Thomas

Wednesday 21 September 2016

Wednesday Fun~Playing with Dough

I rarely buy play dough. I've made it for as long as I can remember, and I often use the same recipe my mother used, a slowly cooked recipe that turns out extremly well. Most of the time.

However, For this play, I used a recipe I found in an old pamphlet style cookbook my grandmother gave me a couple of years ago, with no cooking involved.

Before I even had the chance to gather the materials, my daughter came in, demanding she do it on her own. Since the dough is simple to make, I said yes.
I read the recipe out to her one ingredient at a time, and she measured them into a large bowl, all by herself.
After making it once with my small amount of reading help, she made another batch on her own from memory. It turned out better than the first batch.

Of course the children spent hours playing with it over the next few days, and even created some creations to put into the oven to dry and paint afterwards.

Peace and joy until next time.


(Apologies for no pictures, I've been having technical difficulties lately)

Tuesday 20 September 2016

Adventures with flavoured gelatin- Jiggly Jelly Cutouts

I have wanted to do this for awhile with the kids- make jello jigglers, like we did when I was a kid. As part of a series I'm doing with the flavored gelatin powders, or jello, I decided to make this simple childhood favorite as a dessert the other day.

First I took the packets of jello and made sure they were COMPLETLY dissolved in the boiling water.  I used 2 cups (500ml) of boiling water to 3 packets of flavored gelatin mix. (We used orange)

After it was finished dissolving (which took longer than I thought it would) I poured it into the pan I had ready for it. I used a Pyrex rectangular pan with high edges. (I would recommend not using one with such high sides, because the cutouts were difficult to remove without damaging them. Next time I will be using a cookie sheet with higher edges instead. I think that will work better.)

It took about 3 hours to completely set. Once it was set, I carefully placed the pan into a sink with hot water for about 15 seconds. After removing the pan from the water,  I then took a cookie cutter and made some delicious jiggling flavored gelatin mittens!

You can use any cutters you prefer, seasonal or your favorite ones. I decided on mittens and moons because it's STILL winter here.

Next time I'm going to try just cutting them into cubes to pop into our mouths one at a time!
They hold together well, and  are very easy to eat with just your fingers-no spoons or bowls required!

A fun, simple treat using ingrediants most of us already have at home. And fun to eat as well!

Do you ever play with your food? How do you do it?

Peace and love until next time.


(Again I apologize for no pictures. I WILL make sure to get some up as soon as I can. Technical difficulties.)



Sunday 18 September 2016

Making Compost

My daughter decided to make some compost, and it turned into a neighborhood affair.

A few days ago she put together a 5 gallon paint bucket (cleaned out of course) with mud, grass clippings, left over foods, leaves, paper, water and of course all the worms she could find.

My children along with a couple of others from the neighborhood spent quite some time mixing and adding different things, such as orange and onion peels, grass clippings, worms, leaves and small twigs,  taking turns between the 4 of them for each stage, stirring the concoction with a large stick.

Of course, we will have to continue adding materials and observing it over the year to see how it turns out. Maybe by planting season next spring it will be ready to use.

Over the weeks preceding this activity, I've been talking a lot about compost, how different materials break down and the purpose of insects and worms during the decomposition process.

In addition to learning a lot, they all had so much fun playing around with everything that goes along with making good soil.

Do you compost? Please share your compost piles and ideas, and how you get YOUR family involved with it.

Peace and joy, until next time.


(My apologies for no pictures. I'm working from my phone right now and it's decided to not want to take pictures lately. I WILL update with pics when I can.)