Coconut Pineapple Rice Pudding

October 15, 2019Leave a comment

If your baby doesn’t like oatmeal for breakfast (which always seems to be the go-to for little ones), try rice instead! This sweet treat also makes a great sugar-free dessert. Look for organic canned pineapple like Native Forest.

Ingredients:

1 cup arborio rice
1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 (14-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk

Spoon the rice into the bottom of a casserole dish with lid; set aside.
Meanwhile, combine the pineapple and coconut milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Pour the pineapple mixture over the rice and place the lid on the casserole dish. Bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour.

Rhythm Sticks

October 15, 2019Leave a comment

Rhythm Sticks (6)

These easy DIY rhythm sticks lend themselves to so many games, musical and otherwise! To make a few simple pairs, I purchased dowels at the craft store and painted each set a different color. For starters we had blue and purple, but keep adding to your collection for lots of colors if desired.

Rhythm Sticks (1)
Once the paint dried, I showed Veronika a few easy ways to play with them. First I simply encouraged her to tap the sticks while I hummed a song.

Rhythm Sticks (8)

Then I held out one of the sticks from my pair so she could tap against mine. This is almost like rhythm stick Patty Cake.

Rhythm Sticks (2)

We put on music and just played along, of course!

Rhythm Sticks (5)

Then it was fun to challenge her to match color to color. Keep this particular version up as your baby advances to toddlerhood.

Rhythm Sticks (9)

It can also be fun to see how your baby uses the sticks, perhaps in ways you haven’t imagined, and to imitate the moves. Veronika liked rolling hers on the floor…

Rhythm Sticks (7)

…and waving them in the air. So I followed suit!

Rhythm Sticks (10)

We loved this musical interlude together.

Hide the Ball Memory Game

October 15, 2019Leave a comment

Memory Game (2)

My dad used to perform a “magic trick” when I was a child, hiding a ball under one cup only to seemingly make it reappear from under another like magic. This is a simpler variation on that old trick, perfect to play with your almost-one-year-old!

I used only two cups and a ball because I knew the items themselves would be of great interest to Veronika, who sure enough wanted to grab everything nearly before I had time to hide the ball. Use three cups if your baby is more patient!

I let her see me hide a ball under one of the cups, then asked her where it was.

Memory Game (1)

Each time her hand immediately moved to the cup over the ball, almost too fast for me to snap a good picture.

Memory Game (3)

Obviously this game is great for object permanence. Even cuter, this time she wanted to hide the ball herself. As soon as she uncovered it, she puzzled over how to insert the ball so it was hiding again.

Memory Game (5)

Inevitably her cup was facing upwards, not down, but I loved watching her brain at work on this one.

Memory Game (4)

Mosaic Art

October 15, 2019Leave a comment

When I first spotted this craft idea online, the suggestion was to draw a picture and then cut into squares before gluing down to form a mosaic. It turns out Travis didn’t want to draw his own picture… but he did love making a mosaic from an existing Star Wars picture!

I drew a grid on the page he selected and Travis loved cutting along the lines until we had 30 or so small squares.

Note: It’s helpful to label these on the backside so that the mosaic comes together without frustration.

We selected green construction paper as the background and then began gluing down the squares, leaving some green showing on all sides. This is also a great lesson in counting for kindergartners. Travis loved seeing the battle droids take shape again.