Sorting Sprinkles

Thursday, June 27, 2013

A World of Flavor

Gastronomy is most certainly not what Sorting Sprinkles is all about but in an effort to diversify my picky eater's diet, I created a unique "World Cuisine" menu for him to try out every Friday and thought I'd share the outline with you. Why share this you may wonder if it is "unbefitting"? Well, as some of you may know, a big "chunk" of the Geography curriculum is spent studying "The World", to include its people...and you guessed it: its regional food, and so gastronomy as it turns out, may not be, after all, be as misplaced as I initially thought it out to be. I also think some of you may enjoy seeing or hearing about our little worldly culinary experiment (or even embark along on your own...). Do I guarantee a weekly post on the topic? Absolutely not. Will there be a picture for every dish? Probably not! (My kids eat as quick as the food hits the plate most of the time) but it will be pretty healthy and I will try to keep it as authentic as possible.

Paris, 2007. My husband convinced me to take a picture with
"un beret et une baguette" in front of the Eiffel Tower to celebrate
my French ancestry. (Cousins de France: Je ne sais pas si vous portez
vraiment des bérets autant que les gens le pensent. J'en doute mais
j'aime bien. Pour ce qui est de la baguette; il n'y a pas de doute
et le monde entier vous en remercie!)

Curious about my line-up? Here's what I've come up with so far...Please keep in mind that it is subject to change and that my selection had nothing to do with my "preference" of certain countries over others. I simply tried to pick countries that I had previously had a chance to visit or that featured some "easy" to find ingredients for "easy to make" dishes. :)

World Cuisine Prospectus 2013-2014

SEPTEMBER

September 6 : Korean

September 13 : Italian

September 20 : Jamaican

September 27 : Cape Verdean

OCTOBER

October 4 : Lebanese

October 11 : Portuguese

October 18 : Mexican

October 25 : Malagasy

NOVEMBER

November 1 : Greek

November 8 : Iranian

November 15 : German

November 22 : Chadian

November 29 : Kiwi

DECEMBER

December 6 : Japanese

December 13 : French-Canadian

JANUARY

January 10 : Saudi Arabian

January 17 : Cuban

January 24 : Hungarian

January 31 : Vietnamese

FEBRUARY

February 7 : Thai

February 14 : French

February 21 : American (Southern Barbecue)

February 28 : Moroccan

MARCH

March 7 : Afghan

March 14 : Irish

March 21 : Argentinian

March 28 : Israeli

APRIL

April 4 : Indian

April 11 : Panamanian

April 18 : Spanish

April 25 : Tunisian

MAY

May 2 : Turkish

May 9 : Danish

May 16 : Brazilian

May 23 : Indonesian

May 30 : Costa Rican

JUNE

June 6 : Chineese

June 13 : Maltese

End of the School Year and the "Tastebuds Program" :)

I think I covered every continent (apart from Antarctica of course) and am hoping to keep up with the initial decision of having this gastronomy menu on a weekly basis. If you happen to live in one the above mentioned countries, please feel free to drop me a line and make a dish suggestion! I'd love to hear from you as I've thought of a menu for each country but haven't set my mind on any yet.

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Luau for Preschoolers

Ever been to Hawaii? Me neither...but one can always dream and make Hawaii's famous Luau happen in their own paradise. :)

Luau Bingo

Being that it's summertime, I'm having a wee bit of fun and brought in this colorful bingo to the school shelf. Get your own free cards at Fantasy Jr.. Counters were sand dollars from our own collection.

Making a Grass Skirt for a Hula Dancer

Cutting with scissors has improved a lot lately so I'm trying to be consistent by providing fun practices and trying to make it a bit more challenging each time. For this activity, I provided a yellow strip of construction paper (thicker than the paper previously used for Adrian's cutting activities) and asked Adrian to cut on the lines (I drew them on the back). Once that was done, he had to punch flowers in various strips of paper and glue them on top of the skirt to decorate it. Finally, a mini-stapler was used to turn the strip into a skirt. Adrian loved making this skirt. Paper punching was not easy but he really liked it.

Maisy Mouse : ready to attend the Luau!

Lei Making with the Kui Method

Adrian is still young so I didn't go over all the methods of Lei making but it can get intricate. For most people, a Lei is a Lei, but did you know that these flowery garlands made in Hawaii are usually braided, knotted or sewn instead of simply pierced through as the ones we usually see at Luau parties? Anyhow, Adrian being only 4.5, I went with the simplest way of making a Lei; the Kui method. I bought a pack of silk Na Lei and cut up one of them, enlarged the holes, and provided a long shoelace for stringing the hibiscus flowers on. I also cut up two straws to use as spacers.

Adrian Proudly Sporting his Lei

Tweezing Dried Orchids with Tweezers

My beautiful Phalaenopsis Orchid has been "shedding" lately. I must have picked up seven flowers on the floor one morning (thank goodness this gorgeous plant always makes more flowers before losing some!). After picking them up, I pressed them and kept them for this activity. Tweezing activities are fun but easier for Adrian. I thought that these paper-thin and fragile flowers would complicate things a bit bit nope...

Art: Carving a Ki'i out of Clay

Although wood and stone are usually used for these statues, there was no way, I was going to let Adrian carve either of those materials! :) After giving it much thought, I figured clay would be a good replacement for a miniature Ki'i so I presented a block of it to Adrian after a short presentation on Tiki and Ki'i carvings of the Polynesian area. I tried to have him come up with observations while looking at the statues and totems of the Hawaiian islands in particular. Examples of what I was looking for? What is this a statue of? Expressions of the Ki'i; funny? scary? Do we see see the entire body or only the face of the "human"? What about the proportions of the face? Tell me about the colors you see, etc. Once he knew "enough" about the Ki'i, he went on to make his own. He made sure his had big teeth, nose and eyes. He also chose to make his very colorful like the modern ones sold commercially but I think it's because he just like colors! :)

Ki'i in Progress

Opening a Coconut with Daddy

I somehow brought a coconut home last week. A whole one. Now, it was my intent to open it, have everyone taste it and use the shell for bowls during the week...but wow. Are these things hard or what? In the end, my husband opened it in front of the kids and everyone had a taste of raw coconut (yuck! was everyone's verdict except for my husband who somehow likes absolutely everything he's ever tasted). :)

Ready to Taste Raw Coconut?

I usually buy coconut milk or shredded coconut, but

there's a first to everything, right?

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Summer Enrichment Program for Preschoolers - Themes 2013

Back a few months ago, I presented a draft of what I thought might happen with Adrian's summer. I suggested that we might keep homeschooling but in a lighter version and I decided to follow through with this initial decision. (yay !?! ) Adrian could use some help in a few departments to be ready before his Grand Entrance in "Kindergarten", he loves doing "school with mama" and he looks frankly bored on the week-ends when school is out. On top of that, German school, which he attends a few hours a week, will not be out until the 31 of July, so if I were to, say, stop homeschooling now, he would, I'm sure, think I'm quite lazy! :) I am thus preparing a summer enrichment program for him to enjoy throughout the summer but in a"lighter" version because well, I really want to be able to enjoy the summer and not feel like we have to get through anything. It's enrichment, not anything that MUST be done. If the weather is nice, I want to be able to just say: let's go out and play instead. I also want to spend most of my evenings and week-ends planning for the upcoming school year; not on planning the summer units... (Bad mama ! hehehe)

Ms. Dragonfly, last spotted in our NY backyard two summers ago;
back then, summers were quite spontaneous!

