Little Tyke

Little Tikes nutrition week - kefir healthy recipes

Our friends at Little Tikes childcare blog have highlighted that March is nutrition month.

According to them 22% of American children are obese! This is a very scary figure and i hope that we at Little Tykes can do our bit to help.

The team have posted a number of healthy recipes and so I am going to my bit and give you a few kefir recipes which are really healthy!

Blueberry Kefir Mousse
2 cups kefir, sweetener to taste, 1/3 c (or more) frozen wild
blueberries (thawed), 2 teaspoons xanthan gum

Mix kefir and sweetener with a wire whisk. Sprinkle xanthan gum lightly across the top, whisk thoroughly and repeat until all xanthan gum is incorporated. Don’t add too much at a time, or it will clump. Whisk in the blueberries, mashing some and leaving some whole. This
is very light and fluffy, especially after sitting for a while, although sometimes a layer of liquid forms on the bottom. If that happens, just stir it back in. Refrigerate.

Gingery kefir ale
cane (table) sugar [sucrose] (1 cup)
Freshly grated ginger root (1 1/2-2 tablespoons)
Juice of one lemon
kefir grain or whey
cold fresh pure water

Take a hunk of ginger and two tablespoons of organic lemon juice concentrate and toss in the blender with a bit of water. put your sugar in the container then your ginger lemon slurry. top off with water and shake well. let it sit with a tight cap and burp it every 12 hours. when it starts to give a nice burp loosen that cap so the c02 can get out on its own. taste it daily till its no longer too sweet. strain out chunks. tighten the cap for another 12 hours, burp, toss in fridge. comes out very carbonated and great tasting.

Ice Cream
4 cups of either kefir or kefir and cream or kefir, milk and cream in any combination I want. Add maple syrup. Can make milk ice, kefir ice if not adding cream. I add fruit, coconut, coconut milk, egg yolks, 1/2 cup of nuts, food grade oils like peppermint.

Orange Julius
To 8 oz of thick creamy kefir, in a blender, add 1-2 T orange juice concentrate (or more to taste and grated fresh orange rind), 1/2 tsp. vanilla and honey to taste to make an orange julius - I have left this mixed up in refrigerator for up to 4 days and it only gets creamier. In summer freeze some kefir into cubes and use part cubes and cold kefir to make it slushy.

Smoothie

8 Oz of Kefir.. The creamier, the better.
2 ounces of Coconut Milk
4 Strawberries
Raw Honey to taste.

Blend the ingredients at low to medium speed until smooth and creamy..Avoid High speed .. You do not need it to froth.

egg custard

half scrambled an organic egg in coconut oil to get the “baked” egg taste. I put the kefir in the blender, and added a pinch of nutmeg, and dash of cinnamon and a teaspoon of pure vanilla of which I thought I “may” have gone slightly over board but hadn’t, 1/2 a teaspoon of xantham gum and about 1/4 cup of sweetner. I added the egg after cooling a bit, and whirled in the blender.

Top 5 ways to teach your children respect of things

1. When my kids play garage sale and put a ton of toys in one big messy heap I help them clean it up. If they don’t help or run out of steam I put the stuff up that they don’t clean up. We have a walk-up attic so I just put it in a bag and take it upsairs. Sometimes I threaten and they’ll clean up and sometimes they never notice. Sometimes I put it in our real garage sale pile and they never care. Too much stuff!!!! Get rid of some and save the clean up.

2. If they start playing long games and I don’t have two hours, I stop it before they’ve gone too far. I explain how we’ll be leaving in an hour and I don’t want the mess. They don’t like it but limiting the mess contains it. Sometimes I limit the size like “only two stuffed animals each” or “you can make a pile bigger than this box.”

3. They should be old enough to contain themselves from your stuff. A lock would work but might just create a power struggle. I would opt for putting my contacts in a box high in the closet that they can’t reach and don’t know is there.

4. I would have them help with the laundry. My kids like to put the clothes and detergent in the laundry. They also will put things into the dryer. I then make them take their clothes out and I’ll fold. Then, they put in their room. We do it when the clothes are warm so it feels good and they enjoy that. I also see how fast they can take the piles to various rooms and they more or less cooperate. Perhaps if your kids see the work, they’ll be more respectful. If they
continued to not put clothes up, I might tell them they can’t wear any clothes that have not been put in their proper place. If they don’t pick it up in a reasonable time, then the clothes get put away. Eventually, they run out of clothes and understand the need to keep things neat.

Children need to learn to be respectful of things and this is an essential life skill. They can’t go through their co- workers desk, eat the food in the break room if marked otherwise,
move a jacket saving a seat at church or a host of other unwritten property-rights rules. You have to help them see how their behavior negatively effects others.

While I type this message, my 4 and 6 year olds are “camping” complete with sleeping bags, blankets and a host of other toys and “supplies”. I think we’ll do movie night and they can’t watch a movie until it’s more or less picked up.

No way! A little tikes toy turns kids into pro basketball players!

Heather and Kristen hicks first experienced basketball with a Little Tikes basketball set when they where young. Using this playset, the two of them both learn’t the early skills that helped them to become sporting heroes.

After learning the basic skills on the Little Tikes toy set they quickly moved forward to end up playing at the basketball league at their local school. Now the two sports hero sisters are going to be playing for Oak Hills girls basked ball team as the “Golden Eagles” attempt to win the first state championship!

As the girls have pretty much played basketball together from day one, they both know how where each other are on the court and even say they can read each others mind.

Heather said. “We know where we are on the court. We know what we’re going to do. It makes it easier.”

