How to make pumpkin spice & orange colored sensory rice

I have been wanting to try the colored rice with my son for some time now.  I am so cheap sometimes  that not until I had to put my sons hand held radio in a bag of rice( because he threw it in the tub filled with water) to dry it out did I know we would try colored rice!  When the radio had dried out,  it did work after doing this:-), I set the rice aside until I knew what I wanted to do with it.  Well, this week was the week the idea came to me for pumpkin spice orange colored rice.  Here is the how to on what I did to create orange and pumpkin spice rice.


What you need:  a few cups of rice( you can use as little or as much rice as you want), food coloring, water, pan ( or a metal or glass bowl), spoon, newspaper, and pumpkin spice.

What to do:  put the rice in the pan.  Then in a small bowl put 5 Tbl of water and mix in food coloring( I have a gel orange food coloring I used and we squeezed about 2-3 drops out).  Add the mixture to the rice.  Now stir until blended.  Add a few sprinkles of pumpkin spice and mix again.  My rice was slightly wet.  I then transferred it to newspaper to dry overnight.

My son got to help me make this and he had fun pouring in the color and mixing it up.

The next morning we had a fun new sensory substance to play with.  Now for the fun part, deciding how we want to play!  Will post back later what we came up with.


Other post you make like: trick or treat sensory noodles and 10 snacks/treats kids love

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back.

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. And with what materials you let them play with. My children are supervised when playing. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

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The Kid's Co-op #25

Here is another creative week on The Kid's Co-op.  Hope you find something to enjoy.

Also here is a recap of what we have been up to this week and are sharing with the co-op this week.

10 Snack/Treats Kids Love


Trick or Treat Sensory noodles



Making a difference-donate to your local food pantry



Sweet Tea Sensory Bin

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back:-)

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. And with what materials you let them play with. My children are supervised when playing. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

Check out our pinterest board, Fb page, or twitter page

Sweet Tea Sensory Bin- more fun while learning

We love sweet tea down south so I thought why not make a sensory bin around that.  I thought my boys might really enjoys this.  We love going outside and playing in the water bin together and learning new things. 

What I came up with and what I did: I put tea in ice cube trays to freeze( I must admit I knew using sweet tea was going to make this sticky and it did.  Note to self next time just use unsweet tea).  Then I had my sweet husband cut lemons out of yellow foam sheets for the boys.  We had 2 plastic food lemons, I also added those.  When I was finally ready one day to set this out for them I grabbed a few plastic cups, play spoons, and a play tea pot. After I filled the rubbermaid box with water I added the play items to the bin.  I left the tea ice cubes in a bowl for them to taste and feel.  They added some to the water bin.  This was a great sensory experience for them with sight, taste, smell, and touch.  We talked about the color of the lemons and the ice cubes.  And my oldest had so much fun serving us tea.  My youngest enjoyed climbing in the water box as always and dumping water out.  They both liked tasting the tea cubes.  I would say this was a hit at our house.

Our Play

My toddler couldn't wait to put his hands in the water.

Now it was time to stand in the water box.  My oldest had on his shark fin head band.  Ready for the water.

My tot loves getting completely involved in the water box, lol.

Simple yet so fun.

My preschooler had so much fun pouring the water into the cups for us to "drink".  Pouring and scooping water is great for gross motor skills and pouring the water into the cup is great for improving hand eye coordination.  ( Again learning while playing and they wouldn't know it).


Checking out the ice cubes.  I chose to move them up high so they wouldn't put all of them in the water because as I stated above it was a little sticky.  If you are not worried about adding the scent to this water play you could just use brown food coloring for the ice.  However I think the smell helped make this so much more fun.



The great things about the lemon foam sheets is that the kids can also stick them to the windows if they like.  My oldest also used them in the cups of tea he made too.

Would you like a cup of tea?

I love trying new water play ideas for my boys.  I love playing with them and making new memories.  I love that a lot of our simple water play helps them work on gross motor skills.  We love to have fun at my house playing in the water outside and hope you and your family may have some water fun too.
I always forget to mention that most of our water play could be adapted for the bath tub.  With this one just use food coloring for the ice cubes.  Then the kids can play and be bathed after right in the tub:-)


Other post you may like: 10 Treats/Snacks Kids Love, Sensory water play- great way to disguise learning, 10 Water Play Activities 

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back.

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. And with what materials you let them play with. My children are supervised when playing. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

Check us out on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Sulia, Google+,

and our G+ community, All Things Kids.

Making a difference- donate to your local food pantry

This month is hunger awareness month.  I am a bit late in getting a post together but the fact is that hunger goes on even when the month is over.  So I felt it was better late than never for this cause.  You may have noticed a few Facebook post supporting No Kid Hungry.  It is a great site helping to raise awareness and money for kids that are hungry.  I have liked the Moms Fighting Hunger Facebook page to try and keep up with the cause long after the month has passed.  You to can follow their page and stay informed.  You can also go to Moms Fighting Hunger fundraiser page to support the cause.

You may wonder how can I make a difference?  Start by donating to your local food pantry.  You can even volunteer at the food pantry to just give out food.  My mom has been volunteering at one of our local food pantries for about a year now.  We love sending extra food we have with her to donate to others.  I enjoy coupon shopping and have found that when I can get great deals on things we may not use I can give back by donating them.  Even without coupons stores have great sales throughout the year where you can pick up a few extra items to donate.  My boys are still young(3.5yr and 1.5yr) but I want to impart to them now ways to make differences in others lives.  We may not can win this battle alone but with a little help from everyone we can make a difference.