Summer Enrichment Program "Tiny Units" for Preschoolers

JUNE

It's a Luau ! (Week of June 17)

JULY

Space Camp (Week of July 1st)

Circus Time (Week of July 15)

Construction Zone (Week of July 22)

Ocean Life (Week of July 29)

AUGUST

Legos (Week of of August 5)

Out West with the Cowboys (Week of August 12)

You will notice that some weeks have been left out...That is not a mistake. Living abroad means we tend to have lots of friends and family members stopping by for a visit (of course, that's usually during the best season: the summer). As such, during these weeks, school will be out. If you are lucky, I'll have prepared some posts in advance and you won't notice my absence so much... :) Regular school should resume the very first week of September.

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

By the Seashore for Preschoolers - Part 2

Last week of preschool...or is it? Technically for Adrian, preschool with mama is finished now (By the Seashore was the last unit) but because I'm around, it's a bit hard to grab the concept that "school is out for the summer". I knew it would be and that's why I "planned" a light "Summer Enrichment Program" for him which is due to start anytime soon. I should be posting my themes and "schedule" soon. Until then, here's to the last week of Preschool! :) How my little baby boy is growing! :(

Collecting seashells "on the beach"

Well, it wasn't really at the beach but as mentioned before, our local playground has a very big sandbox so I scattered 10 seashells on the sand, gave Adrian a pail and let the fun begin. It's good practice for when we decide to book a trip to a real beach. :) With the warm and sunny days finally here (what say you to 32 Celsius today from 12 last week?) it's nice to be outside more and leave our shelves and trays behind sometimes. Then again, once the shells are collected, there is more fun to be had. I created shapes with the seashells and Adrian decided to do the same and then decided to make letters. After a while, the shells were filled with sand by his little sister while Adrian decided to use them for digging purpose. Endless possibilities. By the way, these were purchased two years ago in an American Dollar Store.

Sandcastle Art with Beach Sand

Making a real sandcastle (decorated with flags, seashells and all) was in our plans and was accomplished, but my camera was unfortunately left at home the day Adrian worked on that artistic project. :( On the other hand, the day we decided to make another type of sandcastle, my camera was right by me; as such, I give you : the beach sand collage sandcastle. First step: draw a sandcastle with a pencil. Second step, brush some liquid glue inside the lines of your sandcastle and third step, scoop some beach sand onto the glue. Finally, shake off the excess back into the bowl you scooped the sand from. Tip: Use a "finger painting tray" under the drawing when doing this activity or do it outside to avoid sand spills. :) You can, like Adrian did decorate the sandcastle. I thought it looked a bit bare once it was "finished" so I told Adrian we'd add seashells, flags and all the next day when the glue would be set.

Beach Play Dough

Counting Coconuts had the cutest beach-inspired play dough but having no such small accessories, I had to face the sad reality: my beach play dough would have the be adapted to what I had on hand. Using seashells, beach glass, and sand dollars, Adrian created "mosaics" in the play dough, mini sandcastles, and eventually "fossils" as we had during our Dinosaur Week. Not bad considering we didn't have many small beach objects. (Note to self: hunt for small beach-inspired objects for next year!)

Giant "Underwater" Puzzle by Melissa & Doug

I debated for a while before adding this one to our "Seashore" week. I feel like these beautiful tropical fish are not by the seashore but rather in the sea...In the end, I still went with it and told Adrian that if he snorkels in the sea, he might get a glimpse of these little beauties! :) I decided to keep all other sea materials for our "Ocean Life" unit but if you want to get a head start on me, feel free...A hint on what's coming? I'm already eyeing the Marine Invertebrate and Marine Life Cards from Montessori Print Shop! :) By the way, did you know they are having a HUGE giveaway that includes ALL of their materials? I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one...Oh and if you like Montessori giveaways...there's another going on right now on one of my favorite Montessori websites; Living Montessori Now, so hop on by to get a chance to win 5 Safari Ltd. Toobs! :)

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Monday, June 17, 2013

By the Seashore for Preschoolers - Part 1

The beach is without any doubts my favorite place in the entire world. I've been very blessed so far in life and got to see some amazing beaches in the Caribbean, North America, Europe and even Africa. If you happen to be going to the beach this year, please enjoy it on my behalf! :)

