Cooking with the Kiddos!

Friday, October 17th, 2014

As toddlers begin to grow, their desire for discovery grows as well. Curious fingers will beg for activities and one of the best activities to feed a growing toddler's curiosity is having them help in the kitchen. Besides, cooking with the kiddos is fun.

Kitchen Activities

When parents have their kids help in the kitchen, it should be a fun learning experience. Have the kids help make dinner or bake cookies and let them gather dishes and ingredients for their chosen recipe. Always stay close by their side in order to help, but try and let them mix up the recipe on their own as much as possible. Also, if possible, choose a recipe that the kids can be inventive with.

Teach Responsibility

Helping out in the kitchen can be a lot of fun for the kids while they are throwing sugar and chocolate chips into a bowl while munching on cookie dough. It is cleaning up afterward that tends to be the problem. Have them put everything away and clean up their dishes while their recipe is cooking. Make it fun by creating a game or song from cleaning up.

Create Healthy Eating Habits

Having the kids help out in the kitchen is the perfect opportunity to teach healthy eating habits. Although it is great to bake cookies with the kids, try to also have them help with healthy recipes as well. If children grow up creating healthy dishes rather than chicken nuggets and corn dogs, that will follow them throughout their life.

Proper Kitchen Attire

Be sure to dress the kids in the proper kitchen attire while they are helping with the cooking. More than likely, it is going to result in a mess. Dress them in clothes that can be stained without any worries and invest in a child's apron to keep them clean. A hook and loop toddler belt is also great for keeping pants up while cooking so dirty hands are not constantly pulling on sagging jeans.

Fall Time Yummies

Create some fall time memories with the kids by making autumn-themed treats. Pumpkin pie, spiced apple cider and candied apples are a few ideas, but one of the best recipes to cook with the kids this fall is caramel corn.

Caramel Corn

Ingredients:

24 to 28 cups of freshly popped plain popcorn

2 cups of dry roasted peanuts

2 cups of brown sugar

1/2 cup of light corn syrup

1 teaspoon of salt if desired

1 cup of margarine or butter

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Recipe:

Heat oven to 250 degrees.

Place the popcorn in a large roasting pan.

Add the peanuts to the pop corn and set aside.

Combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter or margarine, cream of tartar and salt in the saucepan.

Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring enough to blend.

Once the mixture begins to boil, boil for 5 minutes while stirring constantly.

Remove from the heat.

Stir in the baking soda and vanilla and beat it together vigorously until light and foamy.

Immediately pour the mixture over the popcorn and stir to coat.

Bake for 1 hour while removing the pans and stirring every 15 minutes.

Line a counter top with waxed paper, dump the corn out onto the waxed paper and separate the pieces.

Allow to cool completely and then store in airtight containers or resealable bags.

Let the kids mix the ingredients together and pour the mixture over the popcorn. Make sure to help them enough that they do not burn themselves but remember to have lots of fun!

Tags: Activities with Children, Toddler Fashion
Posted in Building a Child's Self Confidence, Toddler Clothing, Toddler Fashion | Comments Off on Cooking with the Kiddos!

Developing Personal Style with Your Kids

Thursday, August 21st, 2014

As children grow older, their desire to make their own decisions will start to become more dominant. Children find joy in creating or deciding something all by themselves and feel proud in their success. Beginning this creative process with children is very important for developing personal style with your kids.

A great way for a parent to start developing and encouraging a decision making process is to help their children create their own personal style.

Going Shopping

When a child starts to reach the age where they want to make their own decisions, a parent should take them along on any new clothes shopping excursions. Let them pick out their own outfits and individual clothing pieces. Also, help make outfit combinations in order to encourage their choices and creative process.

Arranging Outfits

With new and old clothes, it is good for the parent to start letting the kids arrange their own outfit choices. Let them pick out bottoms and tops that they like best as well as accessories. Accessory items, such as toddler belts, are a great way to present various options. Give the kids a couple of different colored or patterned belts to choose from and let them add that finishing touch to their outfit. Do not worry if things do not match as it is all part of the creative process that they need to figure out on their own.

Learning Choices

In order for a child to learn how to make their own choices for their style, the parent should teach their child the proper skills as they learn. One of the best ways to do this is to let a child get dressed on their own after picking out their outfit. Simple items, such as a hook and loop toddler belt, help tremendously when a child is just starting to dress on their own. Also, in order for a child to learn the best skills for properly creating their own style, the parent should make a concentrated effort to teach color skills and matching techniques without taking control out of the child’s hands. The farther a child gets using these skills the better they will be at putting together their own outfits.

Drawing Pictures

Another way to encourage a child’s creative style is to let them create an outfit that cannot be bought. Bring out some crayons and paper to let them draw their very own original outfit design. If the parent is handy with a sewing machine, they can create their child’s design by sewing the outfit for them as a one and only original.

A child’s creative process is extremely important for development and independent thought. Personal style is just another stepping stone to the growing process that also grants a child with feelings of being a true individual. Once a child is aware that they are not like everyone else, the possibilities open up inside their mind and become endless.

Tags: Clothing Styles, Self-Confidence, toddler belts
Posted in Building a Child's Self Confidence, Children's Clothes Style, Toddler Belts, Toddler Fashion | Comments Off on Developing Personal Style with Your Kids

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