Children Love Comfort Foods

Make Bread and Butter with Little House!

Making bread and butter with children brings us back to the times of the Little House chapter books of Laura Ingalls Wilder.   

 Making Butter 

Pour one pint of room temperature whipping cream into a large glass Mason canning jar with a tight lid. Fill only one half of the jar to leave enough room for shaking.

  Place the lid on tightly and take turns shaking for about 15 minutes. In the first few minutes the shaking sound will stop because whipped cream is formed. 

Laura Ingalls Wilder's Tells Her Life

Continue shaking until there is a ball of butter. Pour over a thin meshed strainer and catch the butter milk in a bowl.

  The butterball will remain fresh for 3-5 days if kneaded, rinsed off thoroughly with cold water, lightly salted, and wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator. There are no preservatives.

 Bread in a Bag

Here is an easy bread recipe: 2 cups white flour (a little extra for kneading), 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup hot water, 1 package rapid rise yeast, 3 T (tablespoons)sugar, 3 T nonfat dry milk 1T salt, 3 T vegetable oil, 1 gallon size resealable heavy plastic storage bag, 1bowl, spoon, small greased loaf pan, plastic wrap. 

Wilder's 8-book Series Captures Prairie Life 

  Mix 1 cup white flour, packet of yeast, 3 tablespoons sugar, and 1 cup hot water in the plastic bag. Let most of the air out of the bag, close it, and press down on the bag to mix ingredients.  After about 10 minutes, the mixture will start to bubble as the yeast makes carbon dioxide for a bread with fluffy texture.

  The bag will also expand slightly. Let the mixture bubble.  In a separate bowl, mix 3 T nonfat dry milk, 1 cup whole wheat, 1 T salt (or less), and 3 T oil. Open the bag and add these ingredients.

  Release most of the air out of the bag, seal it closed, and press the bag again to mix everything until smooth. Open the bag and add the other cup of white flour.  Reseal the bag and smoosh the bag with your hand until dough is smooth, about two minutes.

  Take the dough out of the bag, put some flour on your hands, and knead it for another minute on a floured surface. Kneading makes the dough stretchy and creates a nice chewy texture. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Mmmmmmm....many ways to bake breads!

  When the dough looks smooth, stretchy, and doesn’t stick to your hands, put it into a greased loaf pan and cover it loosely with plastic wrap.  Let it rise for about 30 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap and place it in the preheated oven. Bake for about 35 minutes until golden brown and allow to cool before cutting. For more information on Laura Ingalls Wilder see her online Bio: http://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/w/wilder/  and her “Little House” book series: http://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/w/wilder/#section5

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

For more go to -  grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons live Tuesdays at 4:30pm and Saturdays at 8:30 am and pod casts archived on the site.

Helping Children at Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving: teaching children about holidays, seasons, caring

Sometimes young children feel  lost in all the preparations, activity, and loudness of family gatherings.  With a little planning, families can set up a simple way to include children and keep them busy during meal preparation. They can learn about the seasons, holidays, how everyone needs to help, develop thoughtfulness and appreciation.  

Before Thanksgiving gather colored leaves pressed in a book, gourds, or small pumpkins, pinecones, dried corncobs, and fall flower blossoms. Gather materials and place all the things in a basket.  On the day of the dinner, children will pass out items and a name card to each person. 

Family members will have a chance to say something they are thankful for and place a decoration from nature on a tray for a family cornucopia. This will take practice with young children, but the result will make a great family movie

Teaching Thankfulness

  When there are many cousins around, a quiet break helps the day go smoothly. .

 Before dinner some of the older family members can take the younger ones in another room and play a few board games while they chat together and answer some questions. Why do we have a national holiday called Thanksgiving? What are we supposed to do on Thanksgiving besides eat? How did people help you this year? How did you help others? Are there things we could do better? What are we thankful for and what will we say when it is our turn to share our gratitude around the Thanksgiving table? What would a recently deceased family member say?

Talk about growing seasons and history and ...

Changes are Coming

  Also, talk about the seasons, especially the fall and how the things that have been growing all summer are ready to eat. How is nature getting ready for winter? 

Explain how leaves turn colors.  What are animals like squirrels and chipmunks doing to prepare? Do they notice the family pet growing a thicker coat? If older children do not know the answers to these questions they can use a search engine like Google to find the answers in advance. Give children a chance to think, discuss, and practice what they plan to share while giving thanks. 

Give thanks while passing foods

Remember to thank all the helpers!

  Once the family is seated, take a minute or two for each person to mention something they are thankful for and place their decorations in the family centerpiece. This activity can be used for family gatherings any time during the year to 

What are your special family dishes

remind us the meaning of family.

  Children can draw fall pictures for place cards or simple napkin holders Children can also count the number of people and set the table with napkins and silverware.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

For more go to -  grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons live Tuesdays at 4:30pm and Saturdays at 8:30 am and pod casts archived on the site.

  

New Media Use Plan Helps Families

Journal of Pediatrics Guides Parents & Grands

The latest journal of Pediatrics October 2016 (aappublications.org), has released new recommendations for technology use by children. The report “Media and Young Minds” relates how technology can be managed in the home (healthychildren.org/Media Use Plan), the number of suggested hours of screen time, and helpful hints for parental guidance.

