Epicurean Style

After School Snacks

I remember looking forward to after school snacks and when I came across these great recipes (that seem pretty healthy too) I thought I would share.  I can't believe school is back in full swing!

(picture via family.com)

Rate MD's

I came across this awesome website today.  Let me give you a little back history on this on, so when our little family up and moved last year I was pregnant and I had a toddler.  First.  Kids see doctors every few minutes, it can seem like, so finding a pediatrician was must.  

And Second.  Pregnant people see doctors A LOT--I needed OB care and well wasn't really sure who to ask since we were new to the area.  It took me a LooooooNG time to find us doctors.  Waaaay too long.  Poor Bennett in my tummy didn't see a doctor until I was 3 month along. yikes.   

Anyway, I came across this website today and thought it was awesome.  A place ALL parents (especially) should know about, even if you have a pediatrician you really like (let other people know about him/her).  

This website Rate-MD's.com is a place to go in search of doctors--see what other people think of them and leave your thoughts on a doctor.  What an awesome resource!  I always ask others for advice on this topic, because you want to get a referral and feel confident in who you are seeing.  

Seriously, this is great.  

Now if they could just come out with some sort of device that would tell me if my child has an ear infection or not.  Don't you hate that?  You run them in because they have been sick for awhile and are now getting more fussy, but the doctor takes one quick look and tells you babies get sick and sends you on your way.  You wasted time, energy, and money---just for a "No, your child is fine.  Sick, but will be better soon."  I hate that. 

Somebody invent something for this situation.  

Please.

Baby Bjorn Toilet Trainer and Stool

Okay, so I might be cheating a little, but seriously these products go hand in hand around here.  Jackson loves his potty chair and it has made it so much easier to potty train him with it.  He was a little nervous of the big toilet, but I WAS NOT willing to clean out a little potty that sat on the floor, so we opted for this little beauty. 

Allow me to introduce you to the

Baby Bjorn Toilet Trainer

It's a beauty isn't it?  At least I'm in love. :)  Jackson loves this smaller chair that sits on top of the toilet, because it makes the toilet a little more "cozy" as he says.  He is able to consentrate on getting the job done, rather than worry about falling in.  Definite plus.  :) 

Also, one of his big things is that he sometimes likes to have a little privacy (I guess who doesn't, but you don't really think about it with a little kid....at least I hadn't).  I am able to walk away and leave him sitting there and know that he is NOT going anywhere and he isn't worried that he can't stay balanced, he is just nice and "cozy".  ha. 

I also, like that it has a guard in the front of the seat for little boys.  Less mess, happy mom.  Trust me the other day we were out in public and Jackson HAD to go right then.  I ran him into a restroom and got him all set up.  Totally forgetting that he might have an "issue" since we are in public and he doesn't have the little guard.  Well, lucky me I ended up with wet pant legs because of my lack of "boy" knowledge.  My husband shook his head and could believe that I didn't know what to do in public.  I know now.  And this is one lesson that you should ask your husband about if you are heading into potty training a little boy.  :) 

The potty seat fits any toilet shape!  And can easily be taken on and off of the toilet.

It is made of a hard plastic and is SOOOOO easy to clean.  There aren't any spots that yucky germy unmentionables might get loged. Grins.  Big Grins.  ALl you have to do is take a little cleaner to the seat and wipe it down.  So easy. 

Baby Bjorn Step Stool

I had read some negative things about this stool, but we haven't had a problem with it yet.  So if you want my opinion.  Get it!  It is well, worth it.  If I leave this stool at the toilet Jackson is able to climb on and off the toilet by himself.  Usually I like to help him get off the toilet, just because he needs some help cleaning up after he is done going, but he could get off by himself if he wanted.

I am able to have Jackson stand when he has to "wet".  :)  It is the PER-fect height for going potty.  And he loves thinking he is a big boy.  So why not?! 

The stool has a rubber bottom that keeps it from tipping.  Less bumps and bruises are always good things.  :)

And we find him carrying it everywhere he goes.  He loves to be able to reach things off the shelves in his room with it, or see what I am doing in the kitchen, or turn off the lights in a room with it.  Whatever he might have been too short for before, he is not just tall enough with this stool.  He runs from room to room with this stool, so it is incredibly lightweight. 

I don't think you will be sad if you purchase these two items together.  We really have liked them.  However, if you are worried you can read reviews about them online.  I think Amazon has a whole host of reviews.  :)

Potty Chart

Another, thing.  Not completely unrealated, but sort of.  We were having a hard time getting Jackson *excited* about potty training so I made him a potty chart.  He is IN LOVE with Lightening Mc Queen and all things Cars, so I made the chart to fit him and his personality, but you could make this chart with any character or objects that your child loves. 

So everytime Jackson goes potty on the toilet, he gets to move Lightening McQueen up a space.  When he finally gets Lightening McQueen to the Piston Cup he gets a reward.  It is 15 spaces long and doesn't take an overwhelming amount of time to get there, but takes him long enough that it is worth our while.  :)

Lightening McQueen making his way around the track

***prize at the end***

One thing we have noticed is that he stopped worrying too much if he had an accident, so now if he has an accident he has to move back a spot.  It is a little sad, but totally motivating him to not want to have an accident. 

Anyway, the potty chart has really helped us, so I just thought I would pass the idea along.  :)  Potty Training is not my favorite job in motherhood so far, so if you have any pointers for us, we welcome them.

 

Halloween Craft

It's not that this craft took forever or was hard, but my son loved it!  It's surprising how the smallest activity can make him so excited!  I know we have talked about making paper sack puppets before, but since it is Halloween, we decided to shake things up a bit (ha.) and make a pumpkin paper sack puppet.  While we made it, we sang a few Halloween songs and read one of my favorite Halloween Poems.  

We also made a paper chain link counter, to count how many days until Halloween.  He gets to take one paper chain link off each night or morning and then we count how many days are left on the chain.  He loves counting it and being able to rip on of the links off.  Simple idea, but it makes for a little bit of fun, something a little out of the norm.  I think it would be cuter made out of Halloween colors, but we just went with what we had.  :)

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our paper sack pumpkin puppet. I am sure you could figure this out on your own, but a little step by step of how we did it can be found below...

Cut two half circles out of Orange paper.  Make the one that goes inside the flap larger than the one on the top of the flap.

Cut a thin rectangle out of yellow paper (this will be the top of your pumpkin mouth)

Cut a mouth shape out of yellow paper.  We cut a tooth shape out of the yellow.  Make sure it is long enough to be seen on the other side of the flap.

Add a stem on top.

Add eyes and a nose of whatever shape you like.  

And then you have your ultra-fun pumpkin puppet!  :)  Nevermind, our peanut butter and jelly stained shirt from lunch.  :)

Here are the words to the songs that we sang:

Pumpkin, Pumpkin Song

(sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Pumpkin pumpkin on the ground

How'd you get so big and round

Planted as a seed so small

Now you are a great big ball

Pumpkin pumpkin on the ground

How'd you get so big and round 

Three Little Witches

 (sung to the tune of Three Little Indians)

 

One little, two little, three little witches,

Fly over haystacks, fly over ditches,

Slide down moon beams without any hitches,

Hey ho Hallowe'en's here!

 

Horned owl's hooting, it's time to go riding,

Deep in the shadows are black cats hiding,

With gay little goblins, sliding, gliding,

Hey ho Hallowe'en's here!

 

Stand on your head with a lopsided wiggle,

Tickle your little black cats till they giggle,

Swish through clouids with a higgedy, piggle,

Hey ho Hallowe'en's here!

