Healthy Summer Treat for the Whole Family

Well Oregon and Washington are officially hitting hot summer days with  temperatures into the 90s and 100s. So we are breaking out our arsenal of sweet, easy, and cold summer treats. 

Of course one of the first things many people reach for in the summer heat are popsicles and ice cream which have their place at our house, but I prefer to try and find some healthy cold treatsas well. I do really like my Zoku popsicle maker for making quick healthy popsicles at home and my immersion blender to make frozen drinks like smoothies or frozen treats like all fruit sorbet. However one super easy and delicious summer treat is frozen grapes. 

I can not take the credit for thinking of this though. When I was working for a family over summer breaks from college the mother used to do this as a snack for her kids and it was so refreshing and wonderful that I have continued this summer treat in my own home. I have to reintroduce it every summer, especially to my son who is sceptical of most things, but after walking away from the first bite and saying it was horrible, he returned to say he wanted more and they were good. 

There is just something about them that feels extra refreshing when compared to other frozen snacks. I love them. All you do is rinse the grapes, pop the whole thing with the stem and everything, into the freezer and then eat them when they are frozen. For small kids I recommend cutting them in half after they have defrosted a bit, not too much though. They are hard and round so beware of choking hazards. Again cutting them in half helps a lot. 

Some of my other favorite healthy summer frozen snacks include smoothies and popsicles in my Zoku, there are some recipes in the tab above. 

Summer Learning: Fun Learning for Kids During Summer Break

My son has decided he wants to do school over the summer at our house. He wants to do this every day and include everything he would normally have at school. He decided he wants to go back school in the fall as the kid that knows more than anyone else (he laughed and said, well that will probably be a fifth grader). So starting on the first day of summer break we started....well....school. I am trying to come up with ways of making this fun for him and my younger daughter, who is excited by the prospect as well.

Here is how our day is breaking down so far. We get up, have breakfast, then do reading. I have them both read on their own and ask him to choose a longer book.

My daughter is going into kindergarten, but can read independently for the most part. Once they finish their book they are to identify a few things for the story they read. My son is supposed to write a mini book report with the protagonist, the antagonist the setting, the conflict, the moral, and the resolution.

After my daughter finishes her reading she is supposed to write the name of the main character and draw a picture of that character.

So far they are both enjoying this part of the summer learning and find it fun.

While they do their reading I clean breakfast up, have my morning tea or coffee, and make sure I have the plan for the rest of the day in order.

So far we have only done a few days of really putting this into action and I am not sure the kids will want to keep it up over all of summer and I only want to do it if they are enjoying it, so we will see how it ends up.

After reading we do other school subjects. Sometimes they are combined projects, other times they are field trips, or movies.

So on our first day we did math which included using ten pennies to add and subtract numbers one through ten for my youngest. For my oldest we learned the area of a square formula using foam paper cut into one big square and a rectangle, with enough smaller squares to cover each completely. I taught him how the area of a square is it's base times it's height. We used the small squares to measure how many square fit across the base and how many fit across the height. I then have him problems with drawings of squares to solve on his own. 

Next we decided to come up with a school mascot. We did research about the symbolism of various animals we were interested in and colors we liked. Then we choose our animal and colors and wrote down some of the important words each symbolically stands for and drew a picture of our animal and then made a flag including our colors.

This project included practicing compluter skills and online research, science, reading, a bit about differences between cultures, and art.

After recess and lunch we headed to the public library to check out books on our animal and then watch the movie they were playing for their summer program.

We also checked out a book on learning to draw, because that is something my son has been worrying hee is not good enough at. We decided a good way to make him feel better about it would be to learn more about how to do it.

Every learning project we did today we did with things we have around the house and could easily be adapted to fit other learning needs.

We will see how this develops over the rest of the summer.

Books for Kids About Divorce

Recently I have seen a lot of posts on the online Mom's group I am part of that have talked about how they are going through a divorce. When I was a child my parents separated and then did end up getting divorced. While I can't imagine it being any other way, I do know that feeling that others understand what I am going through has always helped me. 

While my husband and I are not getting divorced, but he is a divorce attorney in Portland, Oregon and so he goes to court to do divorces so in combination of seeing him go to court and hearing about these other Mom's in my Facebook group currently going through a divorce I have been thinking about what the kids of divorce might need to help them through it. 

One thing that I immediately thought of is books. Kids love books, they are a good way for parents to be close to kids, demonstrate others feelings, develop empathy, and spark conversation. If a parent reads a book to a their child about divorce it is bound to bring up may things to talk about as well as demonstrate to the child that the parent understands it might be hard to the child to be going through this experience.

I have come up with a short list of books that I found that talk about divorce, but there are many more out there. 

Amazing Christmas Gift For a Kid to Make: Clay Bowl

Every year during the holidays I try and find something that my kids can gift to their teachers and Grandparents. I have had them give cookies, drawings, little baskets of snack foods, Christmas tree ornaments, and gift cards.

This year I attended a little craft fair that was aimed toward showing examples of crafts that people could make instead of buying gifts. They wanted to raise awareness about giving in a way that is not as commercialized and then making donations to people that are in a position of greater need than us. The cherish that was holding the craft bazaar was also accepting donations that could go to various charities, they suggested donating to a place that helps create access to clean water for people in Africa and organizations that help stop sex trafficking among others.

One of the crafts, was a Femo marbled bowl, this looked like something I would actually try and the might I thought about it the more I thought the kids could do it. I have also seen this craft following around the internet mostly on Pinterest.

