Invite some friends, stuffed animals, and a few action figures who need little culture to save the world.

Table Decorating 

  Children can decorate placemats made from two pieces of computer paper or one large construction paper. Napkins can be paper towels, paper napkins, or cloths.  Children decorate small table name cards, roll napkins and tie with an old sparkly necklace. Flowers or a low plant in the center of the table is a nice touch.

  For setting use real utensils and china. Google images has diagrams for formal and informal tea correct party table setting. You can teach children to set the table correctly and how and when to use each utensil. Explain and practice how to use silverware, plates, place the napkin on their lap, hold a tea cup, butter a scone, and replace items when finished. Refresh how to ask for food, pass to the right, and keep elbows off the table. 

  A day before purchase some blueberries, black berries, raspberries and ingredients for scones. Pick up some lemonade, apple juice or some orange herbal tea that is friendly to children’s palate.

All Kinds of Baked Goods & Scones, Too!

Baking Scones

  Basic scones require 4 ½ sifted white flour, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoon baking powder, 2 Tablespoon sugar, pinch of salt, 2 sticks of chilled butter cut into small pieces, 1-1 1/4  cups heavy cream, 1 egg, and ¼  cup light cream. Sift dry ingredients and place in short wide blender. Put in small chunks of chilled butter and run a few times until looks like coarse meal.  

  Add heavy cream until dough holds together. Leave little chunks of butter. Wrap in plastic and chill 30 minutes. Spray large baking sheets. Roll into circle. ½” thick for small scones (makes 30) or ¾ “thick for large ones, (makes 20). Cut out with a large jar top or cut into triangles like a bakery shop. Combine egg and light cream in small bowl. Brush tops and bake at 375 degrees 13-15 minutes. Provide whipped butter and jam at the table.

 While waiting for the scones to bake, dress up a bit and talk about how a daily tea time in England is a time to relax, enjoy good food slowly, and talk. Grandparents can help children think of who, what do you think about, when, where, why, and how questions to take turns starting conversation. Explain how to listen to answers respectfully and keep the conversation going with follow up questions can comments. Put on some soft music and it’s time for Tea at 3pm.

  For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning through the Seasons, podcasts and live; Facebook and Pinterest.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos