Little Chef

For the past few months one of Aiden's favorite activities has been imaginary cooking. He is a little chef, measuring, mixing, stirring and seasoning his creations. Lately his preference has been making soup or something spicy and hot.

To encourage his budding chef skills we toyed with the idea of getting him a play kitchen for Christmas. We decided against it as we don't have enough space for another big item and I think, if I'm absolutely 100% honest, Aiden's Dad and I were concerned with the gender stereotyping associated with kitchen play-sets. Don't get me wrong here, I am in no way, shape or form suggesting that cooking is a girls thing or that boys should only play with so-called boys toys and vice versa. I think we were both worried about what his buddies would say later in life if he told them that he had a play kitchen when he was little. Silly in this day and age to worry about things like that, I know, but it was a worry nonetheless. And if you have a play kitchen for your little guy or a train set for you little girl, all the power to you, you go for it!

So in lieu of a play kitchen I decided to make a chef station for him in our kitchen. Here's what I did:
Homemade Little Chef Station
1. Clear the bottom shelf of your pantry or a low cupboard that has a shelf at your little person's height.
2. Fill the shelf with old spoons, measuring cups, plastic bowls, empty cereal boxes, pastry brushes and various containers.
3. Fill old spice jars with rice or pasta or Cheerios or cereals that your little person can use to make their concoctions. Put these on the shelf.
4. Make imaginary food out of construction paper. I just tore up pieces and placed them on the shelf in a container for Aiden to imagine whatever he wanted them to be.
5. Show your little person their new chef station and ask them to make you a snack...you'll be amazed at what they create.

This activity not only encourages your little person to use their imagination and teaches them about measuring and food preparation, it is also a great way to keep them entertained while you prepare breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Happy chef-ing,
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

J E L L O

Now that the holidays are over (sigh) it's time to get back to doing some fun art projects (yay!). Here's an easy prep activity that will keep your little person entertained in gooey, sticky heaven for at least 30 minutes or more.

Jello Paint
Ingredients:
Jello powder - several flavours (as many as you want colours)
Warm water

1. For each colour put 1/4 cup of warm water into a small bowl.
2. Add jello powder, 1 tsp at a time and stir. Keep adding until you have a consistency that is good to paint with.
3. Put out the paints and some paper (we used newsprint but I'd recommend something sturdier as the paint seeped through and made holes in the paper. Let your little Picasso explore the paint with their fingers and/or paint brushes and/or sponges.

Tips
Although this is an easy-prep project it is a more time consuming clean-up project. Be sure to cover your art centre floors with a wipeable mat and have a bucket of warm soapy water handy so your little person can wash off when they are done before they get jello paint everywhere.

Also, you might not want to demonstrate the edible quality of this paint to your little person if you want to avoid your artist trying to eat all of your future paint recipes, some of which will likely be inedible.

The Review
I loved the quick-prep aspect of this project. The recipe produces vibrant, bright and shinny paint that smells good and has a fun, gooey texture that is immediately appealing to a little person. Aiden really enjoyed this one as he kept creating artwork for the better part of an hour. This is a keeper.

Happy jello painting,
Creatively yours,
Maya

Music Video Monday: Why I Love The Letter Y

Welcome to Music Video Monday's. What I intend to do every Monday is showcase a music video that you can share with your little person. These will be videos chosen by Aiden (he really does request certain videos when we are sitting by the computer). I'll give you a quick rundown of the video, tell you why we love it, give you ideas for creative uses of the video and then I'll provide you with a link to the video so you can check it out yourself.

For the inaugural Music Video Monday I'll go with one of Aiden's current favorites:
Sesame Street Why I Love The Letter Y
The Rundown
In this delightfully animated music video a very likable and friendly letter Y sings about why he loves being the letter Y. His reasons for liking himself range from doing yoga with a yo-yo all year in his yard to eating yoghurt on a yam knitting yarn with a yawning yak - all fantastic reasons if you ask me.

Why We Love It
The animation is über cute yet highly stylized and makes me instantly happy when I watch it. The letter Y is extremely likable and someone that I would be happy to have Aiden hang out with. The song is very catchy (watch out, it will get stuck in your head) and the lyrics use a multitude of y words for your little person to learn. And the overall message of the video is wonderful: y loves being himself which is something we should all aspire to.

Creative Uses of The Video
1. Go on a Y scavenger hunt with your little one: take your little person for a walk and find as many things as possible that begin with the letter y. Take photos of the items, print out the photos and review them with your little person later.
2. Make a list with your little person of all the reasons why they love being themselves. Choose one or two items on the list and make collages together illustrating these things. Hang the posters up in their room as a constant reminder of how great they are.
3. Choose another letter and make up a song about why that letter loves being itself. Sing the song and use any instruments (homemade or otherwise) that you have lying around to accompany your singing. When your other loved ones come home hold a concert for them featuring your song.

The Video

Happy viewing,
Creatively yours,
Maya :)

You Know You Are An Anderson When...

Every year at Christmas time we are fortunate to receive a Christmas-baking care package from Aiden's Great-Grandma. The care package usually consists of oodles of yummy goodness like shortbread cookies, Quality Street chocolates, banana bread, beet pickles and the best butter tarts known to man.

The other day, when we were digging into our goodies, I offered Aiden some of my butter tart. Not surprisingly he loved it. Upon his devouring of the butter tart I said to him, "Aiden, you know you are an Anderson when you love butter-tarts!" And this got me thinking about a project we could do together: The Book of Anderson.

Here's how I envision the project:

The Book of INSERT FAMILY NAME HERE
Supplies
Digital camera
Printer
Various art supplies
Stickers
Markers
Crayons
Construction paper
Binder
Clear plastic sheet protectors

Directions
1. With you little person, make a list of 15-20 things that are unique to your family. These could be things like family traditions, food that you all like, activities that you enjoy together or books that you read at bedtime.
2. Spend some time finding or taking or drawing pictures to illustrate each thing on your list.
3. Cut out the pictures and stick then to blank sheets of paper. Somewhere on the page write: You know you're a INSERT FAMILY NAME HERE when... And then somewhere on the page write down the item on your list.
4. Decorate each page with your little person using your art supplies.
5. When the pages are complete put them in the clear plastic sheet protectors and then in the binder.
6. Be sure to create a title page for your book.

Read the book with your little person as often as you like and add to the book whenever you discover something new that's unique about your family.

This would also be a fabulous project to do with a little one who is soon to be a big brother or sister. They will feel very important and special knowing that they are the ones who get to teach their younger sibling all about their family.

Happy book making,
Creatively yours,
Maya :)