Icing Biscuits With The Kids
With the summer holidays finally upon us, it can seem like Mission Impossible to keep the kids entertained for six long weeks, especially if the typical English summertime weather is making playing outdoors an unrealistic option.
However, with a little imagination and forward planning, you can easily transform the hub of your family home, the kitchen, into a world of great fun and creativity for your kids, no matter how old they are.
If your kids are above a certain age, the recipe ideas suitable for them are truly endless. Cooking a pizza from scratch, making one of a range of simple pasta recipes or Greek recipes, or perhaps baking a simple sponge cake are all more than achievable options in the kitchen, but if your child is younger and a little less confident with an oven or a hob, something a little simpler may be the order of the day.
Something as basic as icing biscuits can keep kids entertained and happy for hours. There’s no need to bake the biscuits yourself; simply pop down to the local supermarket and pick up a packet of shortbread biscuits, making sure that the texture of the brand you pick isn’t too crumbly.
Making an icing topping for shortbread biscuits really couldn’t be easier. Simply combine around 400g of icing sugar with 4 tablespoons of cold water until you’re left with a smooth mixture. If you want to make your biscuits look a little more exciting, add in a few drops of food colouring.
Allow your child to spread the icing on top of the biscuits before the mixture hardens and, while the icing is still runny, sprinkle over hundreds and thousands, or adorn with small chocolate drops or sprinkles. Chocolate buttons and Maltesers also make excellent toppings, as do jelly beans, so let your child’s sweet-dominated imagination run wild!
English for kids
Learning together is a wonderful way to stay close to your children. There are many types of learning and there are many sources of getting help in English learning online.
However whether it would be learning of Art or Sciences (Biology, Physics, Chemistry), Languages or Music, Mathematics, History or Geography it is always fun and challenging both you and your child.
Education and Your Child: The World of Comedy
If you’re trying to get your child interested in comedy, you may sometimes feel that you’re fighting a bit of an uphill battle. For us adults more interested in watching reeves and Mortimer than telling jokes that appeal to youngsters, it isn’t always easy to make humour appeal to both adults and children at the same time.
However, with a little bit of creative thinking and effort, it is possible to make your child interested in the world of comedy.
The first place to start is by providing your child with a glimpse into the real world of comedy. When it comes to educating kids, we all know that showing is much better than just telling. Show your kids science in the making by taking them to an interactive science museum can reap far more dividends than sitting them down with a textbook. The same rule applies to comedy. You can find comedy venues across the country that put on special shows for kids. Even the world-famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe now books comedians who appeal to a younger demographic, while a couple of venues in central London also do the same.
If you can’t afford tickets for comedy shows at the moment, have a search online for the best methods of making up comedy games for children. There are plenty of videos on sites like YouTube that show how to do improv comedy with kids.
If that sounds a little too active for you, how about sitting your kids down on a wet, windy Sunday afternoon and showing them a few comedy classic films? A few good choices include ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ and ‘Night at the Museum’.
One final tip to remember at all times when trying to interest your child in comedy is never to patronise them; kids are inquisitive, curious beings who don’t deserve to have their interest in comedy restricted by knock knock jokes!
Christmas Craft
Preparing to Christmas? Christmas Crafts and Printable Activities is one of the best ways to fun this Christmas with these family friendly craft ideas for the holiday season making samething unique and unusual for your loved ones. You can make a variety of Christmas related items such as wreaths, santa, trees, ornaments, cards and so on.
Right now you can learn on http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/paperstocking/ how to make a great Christmas stocking from a brown paper grocery bag. You can hang it from your mantle and stuff it with Christmas goodies. Enjoy with making Christmas Crafts activities of the Christmas season as it brings along the zeal to indulge in varieties of activities.
Christmas Around The World
On Christmas morning, boys and girls around the world will waken early and run excitedly downstairs to see what Santa Claus has left for them…
Well, that’s not exactly how it goes — for around the world children celebrate the Christmas holidays in many different ways.
In Germany, the 6th of December is a special day:
…There’s a special tradition all over Germany on December 6th. [On] the evening of December 5th you put your cleaned (big) boots outside the house in front of the door (or inside). Some people also put a plate there or on the windowsill. The bread in the plate is for the white horse of Santa Claus … In the morning you see that Santa Claus really was at your house and put nice things into the boots or plates, e.g., all kinds of nuts, oranges, apples, sweets, chocolate, small presents … But if you [weren't] well behaved the whole year you only get a switch so that your parents can punish you, but they don’t!
Kristine and Wiebke, Germany
And in Italy, January 6th is a day long-awaited by many children:
The 6th of January is the day on which the three Wise Men arrive at the Bethlehem cave in which kid Jesus is and give him gold, incense and myrrh and for this reason in Italy children receive presents traditionally brought by the “Befana,” a good old witch who comes into their homes through the chimney. This is the last day to the Christmas holiday in Italy.
