Baking

Toy Recommendations for Christmas 2019

When I asked Rosebud what she wanted for Christmas this year, she didn’t have an answer. Luckily for her, I have found some cool toys that she will be excited to find under the tree on Christmas morning.

Toy Recommendations for Christmas 2019
When I’m looking for toys for her, I try to choose things that are open ended to encourage creative play. I also look for toys that will grow with her over time. I like it when toys are educational, but not in a traditional sense. More importantly, I want to get her toys she’ll have lots of fun playing with, so I’m looking forward to seeing what she will do with these new toys. Everything on this list is great for preschoolers ages three to five.

Magnet block castle

Building

Rosebud loves to build and she loves these Picasso magnet tiles. I bought them for Christmas last year and highly recommend them. She’s played with them almost every day since. We’ve made houses for animals, castles for Barbie, trees, divider boxes for sorting items etc. She comes up with new buildings every time she uses these. I was thinking of getting her a second set, but I wanted something different for to add to her creations. Magna Tiles are a great brand and admittedly, they are on the expensive side, but I caved and got her this Stardust set. These tiles are either glittery or have mirrors. I think she’ll love pairing these with the PicassoTiles.

Magnet block bakery

I also saw these magnetic people that work with this kind of blocks. She loves playing with toy people and these community helpers will be great to add to her buildings.


Magnet block tree

Toddler playing in sink

Science

Kinetic sand

This stuff is amazing! It’s popular with my preschool class, so I just had to get some of this for Rosebud. I love how it sticks together like real sand. It’s not too messy and I even like to sit and play with it. I was torn between the beach set and the bakery set, so I bought both. Rosebud is loving the color purple right now, so I’d like to get her the purple shimmer too. The beach set has the most sand out of all of them and it’s actually a good buy. If you want a quiet sensory activity, I highly recommend this sand.


Toy Sink

I originally wasn’t going to get her this, but I got one for a friend of Rosebud’s for his birthday. Since Rosebud saw it, she has asked why she can’t have one. I think I’ll give this to her on her birthday. You put water in the bottom of the sink and when you turn on the fossit, the water comes out like a regular sink. It comes with dishes to wash, pretend dish soap and a sponge. Why not teach kids to wash dishes along side you?

Boy playing with dollDramatic Play

Rosebud loves to play in her pretend kitchen, so I wanted to get her some new play foods to experiment with.

She loves pancakes, so I got her this pancake making set by Melissa & Doug. It has everything you need to make perfect pretend pancakes.

She loves to bake with me, so I got her a spice rack. This way, she can addd spices to her baking or cooking up a nice meal.

She has a lot of fruits and vegetables, breakfast foods and sweets, but I wanted her to have some food to make pretend meals. She loves pasta and I found this cool Melissa & Doug pasta making set. It has a variety of pastas with all the toppings. I know she’ll have fun with this.

To wrap up the dramatic play category, I got her this Baby Alive doll with cupcakes. Her birthday is right around Christmas and I thought this would be a great gift. She has started to really enjoy playing dolls in the past few months and she loves to set up pretend birthday parties.

Kids playing board game

Games

Rosebud is starting to have a better understanding of games and I found a couple simple games to start off with.

First, there’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She loves the book, so I thought the game would be fun and easy for her to play. Next, there’s Pete The Cat buttons game. She loves all the Pete the Cat books, so she’ll definitely love this game. The Pete the Cat cupcakes game would be fun too and I may still get that one for her as well.


Toy Recommendations for Christmas 2019

I am also getting her some books, but I will save our winter book list for another post. What will be under your tree this year? Tell me in the comments.

Comments Off on Toy Recommendations for Christmas 2019

5 Reasons To Cook With Kids

5 Reasons to Cook With Kids pancakes pin.
I’ve been cooking with Rosebud since she could sit in her high chair. Back then she wasn’t directly involved with the cooking, but she sat in the kitchen observing everything I was doing. I put spoons, measuring cups, a mixing bowl and pretend food on her tray which kept her occupied as I chopped vegetables, mixed cake badder or mashed potatoes. I’d show her the foods and let her sample them as she got older. I remember times when I’d read a recipe, tell her the ingredients we needed to add and she’d repeat after me. Now that she’s a toddler, she’s an active participant. She counts and takes out the eggs, mixes cookie dough or fills the measuring cups and spoons to scoop and pour the ingredients. Her favorite saying these days is, “I try it.” She wants to do and try everything!

1. Cooking builds vocabulary

Kids can learn names of foods, spices and and the equipment and utensils we use to cook with. They can learn opposites. Hot and cold, wet and dry etc. You can talk about foods being sour, sweet, salty or bitter. You can talk about colors, shapes and textures of the food. If your child is older, reading the recipe can help build vocabulary as well. Yesterday as we were mixing together some sugar, butter and eggs for cookie dough, Rosebud told me, we need to hatch these eggs. At first I didn’t know what she was talking about, but then it hit me that to her cracking the eggs is hatching them.