Both girls often wonder what would have happened if they never got their Little Tikes basketball set…I wonder if maybe they got a little Tikes baseball set then they would be baseball pros! Hehe

You can read the full news article here: Chronicle tribune

And you can buy your kids a Little Tikes basketball set from Amazon for: Only $27.99

IBM KidSmart Early Learning Centre

Little Tykes have always been keen innovators in the world of eduction with nearly every local nursery’s having a lot of Little Tikes toys in the playground.

But this piece of news takes Little Tikes once step further!

he National Center for Technical Education (NCTE) is working with IBM to create the “IBM KidSmart Early Learning Center” This learning center will contain high powered IBM PC’s housed in highly attractive and interactive Little Tikes workstations.

One of the main beneifts of this Little Tikes education centre will be the help it can offer special needs children. The Centre will help in the assesement of dyspraxia which is a a behavioral immaturity disorder in children. The software will actually provide Maths programmes that can motivate and help these children. Other software offered will help children with autism, dyslexia and certain other disorders.

I think that such a center will help to improve motivational factor for children and give them a chance to excel and be rewarded.

Sneek look at the latest Little Tike toys

Every year the designers at Little Tikes have to come up with new toy designs for the upcoming season which generally starts in February.

I managed to grab a sneek look at some of the latest designs that will hit the stores very soon.

The first toy i manged to get a look at was the Little Tikes crashing waves toy:

This is an inflatable toy that will be great for summer BBQ’s or kids parties. Little Tikes are looking to push more inflatable toys for this upcoming summer. I personally really like the look of this new toys and will likely purchase it for my childs upcoming birthday in May.

The Next new little Tikes toy i grabbed a sneek shot at was the Little Tikes fold away playground:

This toy looks like it’s aimed at toddlers and would be a perfect toy to take down to the beach. Obviously it folds away and therefore differentiates itself from many of the other toy playgrounds on the market. I am very excited to see such a toy like this to hit the market.

The final toy I grabbed a sneek shot was the Little Tikes 6 in 1 town centre.

This new toy comes with a gas station (which can actually be used with the classic Cozy Coupe car. It also come with a shop, cafe/restaurant, kitchen and gym! My kids have seen this and they are very excited… could make a great Christmas gift.

How to keep your little ones busy

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to share an awesome way to keep your younger ones (3 and up) busy while working with your older children. Busy Bee Bags are craft kits that include everything you need and most projects require minimal help from you. My daughter and I have done the girl’s kit together and we had great fun. I just ordered the Alphabet bags for my son who is learning his letters and it is really cool! Great for hands on learners.

The owner just sent out an email on her group, announcing that she will be retiring the Alphabet bags at the end of March and will not be bringing them back until August. She has lots of great kits though, she offers specials and fun ideas for little learners.

Hope this helps someone!
Busy Bee Bag

Brain development and positive parenting

I just finished watching an interesting episode of Scientific American Frontiers with Roman (who says, "That's my favorite show." LOL). The episode was "Make Up Your Mind," and the segment that I found relevant to this list was "Why Kids Don't Get It." It was talking about how the frontal lobes of children are still immature and unable to stop them from doing things "automatically." The experiment they did showed a 3 year old playing a game where she had to sort objects by color. Then, they switched the game and had her sort them by shape. She would automatically put the pictures in the wrong pile - sorting them by color - even though she thoroughly understood the game, sorting by shape, and could explain it to the experimenter.
Adults do the same thing. Try to read the following go to the following page, and look at the list of colors. Instead of reading the WORD, just say the COLOR of the word out loud. http://www.apa.org/science/stroop.html

Notice that it took you longer to read the list than it would take you
simply to read:

• red
• yellow
• green
• blue
• red
• blue
• yellow
• green
• blue
• red

Your frontal cortex is what stops you from doing what comes automatically, reading the WORDS, and allows you to do what you know you are supposed to be doing, reading the colors. In small children, that area of the brain is not fully developed. Dr. Diamond found that she was able to help children overcome the "weakness" by encouraging them to talk it through. That is, if the child was encouraged to say, "The shape is star," she was much more likely to sort it by shape instead of by color. Simply hearing the adult say, "Here is a star," did not help the child at all!

What are the implications for parenting? It's certainly enlightening to know how incredibly difficult it is for children to unlearn things (peeing in a diaper comes to mind) and to stop themselves from doing something that they've done before (impulse control). It may mean that teaching a child to talk him/herself through an action that doesn't come automatically could help, even though it takes more time. Helping him/her say, "I'm going to put the block down," rather than simply telling the child, "Don't throw that block at the window," or even, "Put the block down."

Studio Design Easel

# “Multi-functional easel features hot fashion colors and “see-through” design. Includes dual storage trays (other supplies shown not included).
# Ages 2 years & up

Studio Design Art Desk

# “Ultra modern art desk and chair feature hot fashion colors and special “see-through” design. Drawing board and two side storage bins can be removed and turned into a portable caddy for take-along creative fun.
# Large transparent storage compartment holds markers, crayons, paper and lots of other supplies (not included).
# Battery operated overhead light has a flexible neck. Requires 2 “C” batteries (not included).
# Ages 2 years & up

9-in-1 Easy Adjust Easel

This easel adjusts to 9 different heights making it ideal for children of different ages. Large work surface doubles as a chalkboard. Large, sturdy clip holds a 12″ x 16″ pad of paper (not included). Wide tray holds chalk, markers, paints, brushes and other art supplies (not included). Tray is removable for easy clean ups. Can be disassembled easily for storage.
Product size: 18″ l x 7.50″ d x 28″ h
Ages 3 years & up