Homemade Coconut Butter

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It’s easy to make homemade butter just by shaking heavy creamer, requiring nothing more than a little muscle power, and that is a neat way for kids to see where their food comes from. We wanted to put a vegan spin on this project so decided to try making butter from coconut cream!

Make sure to purchase full fat coconut milk for this activity, not the light alternative, which likely won’t work.

Scoop a little of the solid coconut fat from the can into a small jar (empty baby food jars were the perfect size for small hands) along with some of the liquid.

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Then simply seal and shake! Obviously Veronika didn’t have the muscle to make the “butter” solo, as it required about 5 minutes total of shaking. We would pass the jar back and forth and shake it all the while, and her excitement mounted as she said she wanted to taste the butter.

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After shaking, the fat and liquid will combine into a creamy, smooth consistency. It’s not exactly butter of course, but it did have a nice spreadable consistency. Veronika absolutely adored it on crackers!

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While you probably don’t want to eat pure coconut cream every day, this was a fun treat to try out and she was so proud that she “made” her own snack.

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Drown the Penny

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Need a game to entertain your toddler, and quickly? This one requires only common household items but is sure to captivate. I can’t tell you how many times Veronika asked to play when I trotted it out on a weekend morning.

Fill a glass with a little bit of water then place a paper towel on top and secure with a rubber band. Now place a penny in the center of the paper towel.

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I picked up a sharpened pencil and told Veronika we were going to drown the penny. How many pokes would it take? I made the first one to show her…

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…but then she grabbed it and never even handed the pencil back! She absolutely adored the challenge. Sometimes the penny would fall in after as few as 4 holes poked.

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Her highest count was 14!

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I watched her brain mull over the challenge, too; sometimes she was tempted to cheat as her pencil pokes crept up past 10, and she would think about nudging the penny toward a rip in the paper. But then she caught herself and kept poking with the pencil until – inevitably! – the penny falls and drowns. Plink! It makes a wonderful noise each time. Then we would uncover the glass and fish out the penny before putting on a fresh paper towel and starting over.

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If your child wants to make it more of a turn-taking game, simply pass the pencil back and forth. The winner (or loser, depending how you look at it!) is the one who gets the penny in the glass.