Giveaway! Comments update

OK, so I've been informed by a couple of people that it has been difficult to comment on my blog recently. When I tried, it worked, so I don't know what is going on, but I want to give everyone a chance..... so..... Please try to comment on the blog itself, but if you are finding it impossible, let me know by email and I will enter you for the giveaway. momandkiddo [at] gmail [you know the rest]

Giveaway!

Even though I can never seem to win anyone else's giveaway, I am doing one of my own. I have a copy of Mo Willem's fabulous book, Knuffle Bunny, to give away. You may already know this book and if you don't have your own copy now's your chance. I blogged about it as a great Urban Picture Book last year. Since it is set in my very own neighborhood, it seems a good choice for a giveaway. Please leave a comment by Friday at 5:00 to get your name in the hat. If you have a favorite urban picture book that you think I'll love too, please tell me in your comment. I am always looking for new books! I'll announce the winner sometime on Saturday.

As a bonus, since I don't think I have that many readers, your odds of winning are better than most.

Weekend Bonus Post for Black Currant Lovers

When I lived in England I grew to love, love, love black currants (and the drink "Cider and Black"!). I wondered why here in the US, black currants, and black currant flavored foods are almost unheard of. Instead we have grape juice and grape flavored foods. In my not-so-humble opinion grapes are for popping in your mouth, not for making jelly. My friend Wikipedia, explained why black currants are rare here. However, they are making a comeback and are available at our farmer's market in July. I experimented making my own homemade version of Ribena. It was super easy and much more delicious.

Heat a pint of black currants with some sugar (you need more than you think) to taste until the currants have popped open. Strain and add to some seltzer. Yummy! And such a beautiful color! I added the mint to the glass for the photo, not because I am in the habit of doing so but because I wanted to impress you. Did it work?Next I am going to try making black currant ice cream. Mmmmm.
Update: I made the ice cream using about 1 cup of the above syrup in a standard vanilla ice cream recipe. It was a little too much for my ice cream maker but oh-so-delicious!

Cookie Fractions

This idea sounded great inside my head, but after execution my idea needs some refinement. While visiting for the week, Mormor helped me make fraction cookies for Kiddo. I want to find fun ways to introduce fractions to supplement Kiddo's addiction to numbers. We made cookies that were whole, in halves, in quarters and in thirds. I didn't anticipate that the actual baking process would puff up the sides of the cookies so the cooked pieces did not meet. With the second batch we scored the cookies and cut them after baking. That worked better. I also thought it would be fun to use the sprinkles as a visual guide to which pieces go with which cookies. I used these artificial dye-free sprinkles (because let's face it, artificial colors are not food. Read THIS!).In the end they didn't result in as visually appealing product as I had envisioned. If I weren't so lazy I might try again and with more shapes and sizes. I know they are many fabulous crafty-cooking bloggers out there... I bet someone can come up with some cookie fractions which look fabulous and appealing. If you take the challenge, be sure to let me know so I can link to you.

Summer Bloggin'

You might have noticed that I didn't post everyday last week! I think I have been posting almost every (week)day since the start of the year. Now that summer is upon us I am feeling the laziness of the days and will be posting less often for the rest of the season --although I reserve the right to change my mind... But don't delete me from your Reader just yet because I am planning a giveaway (my first!) soon!

We recently went to the beach for a few days. Kiddo got to spend some time with his cousin digging in the sand....
And I witnessed the strangest bird I have ever seen:

Weigh-In

One morning Kiddo was mysteriously running back and forth to the bathroom with various toy vehicles. The mystery was solved when I heard, "Mom! My truck weighs 2 pounds!" He had figured out that if he weighed himself (39 pounds) first and then weighed himself holding the truck (41 pounds), the truck weighed 2 pounds!

He had a pretty good time with this.

Run! Run! (Unplugged Project: Fast)

This is more of an Unplugged Tip than an Unplugged Project. I'm sure you all know that even though kids love hanging out and playing with their friends the relationship can have a few (as my friend would put it) crispy moments. Here are two ways I like to solve the problem fast.

1. Take their ball and drop kick it as far as possible. I guarantee you they will instantly run after the ball as fast as possible.
2. Suddenly shout with delight "who is going to run to that tree and back (pointing to a tree far, far, far in the distance) before I count to 50!" Off they go, as fast as possible! I usually don't even need to finish counting.

When they return, panting, sweaty, out of breath, back at the picnic blanket, all squabbles will have been forgotten. If not, just repeat... Fast.

This is also good if you and your fellow mom friend just want to chat in peace.

For more Unplugged Fast Projects visit Unplug Your Kids.

Storybooks on CD

In my previous life as the perfect parent (that would be before I had kids) I poo-pooed the idea of Storybooks on CD. "You should read to your kid! Not park them in front of the stereo!" Blah, blah. A few weeks ago I saw the books on CD at the library and thought "what the heck!" It turns out Kiddo loves them and now I am looking for longer and longer ones. Plus it's a good thing we only live 5 blocks from the library because in all that packaging, a stack of them can be heavy to carry!

And yes, he still wants me to read to him.

Cat Tales

Kiddo recently chose the book Three Stories You Can Read to Your Cat at the library from the Easy Reader shelf. He sat down to read it to one of our cats, and it must have been very entertaining, because as you can see the other cat came along to listen in.

Bottle Station

This idea is totally unoriginal and you have seen it on every Montessori blog there is. But I don't have much original to say these days, so here it is.I cleaned out my spice cabinet last week and had a hodgepodge of jars left over that needed their lids replaced. Being lazy, I enlisted Kiddo to do my work and called it an educational experience.

Chasing Rainbows

In case you are wondering how I keep New Kid occupied these days...

We have a glass object d'art-thingy (that would be the technical term) hanging in our window which projects hundreds of rainbows all over our living room in the afternoon. New Kid is determined to catch them.

Magnet Play (Unplugged Project: Container)

This was a really easy activity to put together for Kiddo and provided lots of independent play (always important to lazy parents like me). I filled a clear container (I used an old pickle jar) with paperclips and some metal washers, then added some red lentils for color. Using a strong magnet on the outside of the container, Kiddo could lift the paperclips and washers, move them around, hunt for them in the lentils, make chains, etc. It was a big hit.I didn't get any photos of him playing with it, because I was busy cleaning up New Kid's poo explosion, which is just more proof that this activity kept him busy for a while.

For more Unplugged Projects with a container theme visit Unplug Your Kids.

Painting with Magnets

This is a variation of an activity I saw at Chasing Cheerios. She used a magnetic rock, but since I don't even know how I would go about finding such a thing we used magnets and hardware. You can magnetize most things metal by rubbing a magnet in one direction across it.

We also taped some paper to a piece of cardboard which produced a textured effect.

I was surprised he didn't want to do this for very long. Instead he said he wanted to "paint with a brush" and he spent quite a bit of concentrated time making 10 (!) paintings. You can see them here.

Tales from the Toothbrush

I'm guessing most kids don't like to have their teeth brushed. Kiddo has gotten a lot better at it over the last few months. I've tried various tactics in the past but the one that works the best is storytellling. I tell him that the story is starting and he'd better get in the bathroom so as not to miss it. He doesn't even care if my creative juices are a little weak that evening and the story is a bit pathetic. Lately, since we have been reading chapter books, I will do a recap of the previous night's chapter. He LOVES that.

Whatever works, right?