I took my five year old to Michael's craft store and looked at the clay. After picking out a few colors, I was becoming too quiet that this was not something the kids could do because the clay is incredibly hard, and I do not say this lightly, it is like those really old bubble gum balls that just about break your teeth and make your jaw sore after the first ten seconds of chewing.

I was relieved when I found a mixed color package of this stuff called Pluffy by Sculpey. It is so much softer and my kids were totally able to work with. I also bought some of the harder clay for me.
                                     

My kids really wanted to make a video about how to make one so the instructions have those as well. :)

1) choose three or four colors usually having a base color of white or black is nice but it is up to you, we mixed in white but had an equal part of white as each other color.
2) cut off a piece of each color about the size of your thumb

3) sqeeze all the colors together into one "log"
4) twist all asking the log, squash it back together, roll it out, twist again

5) when you like how mixed the colors are, but so they are mostly still individual colors roll it out on a non stick surface like a piece off wax paper with a rolling pin, piece of pvc pipe, or a femo rolling pin, into a circle a quarter of an inch thick

Making a clay bowl with a smiley face.

6) place over an upside down bowl that is oven proof and gently push the edges down, we used silicon cupcake molds.
7) bake according to the package directions each brand is a little different
8) allow to cool and then paint just the edge with gold acrylic paint.

 Here is mine, I made if for my Grandparents that have just moved out of their dream house where they spent years sailing on Seneca lake:

To make mine I used a lightly different kind of Sculpey, which is much harder and my kids did not find plyable enough for their hands, the Pluffey however was perfect for them. Here is the kind I used:

Here is the gold paint I used to edge the bowl:

Full disclosure: if you use the amazon link I will get a small percentage of the cost of what you buy, this goes for the search link on the side bar as well. However the cost to you is the same either way. My kids loved this project and were so excited to make their friends and teachers a gift. My daughter would not even wait to give it to them. I would love to see results of yours if you do make them. 

Summer Solstice Craft: Stained Glass Sun

 

This last week we talked about the sun and the up coming summer solstice. We made a sunshine to put up in our window and see sun shine come through the colors. All you do is cut a circle in the center of the paper plate and some strips of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper and glue them over the opening. 

We thought about crinkling up more tissue paper and putting on the outside ring, but we ran out of time before we had other plans. :) We liked how the over lapping colors created different shades of oranges. This was a really easy craft.

Parenting Book Club: Review of "Wild Things" and a New Book

Last month I suggested the book Wild Things: the art of nurturing boys as the first in a string of parenting books to read and post comments online so that a discussion could occur book club style about said books. I have found this book to be good at offering practical problem solving techniques in ways that will be easy to apply, they are for the most part really really helpful ideas that I can see applying and actually having them work. I remember some of these things begin used with me as a child, like establishing good table talk during dinners by asking questions or telling stories. Having a game night and a movie night to help the family as a whole connect and help boys (or kids in general) feel loved and valued as a part of the family.

I do think at times the authors are stretching a bit on some of these traits being a "boys" trait, but the book is helpful anyway. I really do feel like most if not all of it could apply to by daughter as well. I sometimes wonder how much of gender is constructed and how much is innate. I think from my psychology classes I feel that there is an good argument for nature via nurture. Nature via nurture basically means that we have were created to have certain genetic make ups that could be molded in a different direction based on the things that happen around us. You have to look no further than epigenetics to see evidence for this. 

In any case the book may just be more broadly applicable to both genders rather than just boys and I do think it is worth the time to read. If no other reason than the "putting it into practice" sections are really helpful and easy to do. Beyond that I think that there are things in the developmental phasis that the authors bring up that can be easy to forget when you have a kid who likes to play aggressively and is beginning to really push limits to try and assert their independence. For example, that at this same stage they are also really craving love and the way kids feel loved is not the same for every stage (time versus trust, etc).

Again please feel free to write in the comment section about your favorite and least favorite parts of the book. What did you get out of it? What did you find difficult to swallow? Bring your comments to the fold and help start a discusion. :)

I have already started reading Last Child in the Woods for this month it is really good. I hope you read along and comment! You can get it through this link to Amazon or look for it at your local library. :)
                                           


For next month I am going to look for Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion. Again you can just click the link to get it from Amazon there are paperback and kindle versions available. Or check with your local library. :)
                                           

I would be happy to hear your thoughts and opinions!
 

Book Club: About Raising a Boy

A couple of months ago I ran into a recommendation for the book Wild Things: the art of nurturing boys by Stephen James and David Thomas. I was immediately intrigued by the title and quickly decided to check my local library for the book. I had to put it on hold, but I have finally received it and plan to start reading it today. 

I am hoping that a few people will also read it over the next month or so and be willing to have a discussion about it with me in the comment section of this post and a new post I will write when I am finished with the book. 

I think this has potential to be a great book for me in particular, because I find myself frequently feeling like I don't understand where my son is coming from or unable to keep my own natural anxiety in check for things that are totally natural for kids to do. For example, climbing trees a little higher than I am comfortable with, climbing up our banister, or jumping in waves at the Oregon coast in 60 degree weather (well I did do this at some point in my life).  
If you want to pick up the book you can buy it from the links below:
                         Kindle:  
                      Paperback:  

I hope you will find the book and read along so I will have some people other than meself to mull over this book with. :) I may make this a permanent book club of sorts, I already have next months book in mind. It is one I have been getting distracted from called Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. So if you want to get ready for May and get this book here are links to that.
                  Paper Back:
                      
I really hope you read along and post comments as you go so we can think about this book together. :) Also if you are interested in following along with future months please follow the blog. :)