Apple Art Project for Toddlers

Here’s a simple easy project I did with two toddlers yesterday during our September month of apples!

First, I took red construction paper and tore it into small squares.

To avoid them having to use the scissors, I was going to have them tear, but during their naptime, I felt it would be better for me to tear, as 1 is 2 years old and the other is 3 years old.

You always have to consider attention spans.

I put the torn red paper into two small bowls.

I gave them both a paper plate.

I had them dab and rub the glue all over the back of the plate.

Then, they covered the back of their plate with the red papers.

At the end, I gave them a leaf and a stem, and had them glue those on top.

Ta Da!

To modify for different ages:

*Have them tear/cut the paper

*They can cover more/less of the plate

*They can draw out the stem and leaf

*They can use marker/crayon to color in the white spots

What Did They Learn?

*They worked on following directions AND motor skills (gluing and placing)

Cheap Activities to Do With My Child

Water, buckets, paint brushes.

Can’t get much simpler or FUN!

Target had all of their summer toys on clearance last week, so I bought:

three buckets
three spray water bottles
a little mini watering can
5 paint brushes
A paint roller

This has provided hours of fun for Anthony and his friends over the last week and continues this week! 🙂

Just fill the buckets with water and let them “paint” the sidewalks!

We made letters, shapes, and just wet everything in sight!

Best part about cleanup…the sun dries most of it up! 🙂

When Should I Start Asking My Child To Help Around the House?

I believe in the power of lists.

I believe that children learn to be responsible and to do tasks on their own when given a chart with goals.

This is the beginning of life training for Anthony.

Here’s the chart I made for him this week.

Don’t go out and buy anything! It’s super simple to make and use!

Anthony’s 2 1/2, so I made this with 8 simple tasks that he can do daily.

On the bottom I placed a picture of him “painting with water” outside to remind him…once he gets all of his tasks done, we can go out and play. 🙂

His simple tasks are:

Go to the bathroom
Brush Your Teeth
Eat Your Breakfast
Make Your Bed
Help Empty the Dishwasher
Vacuum
Calendar
Get Dressed

Each of the 8 tasks are labeled with a different color and arrow.

Once he finishes the task, he moves his star to the other side of the arrow as “completed”

How to make the stars:
You know those magnets you get from pizza places, etc that are taking up a ton of space on your fridge?

Use those up!

I placed a post it note on top of it and then a silver foil star on top of that magnet and cut them up. Then I put packing tape over that just to keep it secure. 🙂

Games for Toddlers

Simple and fun way to take a preschool game and play it with your toddler!

Healthy Soup Recipe

I know..it’s summer, and that’s not usually the time for soup.

Yesterday, I had such a taste for a good cup of veggie soup.

So, we trekked over to Whole Foods and picked up all the ingredients we needed…and made a double batch.

We purchase all the ingredients that I had on the page I tore out from the magazine.

I get home and realize…um…the rest of the recipe isn’t here.

I think I threw out the rest of it!

OOPS!

So we made do…and WOW what a good soup!

Having a cup of this as your first course before the rest of your meal will help you fill up on good veggies.

Here’s how we did it:

1 onion, diced up
1 whole cabbage shredded up
1 carrot cut up in circles
1 cup of diced up fresh green beans
3 ribs of celery diced
1/2 a container of grape tomatoes diced up
3 baby zucchini, diced
1 whole head of cauliflower, cut up
1 8 oz container of mushrooms, sliced up
2 quarts of low sodium chicken stock
thyme
parsley
ground pepper
oregano
olive oil
garlic

I started by prepping all my veggies.

Once the veggies were ready, I squeezed 2 tbsp of olive oil in my 14 quart soup pot.

Then tossed in the onions and let them sweat until they were translucent.

Then we tossed in the carrots and celery and let them sweat it out.

Next, I threw in 4 tbsp of fresh minced garlic.

Then went in the cauliflower and the thyme, oregano, pepper, and parsley.

Next the mushrooms, green beans and zucchini.

