I don’t plan out my posts much more than a scrap paper or notebook page of brainstorms. This post was not planned at all. My son was under the weather and wouldn’t eat. I knew he needed to eat lunch and when I asked ” If you could have anything what would you eat?” his answer was “A Happy Meal” . I was not taking him to McDonald’s every time he is sick! . So instead we made one at home. Huge , huge success !  He was sick and not at all into doing anything but this would be a fun parent and child activity. I am sure this is a healthier option ( not by much… but it is organic) more importantly it’s a treat at home!

1. Gather your ingredients and materials. You will need a paper bag, some markers, foil, containers, straw..whatever you need to package your food. Don’t forget a toy or prize as well! We played restaurant as well so I grabbed some money and a tray to complete the pretend play.
2. Start by decorating the bag – I wish my son was feeling well enough to do it but instead he told me to make one with fish.
3. Make your food! We made apple slices, chicken nuggets, ranch dip , and milk.
4. Pack your meal up and don’t forget the prize,  I popped some Olympic stickers in for him.
5. Take their order and their money!
6. Dig in!
7. He cleaned his plate and loved the stickers.

Books

Dinner at the Panda Palace by Stephanie Calmenson is a great book. I grabbed it only because of the title but found a gem. My son and I both loved it and had a blast reading it. The story is about a restaurant and the people , or rather animals that come into the restaurant in ever enlarging groups. The text is rhyming and well written. My son loved counting each group that came in figuring out after a few that each group was one animal larger. It was a great opportunity to practice one to one correspondence as he counted one each page.  There was also a great message about there always being room for one more when all the chairs were taken and a mouse came knocking wondering if he could eat too!

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jan Yolen is a book all about eating in the popular and well loved series of dinosaur books . My son loves these books, he likes that the dinosaurs always misbehave in such over the top ways before the reality of how they really behave, well mannered , listening to their parents and eating all thier food. What I like about this is that kids relate to the dinosaurs and I have never had one question why the parents are human. I like that children are encouraged to sit still and say please and thank you. What I don’t like is that the dinosaurs are encouraged to clean their plate, never drop anything and try everything put before them. I know some parents will love these rules but for our house it doesn’t work, we don’t encourage plate cleaning or force bites. The book still served a purpose, as my son said loudly ” I’m a boy I don’t have to eat everything, right?” and we had a good talk about eating.

]]> http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2010/03/homemade-kids-meal.html/feed 36 http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/05/c-is-for-cookie.html http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/05/c-is-for-cookie.html#comments Mon, 26 May 2008 10:11:00 +0000 admin http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/?p=124

What better way to introduce the letter c than with cookies?!

1.Gather your materials. You will need some cookie dough, some wax paper for your child’s work surface, an oven preset to your recipes specifications, and a cookie sheet. I am using packaged dough even though normally I prefer healthier home made dough, the reason being that the eggs in packaged cookies are usually pasteurized making the risk of salmonella and other food borne nasties lower. It’s still not healthy for them to be eating the dough, but I am personally more comfortable with them handling it than home made stuff with raw eggs. Please check your package to check if it’s safe.

2.Have your child make the letter C c with the dough, or if like my son they are only interested in eating it, take it away and do it for them. Like I said please use caution with raw dough even if it’s pasteurized. I have done with with preschoolers and we had fun using sugar cookie dough and decorating them after!

3.Arrange your C cookies on the baking sheet and pop them in the oven. Make sure the C is really skinny looking , or else you will end up with a blob.

4. Let cool and if desired decorate them, if my son was older we would definitely be adding some sprinkles and maybe icing too!

5. Enjoy your letter C cookie!