The Write Start

Eat Your Words

I made a bleary-eyed breakfast for my boy today, who has lost sleep and his appetite to a bad case of croup. In an effort to temp him to eat a few bites, I couldn't help but send him a message in the form of chocolate chip pancakes.

 

Letter pancakes are tricky. I've been wondering how to make them for a while. I saw a great post here and decided to try her method. She pours batter into the letter shape first, and then, when it browns a bit, she pours more batter over it. (Don't forget to make your letters backwards so you can read them after the flip.)

My first attempt didn't come out so well. The pancake was way too thick and the letter was barely readable. Maybe I'll try putting the batter in a squeeze bottle or a turkey baster next time. A quick google search led me to a Betty Crocker recipe which used the same technique, and boy do hers look good. I guess I'm no Betty Crocker.

 

My usual medium for sending edible messages is fried egg, or cheese slices. Both are easily cut into letter shapes with alphabet cookie cutters or a paring knife.

Hey, every artist has there canvas, right? Mine just happens to be egg sometimes.

How and when do you ever make your children eat their words? Any other great ideas out there?

Salad Bar

 

I set up a super-simple, impromptu "salad bar" tonight for Jack.

 

Then I made a quick chart for him and showed him how to use it. He took our orders by reading down the chart: "Mom, do you want lettuce?" "Dad, do you want tomatoes?" and making his mark in the corresponding box.

 

Then he prepared and served us our "made to order" salads. This activity couldn't have been easier, but it gave him such great satisfaction. And apparently veggies are much tastier when you are the guy in charge of the salad bar.

Jack helps to cook a lot of things at home, but this was his first try at taking orders. A chart like this is really empowering for pre-writers. Just by making simple marks, they are actually able to "write" a lot of information. One simple stroke, placed in the correct box, can mean "Mom wants cucumbers on her salad." That's a pretty big idea for a little kid.

Now if I could only get him to prepare and serve the rest of the meal... 

I Scream, You Scream

We had a great vacation at Baba's beach house, complete with homemade ice cream courtesy of this handy gadget.

First we read the recipe together and drew our own, simplified, kid-friendly picture list of the steps. We do a quikie list like this for most recipes and it works out great for Jack. To tell you the truth, it helps me get organized too. Have you ever been cooking with your kid and you stop to look at a recipe and BAM! you lost them? The picture list really helps to keep everyone on the same page, so to speak.

So you mix up the ice cream ingredients and add them to a chamber on one side of this cool, ball-shaped ice cream maker. And then you fill up the other side with ice cubes and rock salt. According to the directions, you shake for about ten minutes. Then you scrape down the sides of the ice cream chamber, add more ice and salt to the other side if needed, and shake for ten more minutes.

Well. Easier said than done. Filled with ice, that thing is HEAVY! Do you see the look of dismay on Jack's face as he attepts to shake it? He didn't have endurance for the shaking for more than about thirty muscle-building seconds.

  

Then I tried having him roll it around on the floor.

 

That was okay for a few minutes, but then he maxed out on that as well. (What did I expect after a long day on the hot beach?)

So then I hit upon rolling it back and forth to eachother. And that was just right. We got the job done and finally enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Yum! Jack loved it because it was vanilla ice cream, of course, but also because he worked hard to make it. I loved that it was a gross motor activity that had such delicious and satisfying results.

All in all, we had a ball. Isn't that what vacation is about? Who needs Good Humor when you can share some laughs while rolling a freezing cold, ten-pound ice cream ball? Pretty cool.

Lazy Whipped Cream

Did you ever do that activity where you put heavy cream in a jar and shake, shake, shake it like crazy until it becomes whipped cream? I LOVE that activity. It's great for building muscles and delicious. What could be better?

But let's face it. In between feedings, burpings, diaper changes, etc. we're lucky if we have time to eat these days, no less whip cream by hand. (And no, we haven't been churning much butter around here lately either!) When you get one of those rare quiet moments, however, it's nice to make snack time a little special. Especially when I'm sharing it with my favorite little man.

Enter: lazy whipped cream. 

With a mini food processor doing the mixing, this treat can be "whipped up" in a flash.

And look at how fancy it is, in less than three minutes! Why is it that whipped cream can make anything seem instantly extra-special? We add a splash of vanilla to ours, which ups the yum factor even more. Oh, and we serve it in waffle bowls (found with the ice cream cones in the supermarket). 

   

And then we add fresh berries, of course. Blueberries perform double duty: they are nutritious and a great fine motor food! Jack LOVES blueberries...

  

but I need strawberries too to achieve ultimate snack perfection.

The sweetest part is indulging a few quiet minutes with my son and making it a little event. I wonder if he'll remember things like this. You know it's the little, impromptu, spur-of-the-moment things they remember, not the big extravagant things. He's asking to make whipped cream again today, so maybe there's my clue that it made an impression.

Do you have any quickie, no-fail, lazy (I mean easy) ways to turn a hum-drum day into a happy occasion? Please share!

The Muffin Man

I can't say that every day in our house begins with muffin-making, but I can honestly say that the best ones do. There's nothing like a little cooperative baking to feed all of your senses in the morning. I know when my son has had a hand in making his food (touching all the ingredients, smelling the smells, seeing the transformation) he seems more eager to eat and more satisfied by the meal.

And, of course, from my perspective, kitchen activities are another great way to develop hand skills. Even on the mornings when a full-scale cooking project isn't an option, I try to incorporate some "hands-on" into our breakfast. Squeezing an orange for juice, spreading softened butter or cream cheese onto toast, cutting a banana with a butter knife, and pouring from a pitcher are some of our favorite easy, kid-friendly, meal prep activities. And the added bonus of taking the few extra seconds to set this up? He eats heartily and happily anything he's made with his own two hands.

How do you make your morning mealtime a hands-on activity?