Positive Technology

  The report mentions some positive aspects and uses. 

Many Positives

Pediatricians still maintain that children younger than 18 to 24 months, a time of rapid brain development, should not have screen time. However, it is healthy, for families to get together with online resources like Facebook and Skype to chat with relatives and friends. Technology allows far flung families to see each other, communicate, and nurture connections.

Children Should Interact With Apps 

 If parents want to introduce some shows or apps they should watch with the children and be very selective. Even infants exposed to screen media blue light while in the lap show significantly shorter night-time sleep duration than those with no evening screen exposure.  Reading e-Books is different from reading a traditional book with illustrations on an adult’s lap.

   This age is better off on the floor actively playing and talking with family. “Because of their immature symbolic memory and attentional skills, infants and toddlers cannot learn from traditional digital media as they do from interactions with caregivers, and they have difficulty transferring that knowledge to their 3-dimensional experience. The chief factor that facilitates toddlers’ learning from commercial media (starting around 15 months of age) is parents watching with them and reteaching the content,” according to the report. Authors include Dr. Jenny Radesky from the University of Michigan and Dr. Megan Moreno from the Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Age Appropriate Guidelines

The guidelines recommend children ages 2-5 have a one- hour limit of screen time. They again recommend that families watch with the children, talk about what is being seen, and carefully select shows from PBS Kids and the Sesame Street Workshop. Children need to be active, talking, and reading with adults.  There is no substitute for human interaction and relationship for developing a healthy brain and the rest of the body. 

Singing With the App

According to the new report, children flourish during unstructured time.  They need to get outside discovering things in 3- D rather than on a two dimensional screen, crucial for development.   

Doable Reasonable Guidelines

  Pediatricians continue to urge families to include one hour of physical activity, 8-12 hours of sleep, and unplugged family time like meals.

Use Reason and Good Judgement with Media

• Ban screen time one hour before bedtime since noise and light can disrupt sleep.
•  Discourage use of entertainment media during homework time since multitasking interferes with learning. Monitored educational sites can help with homework learning.
• Continue to monitor what kids watch and do on–line.  Discuss on-line bullying, sexting, and other hazards with older children.

Websites Best Apps for Kids & Parents Magazine sites:

http://www.bestappsforkids.com/category/apps-by-age-grade/toddler-apps/ 

http://www.parents.com/fun/entertainment/gadgets/the-best-iphone-apps-for-babies-and-toddlers/?slideId=40807

For more go to -  grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons live Tuesdays at 4:30pm and Saturdays at 8:30 am and pod casts archived on the site.

Making Halloween Fun Last

Halloween Is Not Just About Candy

Halloween is not about the candy.  It is about dressing up in costumes and pretending you are your favorite character. It is about using your imagination to scrounge around for all of the parts that make up a whole costume. Halloween night is almost anticlimactic to all of the preparation and anticipation. Children are often sad when they must put away the costumes, light sabers, and crowns.  Why not keep all of Halloween fun around for a while?

   Develop a costume box and let your children’s imagination sore. Add a few dress up clothes or Halloween costumes and they become princesses and Star Wars characters. Halloween time is a great time to look for bargains and ideas to add to a costume box. Cardboard and duct tape are handy to construct inexpensive knight armor, crowns, and safe light sabers. Old sheets and towels are useful for super hero capes.

   Children of all ages love to make a special cozy place

Children Love a Cozy Place to Play Dress Up

 to play dress up. During warm weather kids have fun building forts or setting up tents.  On days when the weather is nasty, the family can help them set up a little box train, castle, tent, or hideaway place inside, and take out a costume box.

Nurture Imagination

  For a quiet activity spread a big sheet over chairs or table. Inside the tent, let your children make a little room with their favorite blanket, pillow, books, toys, crayons, paper and flashlight. Send in a snack like crackers and cheese or Cheerios and climb in, too.  Sometimes little kids can fit into a tunnel simply made with sofa cushions placed against a solid surface.

  For a more active time, use cardboard boxes to make a train, bus, castle or spaceship, whatever they are really into at the moment. You can help them decorate large pieces of cardboard with markers. There are many ideas for cardboard boxes on line at Pinterest.

Dramatic Play

  Support the activity by pretending and carrying on a conversation. Dress up, too, and tell stories. Children’s

Children Love Acting Out Scenes

libraries have many books about princesses, super heroes and other adventure stories.. The Disney book section of the library shelves are a good place to start.The illustrations are beautiful and the well-loved old stories are full of action. Children enjoy acting out those scenes. 

   Imaginative play builds vocabulary, problem solving, and communication skills. Children playing in a fort like area learn to decorate their environment, problem solve, and develop an appreciation for quiet activities.  Reading and dramatic play are more opportunities to turn off technology.  It is very hard for children to use imagination when media is distracting them. 

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

For more science and math STEM adventures go to -  grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons live Tuesdays at 4:30pm and Saturdays at 8:30 am and pod casts archived on the site.