11 Ideas to Keep Young Minds Active During Summer Months - Enriching Children

MommyBlogExpert.blogspot.com Guestpost 

Text by Dr. Mary Zurn, Primrose Schools

Photos by Janis Brett Elspas, MommyBlogExpert

1. Boredom Buster Jar  At the beginning of summer, sit down with your family and brainstorm a list of activities that can be done alone or together.  Encourage children to share their own ideas and help you decorate and label a simple jar  Next, write everyone's ideas down on paper and as a group decide which ones go in the jar.  Then, when the summertime blues appear, kids can pull an idea out of this Boredom Buster Jar.

2. Stories Alive  It sounds too simple, but reading is one of the most important ways to keep young minds engaged during the summer.  Make reading more fun by finding ways to bring the stories to life.  For example, in the book Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran, children create a make-believe town in the desert out of rocks, boxes, and their imaginations.  Read the book with your children and then challenge

them to create their own town with materials they find in the yard.

3. Art Start Box  Gather basic art supplies-child safe scissors, glue, markers, tape and construction paper. Put them in a special box along with empty oatmeal boxes and paper towel rolls, colorful magazines and bits of aluminum foil. Occasionally add a special surprise like chalk, stickers, or stamp pads so there's always something new for the children to discover. 

4. Family Performances  Break out old clothes, costumes, and unwanted fashion accessories, as well as pots and pans and other household objects to use as musical instruments, and encourage children to make up characters and create a play to act out or have a parade.  Record or video the performances, and enjoy the replay together.  You'll also be capturing a bit of family history everyone will enjoy for years to come.

5. Family Dance Party  Crank up the music and encourage your entire family to boogie down.  Dancing not only expends pent-up energy, it  gives children a great outlet for self-expression through their own motion and helps build self-esteem. It also enhances motor and coordination by incorporating skills like jumping, landing and leaping.  Best of all, dancing is a great activity that can involve the whole family and doesn't take very much

preparation.

6. Fort Building  Children love to build all kinds of structures--from small towns to large towers.  Constructing forts or tents is an activity that can keep children focused and problem solving for hours.  All the items you need can be found around the house -- some chairs, cushions, blankets, and of course adult supervision.

7. Cookbook Fun  Have you ever shared your favorite cookbook with your children?  Take it out and ask your children to choose a recipe to try.  Measuring can be a

fun and easy way to keep math skills fresh.  Remember, to include adult supervision whenever kids are in the kitchen.

8. Summer Scrapbook  All you need for this project is a spiral notebook.  Encourage

everyone in the family to draw pictures of favorite activities and collect mementos from special events all summer. Children love to go back through scrapbooks to recall their memories.  They will also be building their storytelling skills at the same time.

9. Listening Game  Lie down in the backyard, in the den or at the park and listen.  What do you hear?  Do you hear what I hear?  Can you imitate the sound?  This is similar to watching the clouds and naming the shapes, and it encourages everyone to slow down and focus on listening.

10. Camping Out  Pretend to camp out in the backyard. Plan a meal, pack a backpack and set up a campsite. You might even decide to spend the night!

11. Scavenger Hunt  Make a list or picture cards of common household items and have your children find the items on the list.  Invite friends or neighbors to join in the fun to make it a competition.

For more info on Dr. Zurn visit www.drzandme.com 

and Primrose Schools www.primroseschools.com

FTC Disclosure:  MommyBlogExpert was entered for a chance to win a gift card in exchange for this post.   No monetary exchange took place. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.

Now Kids Can Play With Their Rice, While Eating More Healthfully Too - Product Review

by Janis Brett Elspas

MommyBlogExpert.blogspot.com

Don't miss the money saving Uncle Ben's store coupon link at the bottom of this blogpost

Uncle Ben's Rice is a part of Americana recalled fondly from my childhood growing up in the 60s.  But this well-known icon has actually been around a lot longer than I have since the first Uncle Ben's Rice brand was marketed way back in 1943.   So, when Mom Central invited me -- along with an elite group of other mommy influencer bloggers -- to attend a small cooking party in L.A. last month launching Uncle Ben's Whole Grain White Rice, I accepted immediately.