Art in the Sandbox - Sand Combs

Originally made these for little Zahavah back in September I believe after stumbling on a post from StoriesandChildren. Sand combs, if you haven't used any yet are quite cool for the beach and since we have a huge sandbox at our local playground, I thought we'd pretend it was a beach. Made our set from thick box cardboard and designed different "teeth" for each so they'd made different "tracks" when dragged on the sand. Of course, cardboard is flimsy after a while, so if you think your kids will be rough or will use them often, I recommend cutting those out of plastic lids like it was done by the lady on StoriesandChildren.

Pouring Coconut Milk

I have very fond memories of drinking a sweet, non-alcoholic, drink from a coconut while in Mexico. Don't know what it was to this day but it sure tasted good and that will forever make me associate coconuts with the beach. Well, that and the fact that lots of sunscreens smell like it too. :) Here, I put out two small pitchers, one with coconut milk, and one awaiting the milk transfer. Later, the coconut milk was re-used for making some Thai food. Yummy!

Sifting Sea Glass from Beach Sand

Quite the easy work here for an almost Kindergartner but not something he really liked. Although he knew how many pieces of sea glass to look for in the beach sand, he got tired of sifting quickly. I prepared the activity with 15 pieces of small 1/2inch polished sea glass (purchased off an Etsy seller), beach sand and a small mesh spoon usually used for powdered sugar decorations. After sifting all the glass out, the activity was further extended into sorting the different colors of sea glass (we had clear, brown, green and white) and counting.

Writing in a Beach Sand Tray

Visited my Tedi Bargain Store to see what was new and saw a jar filled with "beach sand". How convenient! Poured it in a smaller "tray" for Adrian to practice writing letters. Used a smaller tray this time because I'd like Adrian to be able to produce smaller letters and to take his time in forming the letters.

Math - Fresh fruit fractions

Another good memory of my beach days is eating fresh fruit on the beach. (My mom always brought a cooler filled to the top with fresh fruits and juices for the entire family). Of course, limes and lemons were usually not part of the picnic but for this activity, they were perfect and well, Adrian doesn't see these as often I'd say so I knew it would pique his curiosity. I simply thought fruits would be a good way to introduce him to the world of fractions. We looked at whole fruits, half fruits and quartered fruits. We did the same with slices of fruits. My presentation was originally done with the blueberry. Then I cut the lime in front of him to reinforce the blueberry presentation and asked him as I cut if it was a whole, half or quarter lime. Finally, Adrian proceeded to put the toothpick fraction numbers on the lemon slices to show me if he had understood...which he had. A beautiful and yummy "3 Period Lesson" with Fruit Fractions! :)

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Summer for Preschoolers - Part 2

Summertime is no doubts about it, my kids' favorite season. They both love being outside, and let's face it, it is much easier to enjoy the outdoors when the weather is sunnier and milder (at least where we live). Unfortunately, I've noticed they've already lost a bit of attraction to the usual pleasers (walks, playgrounds, backyard play). Time to bring on the games! While I'm busy brainstorming on those, here's the last part of our Summer Unit...

Wrist turning - Making bubbles

Using a whisk is usually included in most practical life albums but it's also a good and helpful way to develop the right muscles in preparation for writing with the wrist getting involved in there. I believe this is the first time we include the whisk in our activities and so I gave a short presentation as to how to whisk in a simple bowl of water. Outside that day, a bowl filled with water and dish soap was awaiting Adrian. At first sight, it looked like plain water and I guess it looked boring but I told him he was still welcomed to try using the whisk, which he did and to his surprise, bubbles started forming. He whisked for a while. His fun in the end, was to watch the bubbles burst, to then create new ones (that's why his head is practically in the bowl).

