All posts filed under: creative

Back-to-School Jitters – Tips for Parents by Caron Irwin from Roo Parenting

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Back-to-School Jitters – Tips for Parents from Caron Irwin from Roo Parenting The long days of summer are coming to an end and back-to-school reality is upon us. This time of year is full of excitement in anticipation of seeing old and new school friends and picking out the best back-to-school gear but it can also be full of nerves and jitters as the first day approaches. How Do You Prepare Your Kids? It is important to prepare your children for the upcoming school year. Children who are prepared and know what to expect feel in control and when they feel in control they are better able to manage change successfully. Start to prepare about a week before the first day of school. Starting too early can cause kids to fret for too long creating more anxiety, and starting too late can make children feel rushed and overwhelmed. Take your child to visit the school. Take your child to their school – if possible have them visit their classroom, walk the halls, check out the …

Summer Crafts for Toddlers!

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At Seasons, we love to engage our toddlers in summer crafts! Summer is a great time to do messy crafts as you can do them outside and use a bucket of soapy water to wash hands. Avoid having handprints all over your house annnnd keep everyone happy. Below are two simple crafts we did with our Tiny Tots. All you need is some paint and some googly eyes. For the dots, we used our tiny fingertips. This balloon elephant was another great craft and even better than the first one because it didn’t involve any mess. For this one, we just used a glue-stick to affix everything to the page. We also used this opportunity to discuss colours and focus on shapes.

Easter Baking!

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This past weekend, we welcomed the rain as we had lots of Easter baking to get done and I really enjoy baking in the rain. That may sound strange since I’m not baking in a rainstorm outside, but if I’m going to be inside for endless hours I prefer that it’s raining then a beautiful day outside. See below some pics of some of the cakes/cupcakes we made!  

ABC’s

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It’s that time of year….back to school and therefore our Tiny Tots are back to learning their letters! Our tots are wee guys, but that’s the perfect time to start with an introduction to letters! We pick one letter a week and focus on it, we expose the tots to the letter in our morning circle and then base our fine motor activity on the letter as well. For some of our little guys, it’s their first time being exposed to the alphabet and others are grasping letter concepts. It is believed that children who can quickly recognize letters have an easier time learning their letter sounds. For other great resources on how to teach letter recognition, check out http://www.proudtobeprimary.com Here are a few examples of some of the art we’ve made for A, B and C 🙂

Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

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The tiny tots whipped these chewy, chocolate chip, oatmeal cookies in about 20 minutes. Baking with kids is a great way for them to learn about counting and numbers. To avoid big messes we have them sit at the table in their booster seats and bring all the ingredients to the table. Then they each get a turn and thus we are also working on our waiting our turn. All great skills for the tots to learn about. I got the recipe from here, I have also pasted it below. We added 3/4 cup of raisins too! Happy baking! Ingredients: 1/2C unsalted butter, softened 1/2C granulated sugar 1/2C light brown sugar 1 large egg 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cinnamon 3/4C all purpose flour 1 1/2C old fashioned oats 3/4C chocolate chips, plus extra for topping Directions: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together …

Easy Craft for Toddlers!

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  Learning through artistic play is a great way to teach toddlers about a variety of topics. This rainbow craft is a super, easy craft to do with kids. All you need to do for prep is cut a variety of colours of construction paper and print out an outline of a rainbow. We used gluesticks as it’s less messy and we’re working with lots of little hands at one time. If you’re doing this craft one on one, white glue and a popsicle stick is also a great way to work on fine motor skills and learn about colours. As research has proven children learn best through play and that definitely includes artistic play. In our tiny tot program we do a lot of our teaching through artistic forms, art is a fantastic medium for teaching about colours, numbers, shapes and letter recognition. Visit our post on how toddlers can learn through artistic play for more information.  

Unicorns!

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Not sure when these fantastic, mythical creatures made such a roaring comeback, maybe they never left in the first place! We’ve been asked to do several unicorn themed birthdays and events lately and I thought would share some of the pics for inspiration. All our cupcakes and cookies were made on site at Seasons Family Centre in the Annex. If you’re not up for baking or hosting your own birthday – visit our Birthday Page for more information on how we can help you!  

Vegan Lasagna

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Soooo since I’m on a roll with the vegan recipes, I thought I would try out another one. Honest truth about this one, it takes a looooonnnnng time to make, like I’m talking from start to finish about 3 hours. I did it in stages which I actually think it made it feel longer because I was constantly in the kitchen. However, it was completely worth it, it was absolutely delicious and even tasted like cheese, so much so that my 4 year old said “I really like the cheese” (haha – little did he know it was tofu). If you’ve got the time, check out the recipe here – it’s well worth it, I promise. I added a layer of eggplant to give it that meaty texture. I sliced the eggplant and lightly cooked it in olive oil before putting it in the lasagna.