The May event unfolded on a perfect spring evening in the interactive kitchen and adjoining outdoor patio of L.A. Food Works in the tony Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.  It was equally fun and educational because I got to visit with other California blogging mothers such as Busy Mommy, as well as to learn and cook side-by-side with professional chefs like Rose Le Boeuf.  Everyone I talked to at the gathering loved the Uncle Ben's professional apron we each received as well as the goody bag and product samples sent home with us shown in the photo at left.  An added tidbit worth noting: Upon arriving home, my own kids went absolutely wild over the Uncle Ben's Rice box-shaped flash drive tucked inside the gift bag.

The new Uncle Ben's Whole Grain White Rice line includes Long Grain (which comes plain with no seasoning), as well as Chicken, Broccoli Cheddar, Taco Style, Sweet Tomato, and Garden Vegetable flavored varieties.  Each Uncle Ben's selection provides a good source of fiber.  Additionally, according to the brand, the White Rice Long Grain variety contains 45g of whole grains in a single serving which is close to the total whole grains (48g) that the USDA Dietary Guidelines recommends each person should consume each day.  With a suggested retail price of $2.29, all newly introduced Uncle Ben's rice choices are expected to be available starting in July at grocery retailers. nationwide.  

Uncle Ben's crew demonstrated for us at this mom blogger's  affair in L.A. Food Work's gourmet kitchen how to use the new products in some pretty clever recipes such as "Sneaky Chef Pizza Rice Balls" that are intended to appeal to kids.  This and other concoctions cooked up for us are from Missy Chase Lapine's book The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals.  

So, after I returned home I started thinking.  Why hide this healthy rice in food for kids?  Instead, I decided to showcase it and make it fun.  That's what inspired me to come up with my own unique take on cooking with rice so kids will love eating it.   The original Fun Healthy Rice Shapes pictured below are really easy to put together, either for your kids as a snack after school or to serve as a side dish with lunch or dinner.  They're equally delightful as a do-it-yourself cooking craft for you to do with your children. 

Fun Healthy Rice Shapes Recipe, by Janis Brett Elspas, MommyBlogExpert.blogspot.com
All you do is follow the cooking directions on the rice's package.  I don't use pre-seasoned rices for my own family so I chose plain Uncle Ben's Whole Grain White Rice instead for this project.  But you can use any of Uncle Ben's rice products or any other brand of rice to make these easy treats.  

After the rice is cooked you gently use a spoon to pack the product, while still warm into metal or plastic cookie cutters that are open on the top.  You can also use pancake molds such as the cow pictured here, used create the rice treats above.  Then just let them cool completely before unmolding carefully. My kids and I decorated the heart and cow with dried apricot and cherry bits to make them more colorful and appetizing, but any other healthy garnishes that are edible work equally well.

I also did an experiment, shown in this photo of a side-by-side comparison of Uncle Ben's Whole Grain White Rice Long Grain (on right side) and a generic brand of white rice (on left side).  It's easy to see from this picture that Uncle Ben's new whole grain product, even though it is called "white rice," is really an off white color when it's cooked.  I did try a trick from my heirloom 1950s Betty Crocker Cook Book that suggests adding a bit of lemon juice when cooking the rice to make it whiter, but Uncle Ben's Whole Grain White Rice still appeared off white after cooking, although it was no where near as dark as conventional cooked brown rice might be.  Despite the lack of whiteness, I think kids will still find Uncle Ben's new line appetizing and tasty.  At the same time, parents who serve this will get the satisfaction of knowing their children are getting extra nutrition from eating more whole grains.

Get a money savings coupon good on any Uncle Ben's rice product here and don't forget to tell them that you heard about it on MommyBlogExpert.blogspot.com

What's your favorite way to get your kids to eat their vegetables?  Please leave a comment and share it.

FTC Disclosure: MommyBlogExpert was invited to attend the cooking event described that was hosted by Uncle Ben's.   I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Uncle Ben's and received a gift bag, apron, and the product necessary to facilitate my candid review.  In addition, I received a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.  See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.

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