The kids and I were puttering around this morning and I decided to pull out one of my bajillion “cooking with kids” cookbooks because I want to start a program in Kamloops teaching kids how to cook simple things and thus help out in the kitchen with those skills.  My sister, is doing a program like that where she lives and I was totally inspired to do one, here.
I found the coolest thing… a muffin mix that you are supposed to be able to keep in the fridge for up to a month!  Sweet idea, eh?  That way, when you need some muffins you just pop ‘em in the oven.  I think it’s a great idea, except that once I went to all the trouble of preparing the mix, I wasn’t about to leave it untasted… so we ended up making a double batch and now I only have one more batch in the fridge. Ah well, such is life.
Here they are, courtesy of “Cooking Wizardry for Kids” and a little bit of modification on my part.
1 15 oz package of Raisin Bran (I worked this out to be about 300g and I used Bran Flakes with a handful or raisins tossed in)
5 cups of flour (I used 2c whole wheat, 1c white, 1/2c wheat germ and 1/2c wheat bran)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
4 c buttermilk (or just milk with some lemon juice or vinegar)
4 eggs
1 c vegetable oil (I used 3/4 c oil and 1/4 c unsweetened applesauce)
3/4 c honey or molasses (I used 1/2 c honey and 1/4 c molasses)

1) Mix dry ingredients

2) Mix wet separately

3) Add all together and mix until just moist.
4) At this point you can cover the mix and refrigerate it until you want to use it.  Or… you can heat your oven to 400 degrees F, spoon the batter into your greased (or silicone/paper) muffin tins and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

They are a great muffin and the kids liked them, too!!  I’m looking forward to trying out the batter that I have stored in my fridge for a later date.

Tuesday morning.
Bored.
Dreaming of my fabric scrap bin…
1) Pull out fabric scraps and heat ‘n bond adhesive and poly-fill.

2) Cut out a whoooooole bunch of little rectangles of fabric.

3) Apply Heat ‘n Bond onto white fabric and cut out letters and numbers.
4) Iron the numbers onto the rectangles (following Heat ‘n Bond instructions).

5) Fold rectangles in half and sew three sides of the rectangles together.

6) Stuff with Poly Fill.

7) Sew the final side shut and cut the edges with pinking shears for effect and to prevent fraying.
8) Et voila!!

Now spell or add away…
I did one for each letter of the alphabet then all numbers zero to ten and a little plus, minus and equals.  
We like math, in this house ;)

The other day, I was browsing some blogs, as I tend to do, and I came across the coolest new (well new to me, anyhow) recipe for play dough!
It’s cornstarch dough!!

My two big kids and I made it and had a great time playing with it (read: it was all over the kitchen floor)!
Here’s the recipe I made:
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup baking powder
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
Boil on the stove on medium heat (will bubble a lot because of the baking powder and water reacting - so fun!) until it starts to thicken.
Then, I kneaded it until it was a little cooler for the kids to play with.
After we shaped it and smashed it and rolled it and played with it for a while (read: after a while the kids lost interest but I didn’t), I put my littlest man’s footprint in the dough, made a “pizza”, made some animals and then baked them all (300 degrees for an hour) to harden them a little.  I think we’ll paint it tomorrow!
Now, we play with cornstarch and water all the time to create that lovely “thixotropic” (not quite liquid but not quite a solid) muck we all love.  We also love making “goop” with white glue, borax and water.  But this?  This is awesome!  It’s whiteness is totally like snow.  It’s so soft and yet has that gritty cornstarch feel.  I’d love to add some sparkles next time and see what I get! I really really like it.  And the real bonus… it’s a great process to watch as the chemical reaction occurs while you boil it.