Summer Fun 101

Cream Cheese Recipe

Goaskmom — Sat, 23 May 2009 16:04:22 +0000

This ancient recipe is so easy and delicious we had to pass it along. In Lebanon it is called lab’-nee, and it’s often served for breakfast on pita bread. It also is delicious spread on bread with cucumbers and/or tomatoes. And then you can put olives with it…The other cool thing about making this cream cheese is that you can see what Little Miss Muffet is all about: curds and whey. Any time you eat cheese, you’re really eating curds. Ordinarily the whey is drained out, and this recipe is no different. We don’t know what Little Miss Muffet was thinking!Ingredients and other Equipment

1 large container plain yogurt
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil plus 2 or 3 drops
1 yard cheesecloth (available at Wal-Mart)
WIRE colander or very large strainer (see picture)

Instructions:

Fold the cheesecloth into a layer of four, and use it to line the wire colander. It is important to use something with larger holes than a regular colander, so the whey can drain. We found ours at the Dollar Store. For a dollar.

Mix the salt and 2 or three drops of olive oil into the yogurt. Dump the yogurt into the cheesecloth. Cover the yogurt with the top of the cheesecloth. Put the yogurt in the sink to drain. It won’t spoil. We usually leave ours overnight, but sometimes it takes a bit longer than that. You’ll see the whey begin to drip out the bottom almost immediately.

When the yogurt feels like cream cheese, it’s not yogurt any more, it really is cream cheese! Take it out of the cheesecloth and put it into a bowl. Use a fork to mix in 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Look at the picture to see how beautiful the cream cheese looks on a table! We drizzle a bit more olive oil over the top to make it pretty.

Color Match

Goaskmom — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:54:41 +0000

Supplies:

Paint swatches
Objects in nature

Instructions:

Get an assortment of color swatches from the paint department, and head outside. Try to match the colors on the card to something you find outside! Work as a team, or have a competition. It’s not so easy as it looks. We never could find anything to match the green swatches we had!

Cleaning Spree

Goaskmom — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:51:08 +0000

Cleaning is always more fun when it is done together, and summer is still a fine time to get Spring cleaning done. Choose a major task in your house, and enlist your children’s help. Wash the windows, clean out a closet or an attic, wax the car or dig up a flower bed. Try to make the activity fun: play loud music, use trash cans as basketball goals, promise to sell stuff on Ebay!

NOTE: If your house is out of control, visit The Fly Lady at flylady.net. Her virtual nagging will help your whole family get your house back in order!

One of the books recommended by The Fly Lady is Get Your Act Together. It’s available at your local library or from Amazon.com. From Library Journal: “Maintaining that most organization manuals are written by the naturally efficient who can’t empathize with the born slob, Young and Jones tell their own stories of the overwhelming messes their households had become and of their recovery. The keys to their program are self-esteem, a buddy system, and 3 by 5 cards. Their methods are simple and easy to follow. The sisters leaven their practical advice with stories from their own lives, which provide sympathy and encouragement to the reader. No matter how much of a mess you’re in, theirs was just as bad (or worse)! A good system, presented with style and sympathy.”

Caramel Corn Recipe

Goaskmom — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:45:56 +0000

Ingredients

1 quart plain popped popcorn
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 stick of butter
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Instructions:

Mix brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt in a microwavable bowl. Cook in the microwave on HIGH until the mixture begins to boil. Cook for about 90 seconds, then take out and mix in the soda. Put the popped corn in a large bowl and pour the syrup over it. Mix well. Cover the bowl, and cook on high for 90 more seconds. Remove, mix well cook another 2 minutes. Pour onto a cookie sheet to cool.

Artwork Calendar

Goaskmom — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:02:30 +0000

Card Stock with a calendar printed on one side by month. You can do a school year calendar – August through July, or jump ahead and get ready for next year.

Hole punch

Rings to hold the calendar together (see picture below)

Craft supplies

Instructions:

Punch two holes at the top of each month. Punch another hole in the center at the bottom of the page. This hole will be for hanging the calendar. You’ll also need one blank sheet of paper for your first month’s art project.

Choose an art project for each month. The project should lay pretty flat. Projects should not be fragile, and should not be easily damaged. Glue should be permanent. Our projects are shown to the right, and the images are thumbnails; if you click on them, a larger picture will pop up.

Attach the art projects to the calendar. IMPORTANT!! In order to make sure you glue the projects to the right spot, lay the calendar out before you glue anything on!! I’ve put the wrong picture over the wrong month, and attached pictures upside down.

Assemble the calendar, and use the rings to hold it together.

Note: The calendar at the left was made with cardstock and rings. The calendar at the right is a blank calendar that we purchased.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Summer Cooking With Kids – A Boxed Mix

Goaskmom — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:11:22 +0000

Giving my child a boxed mix to make was one of the best things I’ve ever done. The boys learned:

   ~Following directions.
   ~To measure.
   ~Self sufficiency.
   ~Kitchen safety.
   ~Creativity. Ever put Butterfingers in your brownies?
   ~To live through mistakes.
   ~The joy of sharing.
   ~To clean up after themselves. (Well, sort of…)

Next snack time, choose a boxed mix, and watch a child take a step toward being a great chef – who wouldn’t dream of using a boxed mix!

