Beet Borscht Soup

Ingredients

Add to slow cooker on low setting overnight

1 32 oz container of turkey stock (can use any stock)
1 cup sliced zucchini
1 onion finely chopped
1 cup carrots sliced
4 small potatoes cubed
2 6oz cans of organic tomato paste
3 beets peeled and chopped
1/8 cup olive oil
2 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried parsley, basil, oregano
garnish fresh sour cream and chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Dairy and Grain Free Brownies

Please note, that I started off wanting to make these brownies from Elana's Pantry Website which look amazing.  http://www.elanaspantry.com/double-chocolate-walnut-brownies/

  I didn't have all of the ingredients so I improvised.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup coconut flour

2 Tbsns Dark Dutch Cocoa Powder

1/2 tspn salt

1/2 tspn baking soda

2 eggs

1/2 cup Honey

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup dark dairy free chocolate chips

This is how it went...........

I mixed the dry coconut flour, baking soda, salt in a separate bowl.  Then I creamed the wet ingredients into a food processor and it's dough blade attachment.  The wet ingredients were 2 eggs, 1/2 cup honey, 1/4 cup coconut oil, and added in the cocoa powder.  When that was finished, I added the dry ingredients into the food processor slowly.  I then folded in my walnuts and chocolate chips and poured into a greased pyrex glass loaf pan.  If you double the ingredients, you can use a larger pyrex dish and have more brownies.  Win/win!

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes but of course individual oven times may vary.

Let them choose the books

Dear Parents,

I found myself needing a reminder today!  Motivation most often happens intrinsically(from the inside).

When you are creating a lifelong reader in your child............ Let them choose the bedtime story.  You will not be sorry when you see their excitement.  Also, if they are easily excitable (like mine sometimes is) let them read to themselves at the end of the day.  Choose your own book that you like to read so they see you enjoying reading too.  Sit with them and read together.

Here is a great article from a teacher with great reasons to create child-centered learning in your home.

http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/top-5-reasons-to-let-kids-choose-their-own-books-2/

Happy Reading!

Monkey Nut Ice Cream

What equipment you will need:

Your Food Processor or Blender
Ice Cream Maker or Attachment for your Kitchen Aid

If you do not eat eggs for any reason, you may make a flax egg substitute for this recipe.  Here is a link to that:

http://www.food.com/recipe/flax-vegan-egg-substitute-104832


Ingredients:
1 can of coconut milk (equals about 1 cup unsweetened)
1 banana
2 eggs
2 Tbs Raw Organic Cane Sugar
2 Tbs Dark Dutch Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup sliced Almonds
1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips (I made my own, see bottom of page)
1 Tbs Vanilla Extract


This recipe is so easy, just stick it all in your blender or food processor, blend it........... Then freeze in your Ice Cream Machine.

Dairy Free Chocolate Chips:

1 cup Dark Dutch Cocoa Powder
1 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup powdered sweetener (you can use raw organic sugar again, I used Xylitol)

Whisk these together and pour into a glass pyrex dish.  Put it in the freezer.  When it freezes just break it into chunks with a butter knife and bag them in a freezer bag.  You will have extra! :)

Sensory Learning Part Deux! Pink Martini and Play Doh

After yesterday's Opera and Garden Exploration, today we had Pink Martini and Play Doh.  I see Pink Martini as kind of the Worlds Fair of Music.  Perfect for Art!  

He started outside with a little of each color and then ended up inside when he was determined to sculpt the fish in our fish tank.  Big fun!  

Sensory Learning in your backyard! :)

This morning with our homemade touch table.  A radio flyer wagon filled with mud, water, sticks, and bath toys.
See activity at bottom of page.

In early childhood development, we time and time again visit the subject of sensory learning and how creating a learning environment that plays to the senses really enhances a child's learning.  They retain more information through their senses than they do through strict direct instruction.

There are multiple articles to reference this theory and I will list them below........... but also your own senses should tell you that it works for you too! Don't you wish employers spent time creating environments for workers the same way we work to create environments for children to learn?  What a life it would be!

Here is the Activity:

You want to make the start of a day big adventure.  Tell your child you are going to listen to some music and play outside.  Talk through what you are playing for them (what kind of music, jazz, rock and roll, classical etc.) and go to the outdoors!  Here is an opportunity to do Music appreciation and science all together.  Having a background in Music, this was an exciting idea for me.  This morning with my son, I told him "We are going to listen to some music, are you ready?" I put in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.  Research shows that Mozart is preferred by the listener because the chord progressions are predictable to the brain, however the only studies to link enrichment learning to classical music and Mozart, have shown a temporary jump in spatial reasoning tests. (See link below) If this is the case, I would think it would be perfect for outdoor sensory learning.  I feel another study coming on.

We went into the yard and filled watering cans to water the Garden, we raked, and we filled his wagon with water to use as an exploration table.  I let him choose what he wanted to put in the wagon.  He chose a couple of plastic toys and some natural world too.  He got some dirt, and some sticks and grass.  Our world is so full of plastic, that it seems a natural comparison for a child to make these days.  He stuck his hands in the muddy water and floated his plastic toys while listening to The entire Opera (which is a really long time).  He also detoured and found a caterpillar in the garden.  This was a beautiful green caterpillar looking for a place to cocoon.  We talked about the Little Einstein's video he has where the caterpillars migrate to Mexico.  Any connections to prior learning you can make are preferable and will enhance their experience.  A bee flew by and was studying the plants, so we talked about how he was looking for flowers to pollinate.

Here are some links:

http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/psychology/rauscher/Mozart%20and%20Mind.pdf


http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=227

http://shamslab.psych.ucla.edu/publications/tics2008-reprint.pdf

Professional development:

online course........   www.ascd.org/pdi/pd.html

Book..........  Multiple Intelligences, By Thomas Armstrong (I read the Second Edition)

Do we have a match?

I have repeatedly watched OPB with my son, and see this game everyday.  He loves it and talks to the TV.

If you haven't seen it, it's just a game on the TV that makes a picture when you complete a match.    I chose letters.  When you flip over two cards, you ask them..... "Do we have a match?"
The child says yes or no, and you confirm if their answer is correct and do it over.  If they make a match, leave it flipped over so they can see it for the next round.  When they flip the next set over, they can see if it meets the same criteria.  Mostly, are the pictures the same?  In my game, the pictures and colors match, and the letters are the same letter, but they are both upper and lower case versions of the letter.


  I started with A's, B's, and C's........

Here are some pictures of the cards used in my game.

I have him put them together when he has made a match.  These games are really fun but can only be done in short stints or your house will be a disaster (trust me).  I got these particular cards at TJMaxx for 3 dollars.