Berries, Jam and Muffin Fun with Kids

  “Kuplink! Kuplank! Kuplunk!”  It’s the sound of late summer berry picking in Robert McCloskey’s“Blueberries for Sal” where Sal and her mother meet Little Bear and her mother bear on the same blueberry hill. The moms mistake each other’s children, but all ends well.

  Berries are perfect for young children. They are the right size to pick, count, and eat. They are little, but packed with vitamins and minerals.  If children are wary of vegetables, try offering berries.

 Picking Berries

  Berry picking is a great way to get the family outside and let children munch as you gather some to take home. They can combine their pails for blueberry snacks, pies, pancakes and muffins or place a bowl next to plates at any meal. Then talk about what animals like to eat berries. There are many fiction books about berries.

  You can have a little economics lesson. Discuss how food gets to our grocery stores and why berries are expensive. What people bring berries to market like farmers, pickers, truck drivers, packers, and grocery store employees?

  Show children how to freeze hand -picked or store bought berries. Spread them flat on cookie sheets so they do not touch each other and place in the freezer.  When they are hard, transfer them to freezer bags and lay flat in the freezer.  These easy snacks will not clump together. 

  Kid’s Freezer Jam

  Children can smash some berries and add a few drops of honey for fresh jam, cream cheese, and a bagel. 

Freezer jam takes only 30 minutes and can have little sugar. This jam uses pectin, a natural thickening agent found in and around plant cell walls that helps bind those cells together. Jars can be kept in the freezer for a year or refrigerator for three months. Low sugar freezer jam recipes are found on premium pectin for less or no sugar needed packages in the canning aisle and surejell.com.

Kids’ Muffins

For easy blueberry muffins you will need 1 cup soy milk, and 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar set aside in a bowl. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl mix 2 cups flour, 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon salt. In another bowl  ix ½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar, ¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons oil, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add a little zest of lemon, if desired. Stir the flour mixture bowl into the sugar mixture bowl. (You may want to save some of the flour to coat the blueberries.) Pour in the soy milk and vinegar curdled mixture. Stir. Finally, fold in the blueberries gently and place in 25 muffin papers in a muffin pan. Bake 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees. Serve cool 

                

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Developing Your Tiny Happy People

“A chatty child is a happy child” Tiny Happy People

  Although the United States has many useful sites for parents raising children age zero to  five, the British might have one upped us with the new site supported by the BBC called “Tiny Happy People.”  The web and Instagram sites are free and can be easily found by googling “BBC Tiny Happy People.” Katherine, Duchess of Cambridge calls the site “Gold Dust” for parents.

Starting Now

  According to the British educational researchers and experienced educators themselves, “Most parents believe children who start behind will catch up within a year or two – but that is not the reality. Students who are one-to-three years behind typically make a year’s worth of growth each year, just like all students. The bad news is they are still one-to-three years behind their grade level.”

  The researchers and educators explain that closing a learning gap once a child begins school is costly and difficult because the children need” to achieve their typical year of academic growth plus another year of growth to catch up by even a single level. The data is clear.” All children can and will improve, but may never catch up to their classmates. And this has a lifelong impact. These children will need extra attention by parents and teachers.

Gold Dust

  The Tiny Happy People site includes hundreds of researched evidenced based fun activities, videos, articles and quizzes for new parents, grandparents, and other child care providers. All easy and fun activities nurture children’s language right from pregnancy. Even if you are starting to work with communication and language a bit late, the researchers say, “Start today.”

  Here is one example from the BBC teaching videos.  Dr. Michelle Peter explains that gently touching and talking to babies is a great way to help support development.  Interact with babies to develop a nice bond.  They like a soft slippery blanket edge. Skin to skin hugging is reassuring because they can smell you and hear your heart beat. 

   Look at them at a close range because vision is still developing and they need to see things at a close range. Take this opportunity to make faces. They will mimic you.  Smile and coo. Waltz and hum. Talk to them. They need to hear the range of language sounds they are learning. If you don’t know what to say, sing or read the many hard bound or cloth books that are brightly colored with reds and yellows.  Say and read rhyming nursery rhymes and poems. They are a scaffold for conversation.  Language and touch stimulate babies’ senses. They like to communicate with you and  are born ready to learn and love.

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Photo scans: https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people 

Creative Ideas for Grandkids’ Visits

Grandchildren: My favorite hello and my hardest goodbye.

While we try to teach our grandchildren about life, our grandchildren teach us what life is all about.

We may not be rich and famous, but our grandchildren are priceless—Authors unknown

Here They Come!