Finally the tomatoes and cabbage.

After all the veggies were good and “married” we poured in the stock.

We brought the pot back to a boil and let it cook together for about an hour.

We shut off the stove while we went to mass, and came home to a delicious cup of soup to enjoy before our dinner. Even Anthony had some of it!

(I liked it so much, I had a second cup and skipped the rest of dinner!)

Do you have a good recipe for veggie soup? Would you add or subtract anything?

What Is In Lunchmeat?

What exactly is in lunchmeat?

Well, I don’t know all the answers, but I do know a biggie that I never would have known about had Anthony not had all of these food allergies.

Back a few years ago when Anthony was having tons of outbreaks, and we didn’t know what more to do, our doctor had him see a Pediatric Allergist.

Anthony has allergies to:

-wheat
-gluten
-dairy
-soy
-egg
-tree nuts
-peanuts

I cried when I found out.

What was I going to feed my baby??

The doctor was fabulous and explained to me about reading labels even more carefully than my health conscious self had already been doing.

She also told me to keep him away from lunchmeat.

Lunchmeat? It’s meat, what could he be allergic to in it?

DAIRY.

She informed me that dairy is used in lunchmeat as an additive to keep it moist, etc.

So she suggested I go to a kosher deli and purchase turkey for him there.

Who would have known?

What allergies do you or your children have?

Do you know of any other foods that have a hidden allergens that we wouldn’t know about?

How Do You Do A Burpee?

My Child Has White Spots All Over His Mouth

I was a wreck a few weeks ago.

Anthony started with a fever and didn’t want to eat.

By the end of the second day, he started to complain that his mouth was hurting.

I thought he might be teething…

I opened his mouth the third morning and found sores ALL over his tongue, mouth, and what looked like a cold sore on the outside.

FREAKED OUT!

Sorry for the toddler noise in the background. This is the world we live in! 🙂

How Do I Keep My Child In His Bed All Night?

Do you have a hard time with getting your kids to sleep a whole night through in their own beds?

We sure were. The solution just cracks me up but…

Last week, it wasn’t so funny.

Since Anthony was sick a few weeks ago, he has been getting up around 11:30, 3:30, and again around 5 EACH night.

Not fun…and when Mom’s got a sinus infection…even LESS fun.

What to do…how can we get Anthony to get back to sleeping a full night?

Through casual conversation on the phone with both my Mom and my Grandma, they both said:

“Why don’t you leave WGN on for him all night?”

WGN is a talk/news radio station here in Chicago and our family has grown up with it.

Grandma can’t sleep without WGN on all night, Mom has it on all day….

So, we figured we’d give it a shot.

Sure enough, Anthony slept all night…for 4 out of the 5 nights we have done this!

He told me in the morning after the first night,

“Mommy! The guys talked to me all night!”

What a quick and easy fix!

Are you struggling with your child getting up constantly? Try this!

Do you have a trick or tip that has helped your child sleep through the night?

Please leave them in the comment section below! I’d be so happy to have more tricks in my bag! 🙂

Healthy Spicy Guacamole

One recipe that I am almost always asked to bring places is my healthy spicy guacamole.

Such a simple and nutritious dish.

Avocados are so rich and creamy and contain the good fats for our bodies.

Anthony enjoys avocados! They are great to feed your kiddos!

So, give this a whirl:

3 ripe avocados
1/2 of a big sweet yellow onion
1/2 a box of grape tomatoes
1 bunch of cilantro
1 serrano pepper (can use jalapeno to make it less hot)
Lime juice

Dice up the avocado and onions.

Quarter the grape tomatoes.

Chop up the cilantro but be careful with it as it is tender!

Cut off the top of the pepper and remove the core with the seeds and the veins. This is the part of the pepper that makes it SUPER HOT.

Chop the remaining pepper.

Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and mix up.

Add lime juice to keep the avocados from browning.

If storing for the following day, save the pits of the avocados and push them into the guacamole, again to help avoid the browning.

Do you add anything different to your guacamole? Please, add your ingredients below!