Five Little Pumpkins

Five Little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, "Oh, my it's getting late!" (Look at your watch or touch where it should be)

The second one said, "There are witches in the air." (Look around nervously)

The third one said, "But we don't care." (Shake finger back and forth,  "no" motion with finger)

The fourth one said, "Let's fun, let's run!" (Running motion with your arms)

The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?" (Make the "what" motion with arms)

The Wooooooosh went the wind (make a windy movement with your hands)

And OUT (clap hands together) went the lights.

And five little pumpkin's rolled out of sight. (Whisper this last line and Roll your hands)

 

ABC's

It's a hard job to try to educate your child and hope that you are giving them all the time and attention they need to learn and grow.  I definitely don't claim to be an expert teacher or even think that my own son is a genius.  I just want him to have some basic knowledge about things before he enters school (I know I have a while....).  Anyway, something that my son has shown a lot of interest in lately has been numbers and letters.  So I have tried to do a few craft projects with him to just introduce letters. 

Here are a few of my ideas:

Bumpy Letters
Kids can learn from touch as well as sight and sound when it comes to letters.  So reaching back into the recesses of my mind (when I used to tutor a little boy).  I remembered this activity.  We made letters out puffy paint on little index cards.  We would trace the letters with our fingers and say what the sounds that the letters made.  I have also played memory with the letters.  Matching the Uppercase Letters with the Lowercase Letters.


More Texture Letters:
Shape letters out of as many textures and objects you can think of...

-Play-dough

-Glue Salt/sprinkles (Use glue to shape the letter and then sprinkle salt onto the glue, shake off the excess salt.  Let dry and then feel them.)

-Glue macaroni/Penni noodles to a page to shape letters

-Cookie Dough and Letter Cookie Cutters (or just shape the letter yourself) and bake them.

-Alpha-bits Cereal



-Ice Cube Trays



I am in love with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree... A fun way to have your child find the letters and place them on the tree as you read or just play with



-Make letters on paper for your child to color or decorate how ever they like

My son seems to love Puzzles so we have also opted to buy him a letter and number puzzle...just one more way to see the Alphabet. I am a big fan of Melissa and Doug Puzzles.

My son also loves the Letter Magnates made by Leap Frog.  I have to say that I am also a big fan of them, considering they make the say the letter and then makes all the sounds that the letter makes in a cute little song.  I am not a personal believer in the A is for Apple method.  I like to say A says and then list all the sounds that A makes.

I know this post in only partial a project or craft, but I did also say ideas right?!  Well, I hope so because I like to get ideas from people too.  Maybe one of the days should be  designated just to teaching ideas...what do you think? 

If you have more ideas for teaching the Alphabet share them! 

Days of the Week

Have you ever tried to teach your children something? Well, lately I have just decided that I want to really start teaching my son something once a week. I am starting small, but thought I would share my idea. I am taking one item a week and then working on it. My son might be a little young for this, but I decided that I wanted him to understand the days of the week, so that he can start understanding when events are going to take place.

I am 100% positive that this will take more than a week to master, but you have to start somewhere and then I will just keep asking and asking and working and working until we get this one down.

Our August calender is FULL of events, so this afternoon I am going to do a small introduction into our schedule. I have a wall claneder that I use to keep track of events, but we are going to draw pictures of the events on the days that are important to him and then let him help me color them in.

Below: I took our July Calendar and made quick drawings (no making fun of the artwork) of what our July calendar would have looked like. I would have the child color the pictures in or if they are old enough to draw them, let them draw the pictures too.

I am planning on looking at the calender often and pointing things out to him. I am also going to hang it a little lower so that he can see it.

Then on Playhouse Disney, I heard them sing this song (a while back), I thought it was cute song and if sung often might help a child start to place the days of the week in their place.

Sing to the tune of "Are You Sleeping/ Frere Jacques"

Today is [name of day].
Today is [name of day].
All day long, all day long.
Yesterday was [name of day].
Tomorrow will be [name of day].
Oh what fun!
Oh what fun!
© Disney

I am thinking I will just keep singing and filling in a calender with him like this every month. I am SURE it will take a while to master this skill, but I am hoping it will start to give him an idea of what is going on. :)