My oldest son with my mom and the box of food he helped me pack.  I told him not every little boy and girl get to eat like us and because we are blessed with extra food we should share with others.

 

 

My oldest so happy to help spread the word:-)

 

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back:-)

Check out our pinterest board, Fb page, or twitter page

 

Trick or Treat Sensory Noodles

 

 We enjoy Halloween at my house the dress up and candy goodies.  I do try to keep it simple with my small kids.  I know for many they do not celebrate this holiday at all and I respect that.  We have never really done an activity (that I can think of) or craft for this occasion before.  So what better time then now with my preschooler getting older to do a simple holiday theme with colored noodles.  Colored noodles can be so much fun.  We have done holiday themed noodles before and my boys loved them!  I decided to do them again with a Halloween twist.  This is what I came up with.

 

What you need: Colored noodles, orange extract, sprinkles, platter, bowls, and plastic play pieces( I got these at Dollar Tree).

 

What to do:  cook & color noodles(direction in my last post) .  This time I added orange extract to my orange noodles for scent.  Set out noodles on platter.  Set out play pieces and sprinkles.  You can add bowls, spoons, etc...  Then let the kids have fun playing with the fun sensory substance.

 

 

 I couldn't wait for my son to smell them.  I just love how the scented noodles came out.  I wished I had a scent for the green ones and so did he:-)

 

 

 Now it was time to start playing.

 

 

 

 Let's add color with sprinkles.  My son loved the sprinkles.  Note:The color of the sprinkle did bleed on the noodles.

 

 

 

Love the colors!

 

 

 My preschooler had so much fun adding the toy pieces.  We went over the colors of them and what they were.  He had fun matching the colors of the toys to the colors of the noodles.  He also had fun serving mommy up a noodle dish to taste(pretend taste).

 

 

 

 Hope you and your family may have a little sensory noodle fun too.  I know we will be playing with them again.  Noodles are always a hit at my house.

 

 

 Note: My son is not a big noodle eater. So he never tasted them. I would think they should be safe to consume( everything used in them was baking goodie extras( food coloring, orange flavoring, and baking sprinkles) but please do your own research and come to your own conclusion. I suggest this with any substance we play with.

 

 

 

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back:-)

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play.  And with what materials you let them play with.  My children are supervised when playing. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine! 

Check out our pinterest board, Fb page, or twitter page

 

 

 

10 Snacks/Treats Kids Love

Its time for a new 10 Things Kids Love.  And what do kids love more than fun snacks & treats! We love making and eating fun & yummy snacks & treats at my house.  It is always nice to try something new.  You never know what you may find next that becomes a new favorite for you and your family.  I reached out to some fellow blogging moms to come up with this fab list for you.  They shared lots of fun and yummy ideas with me.  I hope this list will give you some fun and new ideas to try out with your kids too.

10 Snacks Kids Love

1. Sweet Sushi from Taming the Goblin

 

2. Banana Bear Pudding from B.Inspired Mama

3. Watermelon Ice from The Pleasantest Things





4. Butterfly Snack from Teach Preschool

5. No Bake Cookies (or granola balls) from The Good Long Road

6. Spinach Hummus Under a Rainbow of Colored Peppers from JDaniel4's Mom

7. Cheesy Cracker- heart part 4 from Kitchen Counter Chronicles

8. Apple Cars from FSPDT

9. Jolly Rancher Suckers-DIY from FSPDT



10. Fun Snack Cone from FSPDT









I can't wait to try some of these yummy treats out with my boys. We would love to hear from you what snack & treat you and your kids already love.  Thanks to all the moms that shared their snack & treats with us. 

 Here is my oldest with one of his fun treats.

More post from this series include: 10 Books Kids Love, 10 movies Kids Love





Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back:-)

Check out our pinterest board, Fb page, or twitter page









The Kid's Co-op#24

Another fun week of ideas for you to look at.  Hope you find something for you and the kids to enjoy.  I usually do:-)

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back:-)

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

Check out our pinterest board, Fb page, or twitter page

Here is what we have been up to this week and have shared on this wks co-op:

http://frogsandsnailsandpuppydogtails-jaime.blogspot.com/2012/09/apple-bird-feeder.html

 

AND

 



http://frogsandsnailsandpuppydogtails-jaime.blogspot.com/2012/09/sensory-water-party-great-way-to.html

Apple bird feeder

We love to feed the birds and whats more we love trying new ways to feed them. With fall in the air we tried our hand at an apple bird feeder.  This was so much fun and they came out great.





What you need below:  Apple, yarn or sting, screw, peanut butter, bird seed, pan, spoon, wipes.




What to do:  I peeled the apple the night before and left in fridge.  Then next morning I took it out.  I gathered all my supplies and went outside with my son.  We tied the yarn around the screw and then placed the screw inside the top of the apple.  We  then spread peanut butter over the apple with our spoon.  Next my son rolled the apple in a plate of bird seed.  Now we had an apple bird feeder.  all that was left to do was hang it up.

My son thought we had to hammer the screw into the apple,lol.  You can just push them in.  I guess it just made it more fun his way:-)



He didn't really like adding the peanut butter to the apple because it is a really messy step.



Rolling the bird seed on was more for him.

Last all you do is hang it up in a tree and then let the birds ( and probably squirrels) eat.  One of our 2 apples did not stay on the screw but the other one did great.  I think my son kept taking the screw out and putting it back in the apple.  That did not hang too long but the one we put in and left alone until we hung it up did fine.  As always we hope you my have some fun also trying out new ways to feed the birds.

Other post you may like: bagel bird feeder and plastic lid bird feeders

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back:-)

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

Check out our pinterest board, Fb page, or twitter page