2. Cooking teaches math and science

Kids can learn about temperature. Hot vs. cold. What happens when ingredients warm up, boil or are frozen? They can learn about measurement by using measuring cups and spoons. They can learn about consistency. What happens if we add water or flour? They can learn about plants and where food comes from. What is inside an apple or a pepper? The possibilities for teaching concepts and experiments in the kitchen are endless.


3. Trying new things

When kids help make choices about their food, they are more likely to try new things. In the preschool class where I work, we participate in this program where a nutritionist comes in to teach the children about healthy eating and where food comes from. There is a garden where she takes them to get vegetables and it is surprising how many new vegetables they have tried because they have picked the vegetables themselves. We’ve also done a bit of baking in preschool. The kids help add ingredients, mix badder and once we even allowed them to help us with cutting up fruits for fruit salad. This makes them so excited about afternoon snack. They can’t wait to try what they’ve made and share it with their families. Rosebud loves to try bites of vegetables or fruits when I chop them up for salads. I also ask her which fruits and vegetables she wants when we are grocery shopping. She loves seeing the food and pointing out what she wants. I’ve never seen another kid get so excited about broccoli.

Food collage

4. It’s healthier

When you are making a home cooked meal, you know every ingredient that is in your food. This is obviously healthier than a frozen or fast food meal. Even if you are baking treats, that is healthier than the prepackaged snacks. Not to mention trying to decode the nutrition labels. For many families there is little time to prepare a meal so frozen may be the way to go on nights when you have to be in several places at once or do a million things. Nothing beats the convenience of prepared meals. However, I try to avoid those meals when I can especially for Rosebud because I like knowing what is in her food. I also want her to like the taste of foods that don’t come in a can or box. She enjoys fresh fruits, veggies and home cooked food.


5. Cooking can be together time

I like when Rosebud stays in the kitchen with me while I cook. If she’s helping me, she’s learning about food and having fun. We can spend the time talking or sometimes she will pretend to cook with her play foods or sit in her chair with crayons and a notepad. I don’t get to spend much time with Rosebud on week nights so I try to find ways to include her in what I’m doing. On other nights, she prefers to have screen time while I make dinner and wash dishes. It’s not the greatest option, but sometimes it’s the only way to get things done. I try to maintain a balance and create ways to spend time together even when I have endless chores to do. I find that cooking usually interests kids and great memories can be made from it. I have happy memories of baking with my grandmother when I was little and hopefully one day Rosebud will remember cooking with me.

5 Reasons to Cook With Kids Chef baby pin.

Do you like cooking with your kids? What are your favorite kid friendly recipes? Tell me in the comments.

9 Comments

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I saw this recipe recently so I had to try it. I often try new dessert recipes and sometimes Rosebud even helps me in the kitchen. this chocolate chip cookie recipe is simple, doesn't take much time overall and I already had all the ingredients on hand. this recipe will be one of my favorites from now on whenever I need to make a sweet treat for a family gathering, office party or to have at home as an unhealthy, but delicious treat. Rosebud loves these cookies. they have the perfect chewy and soft texture.

Ingredients

Time: 1 hour | 24 servings | 298 cals per serving

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 cup packed brown sugar

• 2 eggs

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 2 teaspoons hot water

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Ingredients omitted/changes that can be done as well: chopped walnuts; 2 cups brown sugar if you want a cake-like texture; can substitute with any type of chocolate you prefer; can omit the chocolate entirely and serve as a sugar cookie

Directions Prep 20 min. | Cook 10 min. | Ready In 1 hr.

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2 Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.

3 Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.


1 Comment

Sweet Treats: Blueberry Cake

I started writing this post yesterday, but I have been having some technical issues with my website. I’ve been working on things for the past week. I think the technical troubles are fixed for now thanks to my hosting provider. There are still a few things I want to change and hopefully it won’t get messed up. I’m not sure if I messed something up or if there was something wrong with a specific file. It could have been anything. The options are endless. In this case, my persistence in dealing with this issue paid off.

After the long week I’ve had, some baked goods were definetly in order. Luckily, I have a four day weekend so yesterday was my Friday. Last year I found this blueberry cake recipe. You can find it here. I don’t know who Alice is, but her blueberry cake is wonderful.

Rosebud says this is delicious. She even started to help me make it, but she got bored and decided looking out the front window is much more interesting. Since spring is finally showing up, we were able to be outside today without any winter gear and enjoying the warm sun. It was a nice ending to a long week. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that make all the difference.

0 comments