Preschool and the younger years Must-Haves

spring, 2014

I love the preschool age.  It is perhaps my favorite.  Though I'm really enjoying the kindergarten age and watching my boy learn to read and write and think creatively.

Regardless of whether you choose to send your kiddos to a traditional preschool (please lets not debate that here!) there can be so much fun to be had at home learning! 

Here are some of my favorite "manipulatives" for learning in the young years!  It has been a pleasure to watch my kids learn alongside each other.  The great thing about preschool is all the PLAYING!  And most things can totally be differentiated to different ages and levels. Sometimes we work on a certain task and sometimes it is just exploring! It always surprises me with the different ways my kids use these materials!

MONEY!!! Most parents don't use cash very often any more so it's nice to have access to some real money to play with.  Obviously you want to make sure your kiddos are past the putting everything in their mouth stage.  For younger preschoolers, sorting the coins can be fun. Kids can learn coin names, study the fronts and backs of the coins, learn about the presidents on them, etc. Providing a variety of fun containers inspires creativity. As they get older they can start counting amounts of change- like my kinder kiddo was doing here.  Good practice for counting by 1s and 10s.

Circle disks. I collected these over time when I was teaching.  They are great for fine motor skills and putting in piggie banks. Sorting options are many as well as pattern opportunities.  The transparent ones are also nice for covering up answers (allowing papers to be reused).  See below:

Beads!! These were actually the beads from my childhood lol.  Put them to good use!  Great for sorting by color, size, shape, texture (I even found some flexible beads in the hair section to add a new attribute), etc.  You can count them, string them (see pic below), scoop them, make patterns with them, etc.  Formula canisters and ice cube trays make fun additions to this station along with scoops and spoons. Don't discount the fine motor skills required to manipulate beads!  Number lines are fun for learning to recognize numbers.

Beans are fun and very inexpensive!  I have 6 different kinds of beans in here that were bought in the bulk bins at WinCo.  They have lasted a long time!  Fun for sensory and fine motor skill play, sorting, counting, patterns, etc. I found starting this station on the ground is better than a table (lay out a big towel or something) so beans are not falling off and flying everywhere.  Set some boundaries.

Pom Poms are just fun!  Soft, squishy, great for many things.  Add child chop sticks and tweezers for added fine motor skill practice.

My button collection needs beefing up but they are fun to sort by attribute, count, string, scoop, put in containers, etc.

Noodles!  Got in the bulk bins at the grocery store.  Different sizes and colors make for fun sorting.  I bought the tube pastas so they could be strung on pipe cleaners.  I prefer pipe cleaners to regular string for younger kids because they hold their shape and it is not as frustrating.

Pattern Blocks are so versatile. This is one thing that I did buy.  I found them at the Math Learning Center and they have been a good investment.  These are great for free play and explorations to build both 3D and 2D creations.  Prekinders.com has some cool templates for free.  Make designs, make patterns, have fun!  Encourage kiddos to think outside the box.  How many different ways can you build a hexagon? (for example) For older kids these can be used for fractions.

 Base 10 pieces are a great way to explore bigger numbers with slightly older kiddos. If you don't have any regular ones (see below for the ones my mom got at a garage sale), you can make your own with popsicle sticks and beans.

Good old flash cards!  Dollar Tree specials.  #Cheaper than printing things!

Books!  We love picking out books at the library and also own a lot of books as well. Library helps save money and space!  I usually rotate which books we keep out. 

Matching games!

Dominos!  Great fun to touch and play with for your littlest preschoolers.  Fun way to practice addition (and other operations) with older kids. 

Dice are fantastic for recognizing patters.  My 3 year old likes flipping all the dice to show the same number..."4" for example.  Plus they can be fun to sort and can be used for adding, subtracting, etc.

 

Really, anything can be used as a preschool manipulative!  I have a ridiculous pen cap collection from my teaching years that the kids enjoy dumping out and playing with.  Bread clips, blocks, legos, duplos, lids, etc.  Anything.  Whether it be formal preschool or just a rainy day activity....
Have fun!! Play, learn!!
If you need some sites on lesson ideas check out...
prekinders.com 

January food challenge wrap-up!

Well, we did it.  Made it through a month making all our meals at home (except one lunch we ate out at the coast when we stayed overnight there).  Breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners all made.  By the end of the month I'll admit our fridge was looking pretty bare lol.  When we seemed to be running out of "snacky" foods, the boys and I started baking.  We made lots of banana bread muffins. I always have some baking ingredients!  We spent $345 on groceries in January- though technically only $305 since we used a $40 Christmas gift card.  It's definitely do-able but also a lot of work.  If I was teaching full time I think I'd spend a lot more just for lack of time and to make things easier.  My versions of making things "easier" usually equate using my crock pot or defrosting something from the freezer- but whatever you can do in your situation to simplify or streamline things is a plus.

 

  January 24th: Taco Soup with pears.  I use diced tomatoes, homemade kidney and mayo coba   beans, corn, ground turkey, taco seasoning, cheese, and a few chips!






January 25th: Crock pot Tortilla Mexican Lasagna, Spanish style rice, and fruit
OOPS...so we had company over for dinner this night and I totally spaced taking a picture.  I did, however, link the recipe just in case anyone wants to see what it looks like or how to make it.

January 26th: Japanese Curry with fruit salad.  The in-laws joined us for dinner this night and requested Aaron's famous Japanese curry.  It had chicken, potatoes, carrots, edamame, and water chesnuts in it.  Yum.  Served on white rice. Aaron started making his own sauce instead of using the bricks you can buy because homemade is gluten free and MSG free.




January 27th: Leftover Curry with pear




January 28th: Baked Cornflake Chicken (gf way of "breading" it), green beans and mashed cauliflower, and applesauce.




 January 29th: Crock pot chicken, quinoa pilaf with corn(red and reg. quinoa mixed), and leftover green beans & mashed cauliflower.  Smoothies too!



January 30th:  Breakfast for the guys while I teach:  scrambled eggs, bacon, gf pan cakes, and whole wheat waffles. Also the blender was full of yummy goodness for a batch of smoothies!  Blueberry, banana, and spinach. I find it hard to incorporate veggies into a "breakfast" dinner so spinach in a smoothie works! We also generally slather the boys' pancakes with plenty of Adam's peanut butter for extra fat and protein :)



January 31st: Steak, mashed potatoes, steamed veggies (broccoli and carrots), bread sticks.  Oops.  Twice in one week I forgot to snag a pic!  And on the last day of the month no less.  My parents joined us for dinner this night and my mom brought some yummy steaks to broil and we made some sides.  Wish I had a picture! 


It's nice not to have to take pictures of my food anymore but I did enjoy getting to keep myself accountable with spending and force myself to be creative with the food that we already have.  Which often means basing my planning on what I have instead of finding a new recipe that I am missing ingredients for. It iS indeed possible to eat a wholesome diet without spending a fortune. Keeping an ongoing grocery list helps me as well as menu planning, and making things myself.  Whatever budget you need to stick to- happy budgeting and meal planning to you!! Enjoy the fellowship of food and family! 

Check out this article for more reasons that eating on a tight budget can still equate healthy! 

What's for dinner? Week 3

Week 3:  #Feeding your family on a budget  # $350 a month

January 15th:
Country style ribs (a la crock pot), Kale chips, Spanish style rice, roasted root vegetables (carrots, parsnip, and sweet potato).  WW points-12

 

 

 

 

January16th: Breakfast for dinner while Mommy teaches a class.  Potato quiche (we had n accident in the oven and that explains the funny look lol), gf pancakes, whole wheat waffles, bacon, and fruit salad.  My hubby took a picture of his dinner for me haha!

 

 

January 17th:  Mexican chicken tortilla soup (a la crock pot with potatoes, carrots, and zucchini) and apple slices.  This is so yummy!! If I am feeling ambitious, I'll make a batch of homemade tortillas and fry them up to garnish the soup with.  As you can see, tortilla chips had to suffice for this one :)  WW Points-9

 

January 18th:
We were able to get away for a night as a family to the coast using some family's time share.  It was a treat! It would only work if we kept our budget really slim- so we packed food to make dinner and breakfast at the hotel.  For some reason I always enjoy making dinner at hotels.  Something about using a clean kitchen perhaps?  Who knows.  This is brown rice pasta as Homemade Mac and Cheese with meatballs, mixed veggies (carrots and peas), french bread with marinara, and applesauce.  Nothing from scratch as we were away from home and I wanted little prep, but obviously cheaper than eating at most restaurants, fairly wholesome, and pretty yummy! I had packed milk for the boys in small containers and we made enough ice and ice blocks at home to get the food to the hotel.

 

 

 

 

January 19th:
After eating a very heavy lunch at the coast before we headed home, both my husband and I were craving produce to detox.  So a spinach salad with mandarins and sunflower seeds did the trick wtih a blueberry, strawberry, banana, and spinach smoothie.  Made sandwiches for the boys but this was all we wanted! WW points: 4 

                 

January 20th: 
Homemade tortillas with chicken (a la crock pot with salsa, cumin, and broth), mayo coba beans (cooked in my favorite bean pot from Mexico (above), and tomatoes/lettuce/onions.  I may have been ravenously hungry and forgotten to take a picture of my food, but this was Aaorn's "seconds" that he let me take a picture of haha!  I like to try different kinds of beans.  I find them in the bulk section at the grocery store.  Bulk meaning the bins you scoop- not in mass quantities.  Mayo coba beans taste like a mild pinto and are tasty!  

January 21st:
We had plenty of leftover beans and chicken, so day two of this meal morphed into something different for everyone.  I made a little batch of gf encniladas for Aaron, the boys had mini burritos in (storebought) corn tortillas, and I found two crunchy taco shells in the pantry.  I also made some Spanish style rice, corn, and blueberry/pear fruit bowl.  WW- 12

January 22nd:    Teriyaki chicken and vegetable stir fry on brown rice.  Anything teriyaki makes my husband happy.  WW Points: 7

January 23rd:   Breakfast for dinner while Mom is teaching.  Scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes/waffles, and a smoothie ready to blend (blueberries, bananas, and spinach).  We generally use rice milk for smoothies just because it's a milk that everyone in the family can drink so it's just easier!

 

 

 

Well, we are up to $343 for groceries now with one week left!  This is when it gets challenging and when I have to be creative with lunches and snacks, etc. Dinners are already planned thankfully. We re-stocked on apples and bananas today and got more goat milk for Alex so we should be good to go. Seven dollars leaves enough for one more banana run (did I mention I live with 3 monkeys?) It's good to raid the pantries and see what you can make with what you have.  I found a can of pumpkin today and the boys and I made chocolate chip pumpkin cookie bars.  Very good. We have meat in the freezer, a pantry full of rice, quinoa, beans, lentils, pastas, etc.  We will be just fine.  And, as the month comes to a close we are getting closer and closer to our adoption funding!  The phrase "A penny saved is a penny earned" really does ring true during this time for us!!  

Speaking of lunches, this is my favorite lunch to eat.  A friend got me hooked on whole wheat pita with hummas, feta cheese, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  7 points of goodness!

 Alex loves plain zoi (greek) yogurt with Adams peanut butter mixed in (TONS of good fat for him!).  The boys also love avocados, cheese, fruit, and what you see below is what I call a "snowball".  It's dates and walnuts pureed together and rolled into a ball through unsweetened coconut.  Mateo has taken to eating pita with hummus on it too amazingly! Sometimes we'll eat leftovers, brown rice pasta, sandwiches, homemade pizza or muffins defrosted from the freezer, or whatever I can muster up. 

Until next week!

What's for dinner? Week 2

Post 3.  #Food on a budget #$350 for all meals, 7 days a week for 4 people for a whole month #Wholesome  #Frugal

January 8th:  Chicken and stir-fry veggies on brown rice; unsweetened applesauce and blueberries.  WW Points: 7    Money Saver:  When running low on certain items, instead of doing a last minute trip to the store for that one item...see if you can find something slightly different in the pantry or freezer. Delayed gratification in the arena of groceries is hard. Living 15-20 minutes from our grocery store helps motivate me to use up what we have instead of paying a higher price at the closer store. We've been eating berries that we picked this summer as a fruit accompaniment to our dinners as fresh produce gets lower.

January 9th:  Once a week I teach an evening ESL class to parents in the district.  It's really fun (and helps bring in money for the adoption!) but I also miss dinner with the family that night.  So, I've gotten in the habit of having Thursday nights be breakfast night and leaving dinner in the fridge to be re-heated. My husband is very appreciative.  This is a potato crust quiche, gluten free pancakes, whole wheat waffles, and a fruit salad (blueberries, satsumas, apples).  This particular day I made a lot of gluten free pancakes and froze most of them so that the next week I'd just have to defrost. The waffles were defrosted from the previous week. You'll notice that we have been eating a lot of blueberries!! This is thanks to my parents' very fruitful blueberry bushes on their property!  They like to share.  We also try to pick a lot of blackberries over the summer on our after dinner walks to freeze.
Money Saver: Plan ahead.  While it would seem easier for my husband to pick up food on his way home with the kids and I wouldn't have to spend time making dinner ahead of time, this is costly.  With just a little planning, I can leave a simple and inexpensive meal in the fridge for my family.

Have you noticed that I just love Family Dinner Time? We eat dinner together almost every single night and I enjoy this season before the boys have schedules of their own. We eat dinner soon after my husband arrives home from work.  He's always hungry then and so are we.  There's something special about the dinner table as a meeting place, a family prayer location, a fellowship space.....  I look forward to evolving conversations as the boys get older.  I love to burn a candle (once 2 year old is strapped in his booster seat), and it's a nice break after the bustle of the day...especially since both kids can feed themselves now lol.  Dinner with a baby is harder!

January 10th:  Homemade carrot ginger soup, mini grilled cheese sandwiches, oven roasted potatoes, and fruit (satsumas and blackberries). WW Points: 10  Money Saver: You might notice that my grilled cheese sandwich is made on a roll instead of regular bread.  We're down to the last loaf of regular bread in the freezer.  Before I go back to the bread outlet store (fun place) I'm trying to use up the "other" bread items we had bought.  Using stuff up saves money!

January 11th:  Japanese curry and a strawberry Julius a la Aaron.  My husband enjoys making Japanese food so sometimes on the weekend he will treat us to a homemade dinner and I get a break from cooking.  It is great!  I really appreciate it and it's very delicious. His Japanese curry has chicken, carrots, potatoes, water chesnuts, and some sauce he made with curry powder.  Served on white rice.  Strawberry Juliuses with strawberries we picked last summer (we're almost out :(   WW Points:  11

January 12th:  Sunday Leftovers!!  Japanese curry and rice with blueberries in unsweetened applesauce.  Massive amounts of curry was made on Saturday so there was plenty for Sunday and also Monday's lunch haha!   I couldn't quite eat all of this. It's very filling!

One fun thing about having my kids home is that they really get to be a part of the runnings of the house and, as Mateo has gotten older, he's much more interested in helping in the kitchen.  One of our favorite things to do is make pizza! This day he was a "Pizza Robot" (4 1/2 year old loves robots) and laid out dough, spread the sauce, sprinkled the cheese, and added toppings.  He's getting old enough to where he's actually very helpful and I really like working with him.  Alex is fun in the kitchen, but with a 2 year old it is, of course, more work to have them "help" you.  But he loves to be included.

January 13th: Homemade pizza with cheese, veggies, and turkey pepperoni, green beans (frozen) with slivered almonds, applesauce and blueberries.  WW Points: 10 (plus the extra piece I ate that isn't pictured! :) Aaron got his own personal size gluten free pizza.  His was BBQ chicken pizza as we ran out of pepperoni.  I have little zip locs full of 1/2 cup cooked chicken in the freezer to pull out for Aaron's lunches and sometimes I use them for pizza as well.

 

January 14th: Burritos with homemade tortillas, pinto beans (from the freezer), cheese, onion; Spanish-style rice; corn; apple slices.  You can maybe tell we're running low on fruit options but I always try to have some sort of fruit and veggie with dinner if possible.  WW Points:11

Tomorrow is grocery day! Time to pull out the walking shoes and muscles.  My kids, surprisingly, like being at the grocery store. Give them a twistie and they're happy. They've always come with me so they're used to it.  Though it is a looong errands trip as we stop by Trader Joe's afterward as well to buy Alex's goat milk. But hey- TJs has stickers and tiny shopping carts!  I'm already plotting how I'll do grocery shopping with 3.  One in the front pack, one in the front of the cart, one in the back of the cart?  We'll hit that bridge when we get there.  I'm excited. Here are the totals on grocery expenses so far: $171.07  We're on par to stay within budget.  I'm somewhat exhausted, but I view this and any other money-saving venture as a way I contribute to our income.  Here's the break down:

WinCo: 101.72

Fred Meyer: $8.78

Trader Joe's $6.98

CostCo: $40.15

Safeway: $13.44

CostCo was actually paid on a gift card we got for Christmas but for the purpose of this blog I'm still going to count it as an expense.  I'm not a huge fan of Costco.  Actually, I love it.  But all the convenience foods are tempting.  The samples are delicious and they lure you into buying the pre-made this and that to make your life easier.  We just can't do that right now in this season.  And who can leave Costco without buying a frozen yogurt?  Am I right? We used our gift card to buy cheese, butter, and soy milk (for Aaron), and a bag of satsumas. 

Happy Meal Planning and Money Saving!  Until next week...

POST 2: What's for dinner?

Week 1

Alright, here are this week's meals:  I'll be adding to this list as I take pictures.  If you missed the first part of this post, see here.  I'm trying to show that one can eat wholesome foods on a trim budget.   Whatever reason your food budget may be low (unemployment, saving for something, frugality, paying off debt, etc.) is it possible to eat a wholesome diet?  With some work, is it possible for us to make all meals, for 4 people, for 31 days on $350?  This stemmed from reading a newspaper article where a family of 3 was receiving $375/month in food stamp money and complaining it wasn't enough.  Well, being frugal is hard work.  I try to remember that we've chosen this lifestyle and felt called to have me home right now.  So I'm not complaining.  I really am thankful for God's provision in our income and resources.  Let's see if we can do it!!

 {Note, I'm not suggesting that if your budget is higher than ours that you should lower it or that it's bad.  Whatever budget you decide on you'll still need a strategy to stick with it. Utilizing resources well is a big hill to climb. I'm suggesting that those who choose or need to tighten their budget can be successful if they plot.  I'm also not suggesting that we eat the best and healthiest of foods.  We choose not to buy many organic things in this season. I do, however, feel we feed our family a fairly balanced diet and intentionally limit processed foods.  You'll see mostly dinners but I'm sure I'll mention other meals as well to show how we make the budget work.}

January 1st:  Ham steak, Roasted root veggies (sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnip), spinach salad with sunflower seeds and mandarins.  Weight Watcher Points:  9
Money Saver:prepare your own sweet potatoes instead of buying prepared sweet potato fries (Oh how we miss those though :)

 

January 2nd: Mexican meatball soup (with ground turkey), a few tortilla chips, spinach salad (with carrots, tomatoes, and sunflower seeds), and Spanish style rice.  WW Points:13
Money Saver: Make homemade Spanish rice instead of buying boxed by using rice, tomatoes, and spices from the cupboard (I use cilantro and broth or salt).  

January 3rd: Homemade veggie and turkey pepperoni pizza, green salad, kale chips, and fruit salad (blueberries, bananas, and apples). WW points:11 
Money saver:  Make your own salad instead of buying the prepared bags. Also, make your own pizza dough! Yumm. Freeze berries in the summer to utilize them in the winter.  These berries are fro my mom's garden.  

NOTE: This is one meal I take the time to make two separate variations- both regular and gluten free pizza. Nothing quite beats my mom's homemade pizza dough! (Sorry, Aaron). For my hubby we usually use Udis pizza crusts though we've experimented with Bob's Redmill and Pillsbury..   

January 4th:  Curry chicken salad (with raisins, apples, and celery) on iceberg lettuce with a satsuma orange. WW points: 7
 Money Saver: Use your leftovers strategically! We tend to send leftovers in my husband's lunch box but on Saturday we generally make a larger than normal dinner so we can take Sundays "off" from most cooking.

 January 5th:  Leftover curry chicken salad on iceberg, sliced roasted potatoes (Italian seasonings and kosher salt), 1/2 grapefruit, and a mandarin orange. WW Points: 9
Money Saver: Buy a bag of potatoes instead of prepared frozen potatoes.  Peelers and I don't mix, so I give these ones a good scrub, cut them in thin slices with the skin on, add some herbs, and roast.  Pretty easy.

January 6th: Spaghetti with pesto, cheese, and walnuts; mashed cauliflower, grapefruit.  Not pictured:  2 small (frozen) meatballs that weren't done yet when we sat down to eat.  I may have turned on the toaster oven but forgotten to plug it in ;)  WW Points: 9

January 7th: Burritos with homemade tortillas, homemade black beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and onion; green beans,; a few tortilla chips; mandarin orange. WW Points: 7     Money Saver: Make your own beans instead of buying them in the can.  Easy to make and freeze.