Get Crafty: Painting With Worms!

After our exploration of worms, I thought it would be fun to do a bit of worm-related artwork. I've been promising the girls some messy art and painting with worms sounded like a fun idea. We didn't actually paint with worms, just a nice pile of cooked spaghetti, an idea I first saw on The Chocolate Muffin Tree. Fun and messy!

I decided this would be an activity best done outside. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the girls could get as messy as they wanted without any worry about getting paint on the carpet. I found a plastic lid from a storage container and put a few globs of different colored paint. I loosened the paint up a bit with water to make it easier for the girls to use. I then cut off a large piece of paper from a roll of plain brown gift wrap and taped it down to the driveway. (You can usually find this at the dollar store. It's an expensive way to create some big, messy art!) 

The girls were a bit hesitant at first They gently dipped a single spaghetti noodle and wiggled it across the paper. It took a bit of encouragement, but they finally went for it, grabbing piles of pasta, mixing all the colors together, splattering the paint, giggling, and having fun.

And, when they were done with the spaghetti, they added their hand prints! This was such a fun way to get a little messy! 

What's your favorite way to make big, messy art?

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Posted in: Art Lessons,Get Crafty

Around the World in 12 Dishes: India

I've been looking forward to exploring India through food ever since we started the Around the World in 12 Dishes challenge. The girls and I have already exploring India through books and crafts, so this time we focused on food and music. Our food of choice was the mango lassi. A lassi is a very common and popular drink in India. I knew the girls would enjoy it. Throughout our food journey, I've been trying to keep things simple and appealing. Both of my girls can be picky eaters and I'm trying to help them learn to eat different foods from different cultures by using recipes that had some familiar ingredients. The familiar ingredient in the lassi was yogurt, a favorite in our household.

To make our mango lassis, I cut up one fresh mango and added it to the blender. (If you're like me and don't know how to even start cutting up a fresh mango, you can use this simple tutorial.) The girls then added 1/2 cup of milk and an 8 oz. carton of plain yogurt. Then they took turn blending until our drink was smooth and creamy.

That's it! It was that simple. This is probably one of the easiest recipes for Indian food you can find. By the time we were done blending, the girls were excited to try it. We poured, added straws, and slurped away. Yummy!

While we were enjoying our lassis, I searched YouTube for some examples of traditional and contemporary Indian music. This example of Indian folk music and dance was one of our favorites and we also enjoyed this example.

I hope you have fun exploring India and all of the other countries we'll be visiting!

Welcome to "Around The World in 12 Dishes". We will be taking you on a journey around the world, (loosely) following in Phileas Fogg's footsteps, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country visited. The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place. Our children see maps, flags and books. They see postcards and maybe they see films about the world.. but let's really bring it to life through food! Taste and smell don't often get explored, we think this would be wonderfully fun and interesting for you and your children.

Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but cooking with children brings a host of benefits - from numeracy to science. How can you beat that?

Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Glittering Muffins, Juggling with Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Make, Do & Friends, Mermaids' Makings, Mom 2 Posh Little Divas, Mummymummymum, Rainy Day Mum, Red Ted Art and The Educators' Spin On It have come together to help you on your food journey and will each cook a dish with our children and post about it - to help inspire you to have a go! Then go out there, cook, blog, and join in the linky fun! Check out the other great posts as well!

Around the World in 12 Dishes

We had started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and Stockholm, Sweden continued on to Moscow in Russia. Now our next stop is New Delhi, capital of the exotic sub-continent of India!

• March 4 - First country was the UK
• April 1 - The second country was Sweden
• May 6 - The third country was Russia
• June 3 - The fourth country is India

How to join the fun!

• The only mandatory part is the dish, the rest is all up to you, we just thought it would be fun and more concrete to the kids as to why we are making a unusual dish.
• Cook a dish from India: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
• Typical dishes: Butter chicken, Tandoori Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Rogan Josh and Naan.
• Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish :)
• Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
• Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]
• Read a book: Check in at Glittering Muffins for a review for "T is for Taj Mahal".
• Fun fact: India actually is the birthplace of the number zero! The rule for its use was first shown in Brahmagupta's book "Brahamasputha Siddhanta" in 624 AD!
• Share with us: Our India challenge starts on June 3rd and will remain open for a year, so attach a link to your blog to enter the linky party or go to the comment section and post a photo together with what you did together with your child(ren).
• Pinterest: We will add your photos to a "Around the World in 12 Dishes" Pinterest Boards (one for the dishes, one for the crafts) you will be a great source of inspiration for everyone :)
• Are you a blogger? Let your fans know about the challenge and grab our button to share on your blog.

 

<a href="http://www.glitteringmuffins.com " target="_blank"><img src="http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o502/theeducatorsspinonit/world.jpg " alt="Around the world in 12 Dishes" width="125" height="125" /></a>

 

Please check out our partner blogs and their India ideas: Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Glittering Muffins, Juggling with Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Make, Do & Friends, Mermaids' Makings, Mom 2 Posh Little Divas, Mummymummymum, Rainy Day Mum, Red Ted Art and The Educators' Spin On It!

 

If you do this, we’d LOVE to see a photo of it. Email it to us or post it on our Facebook page. We’d love to do a Facebook album, a Pinterest board and a page of your creations :)

Please link up your Indian dish and/or craft in our linky below, we would love to see it!

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Posted in: 12 Dishes,Around the World,In the Kitchen,India

Kid's Co-op

It's Friday and you know what that means? It's time for the Kids Co-op! Link-up your favorite kid-related post and make sure and check out all the fun that has been linked up from other bloggers!


Each week the Kid's Co-op is getting bigger and bigger. Thanks for coming along! Here are three of my favorite posts from last week's link-up.


B.Inspired Mom shared this fabulous patriotic hand print art.

Creekside Learning shared 10 Ways for Kids to Experience Poetry.

And, Mama Mia's Heart2Heart shared these fun ice boats.

Now it's your turn to share! Please join up and share your favorite post. (And, we'd love you forever if you'd link back to us!) Your link will show up on all of the hosts blogs. It's time to link up, visit some new blogs, and have a lot of fun!

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Posted in: Kid's Co-op

Exploring Nature: Worms

My girls have always been fascinated by worms. They will run screaming from a tiny spider, but will gladly hold a wiggly worm in their hands. They've learned that worms are a welcome presence in our gardens and will always give the lost worms they find in their sandbox a new home in our garden. This is the extent of their knowledge about worms, so I thought it was time to learn about worms and why they are so helpful to our gardens.

We started by reading the book, Yucky Worms by Vivian French. In the book, a young boy learns about worms from his Grandmother. He learns that they aren't yucky, but that they are our friends. We were fascinated by the fact that worms have 5 pairs of hearts and we tried to wriggle around like a worm. We learned that they help fertilize the soil and that the tunnels they build help keep the soil loose. By the time we were done with the book, we were ready to try to find some worms of our own.  

We decided to make a "worm hotel" so we could watch the worms crawl and see the tunnels they made. We made a version of this worm farm from A Mom With a Lesson Plan. I cut the top off of a 2-liter soda bottle for our hotel. While AJ and I looked for worms, Lizzie started layering the sand and soil. We started with a layer of soil from the garden, added a layer of sand, and then a layer of partially composted materials from our compost bin. She repeated these layers about 3 times.

Despite having rained the day before, we still had difficulties finding our worms. Eventually, after digging far into our compost bin, we found five worms to observe. They immediately started tunneling. We watched in fascination for a long time as they dug and crawled around.

Our layers didn't stay neat for very long, but that's okay. The worms were crawling around too much! It didn't take long for the girls to actually see the tunnels a worm leaves behind in the soil. We took the worms inside and made a sleeve to fit over the bottle with dark construction paper and a cute little sign that says "Worm Hotel." We've been observing them for a week now, and tomorrow we'll release them back into the compost bin. I know they'll be happy to go home!

Are your kids fascinated by worms?

Linking up to Read.Explore.Learn  

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Posted in: Exploring Nature,nature fun,Science

Go Outside: Take Story Time Outside

Story time definitely doesn't have to be an indoor-only activity. We take books outside all of the time. When the weather is nice, it's so relaxing to take a few books outside and enjoy a few good stories while soaking up the sunshine and fresh air.

Outdoor story time doesn't require a lot of work. Just grab a book and walk outside. We often read books in the backyard. You can take them to the park or beside a pond. We've read books about dandelions while sitting in a clump of dandelions. We've read about trees while sitting under a tree and we've read about picnics after enjoying our own picnic. 

But your books don't always have to follow a theme. We enjoy reading anything and everything outside. Take story time outside and maybe you'll start a new habit when your kids become readers themselves. Is there anything better than sitting outside enjoying a good book? Nope! It doesn't get better than that!

Do you like to take story time outside?

 

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Posted in: go outside,reading fun