Making and Matching Play Dough Popsicles

Summertime will forever remind me of ice cold treats like Popsicles. For this activity, I made six play dough Popsicles and Adrian's tasks was to made matching Popsicles. A simple way to work these fine motor and include color revision and matching skills.

Sponge puppets

I'm not sure how I came up with sponges being related to summer (I think it had something to do with me scrubbing all the outdoor toys with them too much!) but I snipped a few kitchen sponges into various shapes for Adrian to create puppets. I've been trying to get his creativity flowing a bit more lately so I felt this was a bit more open-ended. In fact, I think it was a bit too much open-ended for him. He wasn't sure at all what to do with the sponges. "A puppet?", he asked. The interest was just not there, even after I suggested bringing goggly eyes, yarn for hair and felt for clothes. *sigh*

Summer Collage

Here's another summer project we did that turned out to be a bit more difficult than expected. The goal was for Adrian to make a collage of summery activities and summer things he likes. He started with the sun, grass and flowers and then, he went blank. Finally, we ended up building a kite and a hammock together.

Origami - Fan Folding

Possibly the easiest origami ever! I pre-cut two sheets of paper into squares. Adrian and I both colored ours and then folded them. He had no trouble following along. Using the fan to get some wind on the other hand... :)

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Monday, June 10, 2013

Summer for Preschoolers - Part 1

Summer hasn't officially begun yet but we've already explored the theme over here. I think it's our way of trying to get the summer to come faster! :)

Play Dough Ice Cream & Props

This was by far the most loved activity of the week. Now that I'm not scared of how time consuming making my own play dough can be and now that I know how to make it, I have no further hesitation in making a batch and so one night, I put together this summery play dough for Adrian...who quickly showed Zahavah when she woke up. All through the week this play dough came out, school, or no school. It was first introduced in school though. I made a cocoa scented "chocolate" ice cream play dough, a "strawberry" one (strawberry extract will make it smell like it too!), a plain uncolored play dough (vanilla ice cream with vanilla extract for scent) and finally a green colored play dough with mint extract for our chocolate mint ice cream flavor. The chips are pieces of craft foam cut into squares. Had no brown so I colored mine brown with a marker. Made the sprinkles with colored foam too. The props are plastics foods we had on hand; strawberries, crackers and two cones with detachable soft serve ice creams.

Ice cream anyone?

Botanical tic-tac-toe

Here's an easy game to play outside this summer: tic-tac-toe. Props needed? Leaves or flowers. (We picked flowers that grow in our backyard) and some long leaves or sticks to make the grid. We played several times and had a blast. Playing this kind of quick game is good for teaching turn taking and reasoning.

Polishing sunglasses

Summertime is not the only time when sunglasses are recommended but sure make me think of them profusely. Adrian got his ready by giving them a good cleaning. Control of error in this case was foolproof: no fingerprints were left on the glass when the sunglasses were held against the light provided by a window.

Adrian modeling proudly his clean sunglasses

Preparing a summer snack: watermelon!

Melons are a summer favorite here. I usually serve them sliced though so when I presented the melon scooper to Adrian he did not like to idea one bit. It simply wasn't the way a watermelon was supposed to be prepared according to him. Hmm. I had not apprehended this discussion but went into how foods can be presented differently and even showed him pictures to support my argument. Convinced but still concerned he might destroy an otherwise perfect quarter of fruit, Adrian dug in with the scooper and tried his best to make balls. Wrist turning is still an issue so the balls turned out a bit more like curls but it was still very pretty and toothpicks were inserted for a final presentation. The snack was then shared in between Adrian and Zahavah when she woke up from he nap.

Final presentation with toothpicks

Patterning with summer berries

Berries are now available year-round but they always taste their best in the summer for they are fresher and local. A fun to do with your berries before popping them in your mouth? Create patterns with them like we did above. I started a pattern which Adrian then had to finish with the berries available. When all was done, he happily was allowed to gobble them all up! :)

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