Pretend Beach Day!

This was my great idea from last week.  The horrible cold has been cycling around our house. On Monday the baby was sick and I was still recovering from the week before.  In order to get a little peace, I put Aubrey's imagination to work. 

Here was the set-up:

Aubrey loaded up her Polly Pockets in the camper and drove them  to the "beach."  They swam and played in the "sand".  She played with them in the water for a good hour or more!  She had fun and I got a little bit of peace to relax.

Homemade Baby Food

I never thought that I would be making my baby's food for her.  With Aubrey, I bought all jarred baby food.  After Lena was born, I still didn't think that I would be making food for her.  Then I talked to her nutritionist and GI doctor.  They both were adament about homemade baby food for Lena.  Since she needs foods that are dairy free, soy free, wheat free, and preservative free, there wasn't much of an option. 

Advantages to making homemade baby food: 

*I have found that I take pride in making all her food myself.

*Peace of mind that everything is made of fresh quality ingredients.

*I can choose to use organic foods.

*I know exactly what is going into my baby.  I don't have to worry about ingredients I can't pronounce.

*It is VERY cost effective.  I save a lot of money doing it myself!

*I can get creative.  This week Lena is going to try papaya, I can't find that on a shelf in the baby food aisle.

My favorite site for making baby food is:

http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/

She has experimented with all sorts of foods for her baby (some I have never heard of).  She is also a creative source for ideas to keep foods fresh and new.

The biggest part of saving time and money is to make enough and freeze it.

Lena's New Food This Week:

Papaya & Banana

Cost of Papaya:  $2.79

Cost of Banana:  $.49

Total:  $3.28

Cost per 3 oz serving:  $.41

The rest of the food:

Eggplant & Organic Carrot Puree:  $.30 per 3 oz serving

Organic Applesauce:  $ $.31 per 3 oz serving

Organic Carrot Puree:  $.20 per 3 oz serving

What's already in the freezer:

Organic Avocado Puree

Organic Pear Puree

Banana Puree

Cauliflower Puree (Lena doesn't like, but I keep trying)

You can clearly see the savings, since a jar of organic baby food cost about $1.49 in the store.  If you feed your child 2 jars at each meal that is $5.96 a day.  My mostly organic homemade baby food will cost about $1.22 each day.  That is a savings of $4.74 a day, $33.18 a week! 

When you do that math, it is incredible! 

Ice Painting

WARNING:  MESSY PROJECT!!!

Aubrey was wanting to experiment with ice and water, so I thought that this would be the perfect lesson for that.  It also (unexpectedly) taught her about mixing colors.

Our Vocabulary Words:Ice

Water

Melt

Freeze

Mix

Primary Color

Secondary Color

What you will need:

Ice cube tray

Water

Food Coloring

Tray

Paper

Hair Dryer (optional)

Start by having your child pour water into all the cubes of the ice cube tray.  Carefully add two-four drops of food coloring to each cube.  To do the mixing colors, you will want at least two of yellow, red, and blue.

Freeze Overnight!

Put white paper on tray and two primary color ice cubes on tray.  Let your child loose!  Aubrey alternated between using the hair dryer to melt the ice and rubbing it around with her hands.  She loved watching the ice melt and change colors as it ran into the other colors.

Hang the pictures up to dry.

While your child is painting with the ice cubes, make sure that you show them how the primary colors are making new colors:  secondary colors.  Also use the vocabulary words.  We did this with each of the paintings.  After we were done, we did a review "worksheet."  I wrote the color "equations" and Aubrey colored it in.

I stapled the colors we started with on the backs of the painting to remind her of what colors we started with.  Then we hung them on her Art Wall clipboards.

Aubrey is so proud of her work!