Ideas:

Boxed Brownies with Walnuts are our favorite. We use the Food Lion brand, and people always ask me for the recipe!
Dessert Bakes. Try the Lava cake!
Cornbread.
Blueberry muffins.
Oatmeal.
Mashed Potatoes.
Macaroni and cheese.
Shake and Bake chicken.
Cake mix and canned frosting. Get a disposable decorating set, and let your child do the decorating!

Note that each of these has a link to Amazon. With their low prices, their free shipping option as well as their 15% discount for autoship, you really can’t beat their service!

Find Satellite TV on a PC for Free

Goaskmom — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:35:04 +0000

Satellite TV for PC Elite. Get 3000 Stations for a small one-time fee with Satellite TV for PC Elite. Satellite TV for PC allows you to legally access thousands of television channels from all over the world and sends them to your computer through the internet. LIVE worldwide channels on your PC for your kids and for you. Lazy summer days will be even more fun with free channels of sports, kids movies, educational stuff, cartoons, old classic sit-coms, and whatever else you want to watch. It is legal, it’s easy to use. You won’t need any extra hardware, and it has no spyware. Best of all, it comes with a money back guarantee from Clickbank (not the vendor), so if you’re not happy, you can request a refund.

Nero LiquidTV. A little pricier and require more tech know-how, Nero LiquidTV™ | TiVo® PC puts you in control of when, where, and how you watch TV. Schedule your favorite TV shows to fit your lifestyle. Use the award-winning TiVo interface to watch live TV directly on your PC. Set it to automatically record your favorite shows to your hard drive. Then watch your content on any computer or TV in your home network.

Mobile TV pro. It’s not just your PC. You can also watch worldwide channels on your Mobile Device – Sports, News, Movies, Music, Weather, Kids Channels, Educational, Shopping, +Digital Radio Stations and much, much more! You can also watch the Big Games LIVE without any additional fee or subscription! There is no hardware to install. Get Mobile TV pro here.

Feed the Birds a Bagel

Goaskmom — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:28:43 +0000

Supplies:

Bagel
Peanut Butter
Cereal or Birdseed
String

Instructions:

Put the string through the hole in the bagel.

Spread peanut butter onto the bagel.

Stick cereal or birdseed into the peanut butter.

Hang the birdfeeder in a tree. Make sure it is hanging near a branch so the birds can reach it. Only hummingbirds can eat while flying!

Feed the Ant

Goaskmom — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:02:40 +0000

Materials:

This is one of the coolest activities we’ve ever done. Our youngest son will sit for a long time and watch the ants as they work.

Sandwich cheese
Sidewalk with a couple of ants on it

Instructions:

Place the piece of cheese beside a crack in the sidewalk. If there is a piece of grass stuck in the crack, pull it out to disturb the dirt a bit.

Watch your piece of cheese. It won’t take long before an ant finds it. Be patient, and you’ll see the ants as they nibble away. Watch the larger ants, and you can see their jaws open and close. Are any of the ants eating the cheese on the spot? Where are the ants taking their food? Keep watching, and eventually you’ll have no cheese left!

Now’s a good time to memorize a famous verse written by a wise king named Solomon:

You lazy people can learn by watching an anthill. Ants don’t have leaders, but they store up food during harvest season.
Proverbs 6:6 – 8.(Contemporary English Version of the Bible)

Are You an Ant?

Ant Cities

If I Were a Poem

Goaskmom — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:53:59 +0000

Children don’t memorize poems much any more, and it’s a shame. There’s something about the rhythm and meter of words that is not only pleasing to the ear, but soothing to the brain. Poems are fun to recite, too. The other day, I began quoting “I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly”, and before I knew it, I had the attention of all my boys – even the one who’s passed the six foot mark.

Teach these poems to your kids. And learn them yourself!

If You Ever Meet a Whale

If you ever, ever, ever,
Ever meet a whale
Never, never, never,
Grab it by the tail.
‘Cause if you ever, ever, ever,
Grab it by the tail
You will never, never, never,
Meet another whale.

I Never Saw a Purple Cow
by Gelett Burgess

I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you anyhow
I’d rather see than be one!

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud
by William Wordsworth.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it’s queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there’s some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

My Shadow
From Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow–

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there’s none of him at all.
He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

The Tyger
by William Blake

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes!
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare sieze the fire!

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand! & what dread feet!

What the hammer! what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain
What the anvil, what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spear
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see
Did he who made the Lamb make thee!

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry.

Wee Willie Winkie
by William Miller

Wee Willie Winkie
runs through the town
Upstairs and downstairs,
in his night gown;

Rapping at the window,
crying through the lock,
“Are the children in their beds?
For it’s now eight o’clock.”

Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein.

The 20th Century Children’s Poetry Treasury

Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young

by Marc Brown
(Of Arthur Fame)

Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages