A little fun with those plastic bead thingies..

Yes these plastic beads things!

We have a giant plastic container

So the natives sat around the dining room table

and got a little creative

So they designed their shape

Then we throw a little wax paper over it

and heat up the iron

And tada!! We had lots of sweet little shapes 

We decided to give as gifts and make into ornaments 

for some folks.

Telling time... analog style

 So the youngest native is working on 

TELLING TIME!

dun dun dun....

I got these four little clocks (they all were the same) 

from the dollar store.

I then cut paper and covered the numbers 

I had enough clocks to make one

"normal"

one I wrote the minutes, one roman numerals, and one military time

What I normally do is I randomly ask my youngest throughout the day

"what time is it?"

She then runs to the digital stove clock to tell me

then I have her go into the office

and set the analog clock to that time.

The minute one is next to the normal one so we can be reminded of how we count minutes.

If you want to make a game out of it

you can always write different times out on a sheet of paper

 have them pick one

and then see how fast they can get to it. 

Learning money values..

So we call this "The Quarter Game"

or Dollar game

whichever you would like to play to 

and depending on the level

of money knowledge

First step

someone gets to be the banker

Next step

One of the natives rolls the die

They banker pays out that many pennies

And then its the next persons turn

When it comes back around to the first person 

they can trade in their pennies 

for a nickle

or nickles for dimes

ect.

First person to a quarter wins!

As our youngest natives progresses 

we will work our way up to playing to a dollar!

Shelby...

We found her while doing some yard work

the natives watched her closely

and the littlest brave carried her around a bit.

Homemade granola

Dry Ingredients:

3 cups Quick Oats

1 cup slivered almonds (or cashews)

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut 

1/2 cup brown sugar

mix seprately

Wet ingredients :

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 maple syrup 

mix seperately

Mix dry & wet ingredients together

then spread out on baking sheets 

and bake at 250 degree oven

 Stir every 15 minutes till golden brown

It usually takes @ an hour

Once done you can add in raisins

cranberries or any dried fruit bits.

We like to mix in Blueberry flavored Craisins

This makes a great snack & super yummy cereal! 

stuffed peppers

  Got a bit of extra veggies you want to use up before they go bad? Stuff them into a pepper :)

We have made variations of this before.. but its always a crowd pleaser. Even for our picky eater.

Couscous, beef, corn, kale ...etc. all stuffed into green peppers and sprinkled with cheese.

Even the as leftovers. yum! 

Squirrel feeder...

  We have a little apple tree

Its quite blooming with fruit this year

We couldnt not eat them all

So we decided to share

     

  

        The squirrels seem to like them

      They are almost gone already..

Monday nights dinner...

So my youngest native wanted to make dinner

we happen to have a bowl of feta cheese 

ready to be stuffed into shells.

We had some super large pasta shells

And boiled them for about 2 minutes..

 

We then drained the shells and she began stuffing them 

full of cheesy goodness

This was quite fun for her

and easy enough

  

A little time consuming

but she made conversation

and had herself some

serious concentration going on

while she filled each shell 

as full as possible

She placed each shell

carefully into an oven safe dish

Once done she covered the shells in a pre-made pasta sauce

And a LOT of mozzarella

Then we put it in the oven for about half an hour 

and tada!!

A delicious meal 

and a very proud little native!

win win