Elisbetta, Italy
In Sweden, December 13th is a special day that children look forward to all year long:
Saint Lucia [Day] is celebrated all over Sweden on December 13th. The custom with the girl dressed in white with candles on her head has a complicated background … In our school we celebrate Saint Lucia Day outside very early in the morning while it’s still dark. Our Saint Lucia is coming in a carriage pulled by a very small horse. She is followed by Santa Claus on a big horse and a lot of girls and boys in white gowns and a lot of candles. They all sing traditional Christmas songs and read poems. After the ceremony we all eat ginger cookies and bread with saffron. To celebrate is very important to Swedish people.
Class 4c in Nasbyparksskolan
Enfants Marshmallow Test
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMkn4J_l9uU"]
Different Kind of Fruits
Learning different kind of fruits together with your kids you can also try to make your kids eat more fruits and vegetables. Besodes that this is good idea to mix fruit juice with different kind of fruits and add a little ice cube put them in the blender to make smoothies. Sometime it’s easier to drink them than to eat them. Check my other article how to make smoothies.
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNEVmUIwN-s"]
You can also use your favorite foods add vegetables puree in it, choose vegetables in the similar color of those food natural color, add a little bit of it not too much. You don’t want to make your favorite recipes taste totally different. After all you can choose for healthy snacks and/or desserts.
Something like: chips with guacamole or salsa, oatmeal cookie with raisin, carot cake, banana pudding, chocolate covered strawberry, fruit cake, waffle with fruit compote, banana split ice cream, etc.
There are many recipes how to make your kids eat good and healthy food just check out various cookbooks sites to pick up something the most one!
The Fruit Alphabet on http://www.thefruitpages.com/alphabet.shtml to print it out.
Swine Flu Spread Prevention
The recent fast spreading of of the H1N1 virus, or Swine Flu, has raised the awareness level and children, spending a large portion of time daily in school, have higher risk to get the illness. There fore precautionary and preventive measures in schools need to be stronger than enywhere else. No doubt parents need to be especially aware of any health changes in their children, and address any new issues in a timely fashion with a health care professional besides that there are a lots of material they have to learn about swine flu signs and symptoms, how it’s transmitted, medicines to treat it, steps people can take to protect themselves from it, and what to do in case they become ill. One should not forget that strong immune system strengthen with receiving adequate rest and nutrition on a daily basis, frequent hand-washing, covering their mouths when they cough or sneeze and applying due diligence in a crowded areas as well play a great role in preventing the spread.
School craft lessons
The school has started and I’m sure that all of us cared about our kids school supplies organizing in time. However here is the reminding list what we need for school craft lessons
It is glue, erasers, pencil sharpeners, crayons, and whatever kids have to use at the time must be on top.
Besides that don’t forget about
3 sheets yellow construction paper
2 sheet green construction paper
Acrylic paint (blue, red, green, brown, orange, yellow, black)
3” square box with lid
Plastic water bottle (12-16 oz)
School-themed foam stamps (school bus, apple, star, crayons)
1” x 7” strip of orange felt
Paintbrush
White craft glue
Glue stick
Clear tape
Scissors
Black marker
Be careful not to overload the top of your box by piling too many items inside.
Do U Know Y Bilingual Kids
According to ABC Science Online learning a second language does not slow language development in children, according to a study presented to an American neuroscience conference.
In fact, the earlier and more intensively the languages are introduced, the better. The study, by researchers at the Department of Psychological and Brain Science at Dartmouth College, in the USA, looked at children who had been exposed to different combinations of languages at different ages and in different environmental settings.
“We found that if children are exposed to two languages from a very early age, they will essentially grow as if there were two mono-linguals housed in one brain,” Professor Laura-Ann Petitto told delegates. “This will occur without any of the dreaded ‘language contamination’ often attributed to early bilingual exposure.”
Scientists have long debated whether a child’s language ability is hindered by learning two languages at the same time from an early age. Some experts argue that a second language should only be introduced after the child has a full grasp of a primary language.
Professor Petitto’s findings, produced with graduate student Ioulia Kovelman, were presented at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting held in Orlando, Florida this week. The researchers looked at 15 bilingual children exposed to two languages from varying ages. Each age group of young bilinguals was at a different stage in child brain development. The researchers split the children into four groups depending on when intensive exposure to the second language began: at birth, between the ages of two to three, four to six years, and seven to nine years. This meant the researchers were able to match the time of bilingual language exposure to key stages of brain development. “We anchor[ed] our findings in the biology of the way the brain grows,” she said.
The children spoke various combinations of languages, including Spanish and French, French and English, Russian and French and sign language and French. To obtain a wider cross section, the researchers used children who had been exposed to their second language in different places – at home, a new language community, or in an instructional classroom setting.
“We wanted to study how all of the children’s basic knowledge of their two languages developed over time and thus, in our attempt to be as comprehensive as possible, we examined children across multiple languages, ages and contexts,” she said.
The results found something many school students struggling with French could tell you: late exposure to a second language, coupled with restricted input – such as in a classroom – may never allow a child full mastery in that language. But don’t panic if you want to introduce your child to a second language later, she said: all they need is extensive exposure to both languages.