 The grandchildren are coming to visit! There are no greater words than these unless you have just received news the grand family is moving closer. Either way grandparents can use these creative activities with the usual joys of  being together. 

Watermelon Sorbet

  Purchase seedless or almost seedless watermelon. Children can use table knives and cut the pink watermelon into one inch cubes with no seeds. Save the seeds for a seed spitting contest.  Place cubes in the freezer until hard and have a seed spitting contest while the watermelon freezes. Blend the frozen cubes in a blender until you have a smooth puree. Pat down in a small cake pan and freeze again. Run a scoop or spoon under hot water and scoop out the sorbet. If you let the sorbet melt it makes a delicious Slurpee.

DIY Foamy Paint

Chalk Paint a Welcome...

  Children can use markers or crayons to draw on pieces of poster board you have cut into small sizes like 8 ½ x 11 or even smaller. To make the foam paint that will add dimension and interest to their drawings mix equal parts of shaving cream and white school glue and add food coloring or poster paint. Place in strong sealed freezer bags and squish the materials carefully together. When the paint is mixed, cut a small hole in the corner of each bag. 

  Children can add to their artwork like piping icing and let pictures harden overnight. The paint will say puffy when dry. Remind children not to touch their eyes since shaving cream is soap and will sting.

Spread Happiness 

  Use chunky chalk or chalk paint to make a little happy faces pathway all over your neighborhood sidewalks. Make them far enough apart that people will look forward with anticipation to finding the trail of smiley faces as they walk their dog. Look out the window to watch their reactions.

  To make liquid chalk add one cup cornstarch to one cup poster paint. You can make it thinner by using less cornstarch.  The liquid chalk will wash off with the next rain and is not toxic to the environment or pets.

Search for Love Rocks

Love Rocks

  Pick up some flat rocks near a river or lake. Pour different colors of washable paint in small plastic containers. Children can decorate the rocks and print “Hi” on the other side. Place them on steps of people in the neighborhood or a loved one’s grave.  

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest
Photos: Fran Darling: fdarling fotos
Sketch: Mark Nowicki

Children Cook Creatively in Snug Mugs

Cooking Together Is So Much More!

Cooking with kids is not just about ingredients, recipes and cooking. It’s about harnessing imagination, empowerment, about creativity. -- Guy Fieri

 No one is born a great cook, one learns by doing. —Julia Child

  What other activity can we do together as a family that provides connect time, builds math skills, enriches vocabulary, teaches science concepts, boosts reading skills, introduces life skills, develops fine motor, and promotes social skills?  One or two others may come to mind, but cooking is probably on top of the list. Mug cooking is fun and child size. 

Mug Pie Cooking

  For four strawberry mug pies, you will need 2 pounds of fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered, 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 Tablespoon all- purpose flour, 1 thawed puff pastry sheet cut into 4 inch circles or squares to set on top, 1 egg lightly beaten. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine strawberries, sugar, flour, salt and mix to combine. 

    Now you have a choice. You can place all ingredients in an oven safe mug with the egg brushed puff pastry on top (baking time is 25-30 minutes).

   If you are not sure your mugs are oven safe you can use this second method.   Place the strawberry mixture in a large baking dish and bake. Separately place the egg brushed puff pastry on a parchment covered cookie sheet and also bake for 25-30 minutes.  The puff pastry is done when golden brown. When the two are done you can put the strawberry mixture in mugs and place the cooked puff pastry on top 

Imagination and Creativity - Cooking!

  Whether you use the all- in- one 

or cook separately method, cool for 5 minutes. Then serve. Add a dollop of ice cream or whipped cream. 

   Blueberries, apples, sweet cherries, or other fruits will work.  The amount of sugar and spice will vary just like making a pie filling. Any fresh berries or fruits will work. The recipe still makes a child sized mug treat. You can also make brownies and cakes in the oven and microwave safe coffee mugs in a matter of minutes.

Breakfast Mug

  Here is a fancy quick meal in a microwave safe mug that is adaptable to your children’s tastes. For each serving the ingredients are 1 egg, 1 ½ Tablespoon milk, salt and pepper to taste, ¼ bagel or similar amount of French bread, 2 teaspoons cream cheese, a little Dijon mustard, if desired. Beat egg and milk with a fork in each safe mug or ramekin. Add salt and pepper. Tear bread into dime size pieces, Stir in cream cheese and ham. Microwave about 1 minute 5 seconds. Stir. Garnish with mustard, thyme or chives. 

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest
Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos