P is for PIZZA!

After playing with Oatmeal this morning, I was surprised the kiddos were so anxious to get to the letter P. They could not wait! Since we did two letters today, I tried to do a fun transitional activity.

We made Oreo Pudding!

Jocie tried a little, Mew wanted to just play with his. We took turns practicing letters in it and he decided it was time to just mess around. He covered his hands in it until he realized how messy he had gotten. I gave him a towel to wipe up with but he was not happy that he could not get it all off by himself!

After our 'work' with the letter, we got right to the foods. Pears and Peaches were first. Mew thought the Pear looked like a tree and wanted to keep it, not eat it. After we explored them and talked about them, I cut them into small dices for them to eat. Mew preferred playing with his, but Jocie ate a few dices of pear(it was sort of hard for her, so she got a little frustrated). Once she was done with the pear pieces she did lick some pieces of peach but was afraid to eat them. That is fine, she tasted them!

For snack we had popcorn. Mew doesn't care much for popcorn(is he really my child?? HA HA) but Jocie loves it!

Dinner time! 

PIZZA!!

We mixed up the dough and Jocie and Mew both took turns greasing the pizza pans. Mew spread his dough, I started it for him and got it shaped, but he did a lot of it on his own(I had several holes to patch when he was done HA!) Jocie helped me roll out three breadsticks for her(she is not fond of pizza because of the toppings) and we put on butter, some garlic salt and some parsley flakes(Ever since her sister put parsley flakes on her fries, she now wants it on breadsticks and fries all the time- I don't ask- she eats it I am happy)

After baking the crust for a little bit, we pulled it out and added sauce and sausage to Mew's pizza(he does NOT like cheese on pizza). Then finished baking it as we started making Dad a pizza. His had cheese, sauce and pepperoni.

 

Mew of course LOVED his pizza! and Jocie liked her breadsticks as well!

I still have a few more P foods to cover tomorrow.

Oatmeal

We did not get to Oatmeal on our O day- but we didn't want to miss it, so we added it today.

We made Oatmeal/butterscotch cookies. I made the main dough part while Jocie and Mew danced in the living room to some silly music. They did not want to be around the mixer. But they did help stir in the oatmeal and butterscotch chips. When the cookies were done, Mew did not want to try them, but Jocie did. She loved them and ate her first one quickly and had another one later in the day!

Next we made Oatmeal playdough. Pretty easy mix, just flour, water, and oatmeal (instructions below). It was a little crumbly and probably could have used a little more water, but they liked it and had fun. Mew wanted to make a motorcycle out of his, but had some trouble figuring it out. Jocie was more than happy to step in and help him make one. It was so cute watch her making the motorcycle for him as he told her which parts he wanted her to include. I love when they work together!

 

Their finished motorcycle(with seat, handlebars, wheels)

Oatmeal Playdough:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal

Mix all ingredients together well(add more flour or water to get desired feel). Knead on a floured surface for about 3-5 minutes or until it is the desired texture.

O is for Orange

I was starting to feel a little defeated. I could not think of any foods that started with O except for the obvious- Orange, so I called on a few friends to help me get my juices flowing again. They came through as always with some new ideas. It was up to us to explore them, but they got us moving again. Thanks to those who helped yesterday with ideas!

O was an easy letter for identifying and writing and Mew thought he was got stuff. "its just a circle mom, I can do that myself" And that he did, all over the page! Jocie's worksheet was just as easy for her. Starting to think I need to up the ante a little bit for her and find newer things for her to do with the letters.

Oranges were our first activity of the day. We looked at them, touched them and talked about their smell both whole and cut in half. Then, Jocie and Mew each took turns squeezing the orange halves against the juicer. They are both pros at this now since they have done it at therapy as well as at home before. After the y were done, we poured the juice in a lidded container, added water and a little sugar and then some ice. Both kiddos took turns shaking it up- their favorite part! Time to drink! Mew was not so sure, and thought it would be more fun to play in the juice than to drink it. Jocie loved hers until she felt the pulp- not good, that was enough for her. She enjoyed the taste, but not the 'texture' of the juice. Daddy later suggested next time we strain it through a nylon or something(I had no idea what to use as we don't have a strainer small enough) DUH moment for me! Next time!

 

While I cleaned up the sticky juice mess, I let Jocie and Mew play with some Olives. Mew figured out how to put them on his fingers and loved playing olive monster. Jocie did touch them, but neither wanted to eat them. (yes they sometimes have issues with things that are green!)

 

Next, we made Omelets. We talked about how we would make them and I explained to them that basically we made them the same as scrambled eggs(a preferred food) but when we cooked them, we just didn't scramble. They were cool with the idea. They each took turns beating the egg. I made Mew's Omelet first- he wanted Cheese in his. He was very interested and took a bite of his right away, loved it and kept eating. For Mew it was a hit. Jocie did not want anything in hers, just egg. She did take one bite, but was disappointed that it was not quite like a scrambled egg and was a little upset. She did say she liked the taste just not how it 'felt'. (we did let her make some scrambled eggs too- those she ate ALL of!)

 

To finish up the activities we made oct-o-dogs as we have done before. This time I let Mew cut his own legs before we cooked them(Jocie did not want to) Mew ate all of his and Jocie, well she was done for the day!

I still have everything to make Oatmeal/butterscotch cookies- but had to end for the day- will do them tomorrow before we do P. I wanted them to enjoy making them not feel like it was a chore or just too much.

N is for Noodles

N we sort of combined with M since I was low on ideas and the Noodles went so well with the macaroni.
They kiddos practiced their letters and did well, although Mew kept wanting to make his version of M(W) instead of N- oh well! He was writing.

Jocie loved the uncooked noodles!

Mew liked to use the uncooked noodles to help pick up the cooked ones. He kept trying to slurp them down, a whole piece at a time. He kept chewing them and kept getting mad. It was quite fun to watch. He had to try his plain, with sauce, cold and warm. He had a lot of fun.

I think I had more fun playing with the wet noodles than they did!

M is for Mmmmmm

It's been a little while- had little break in actual arranged activities but we are back with M!
There were so many fun M ideas they wanted to do, so we split it up into two different days. M was an easy one for both of them with the 'work' portion, although Mew is still confusing his M and W- he can still write both well.

Our first activity was more of a craft. Macaroni pictures. Jocie wanted to color her macaroni before glueing it down, but they both found that it was harder than it looked. (we ended up coloring them the next day after the pictures dried.) Mew quickly became more interested in the Glue than the macaroni. He had fun covering his hands with it, and even decided to smear some all over his face( did not get photos of this because I didn't want to encourage him HA HA)

As they made the pictures, I cooked some macaroni so they could play with it wet. We decided on making a macaroni march and pushing mango 'boats' through it. Jocie would not touch the wet macaroni at all, but at least she did not gag while she washed Mew play. Mew of course had a blast pushing 'boats' around in the marsh.

For dinner we made Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes. They both had fun adding the ingredients to the meatloaf, but neither wanted to help mix it with their hands. Mew did help use the second half of the mix to make meatballs. Jocie didn't even want to WATCH. too yucky for her. The both helped peel potatoes but both hid when it was time to use a mixer to mash them. BUT, Jocie ate a whole bowl of potatoes and even asked for seconds. That is the first time she ate more than one or two very tiny bites! So proud of her! We did have to add salt and she had to be able to feel the crunch of the salt in each bite, but she was eating them!

 

Day two:

Marshmallows! We made marshmallow structures using toothpicks and mini marshmallows. Jocie was excited we were using the colored ones and she had to try one of each color. Another first. Normally she will not even try them because of the texture, but she really liked them once she tried this time!

 

Then we used marshmallow fluff to make little 'pools'. They dipped teddy grahams into the fluff. Mew had more fun filling his pool with bears. He did NOT want to eat them with fluff on them. Jocie on the other hand LOVED them. Big two days for Jocie! She normally does not like to dip, but again once she tried she really liked it. Even had some more today!

 

Noise Putty!

We have had noise putty many times in the past. The first time we bought it, Jocie and Mew made the noises with it over and over and laughed and laughed for over an hour! They had a blast. Then after a few days, mew decided it would be fun to play with it like slime(he grabbed it on  his own while I was distracted for a min- he is good at that!). The result was a terrible mess. He flung it on the wall, had it all over his clothes(some of which I could not get totally out for a while!) and tried to eat some. That was the end of that for a while!

  

I finally broke down and got them some more about a month ago, but the new rule was ONLY in the kitchen and ONLY when I was with them. I now keep it up where they cannot get to it on their own. So far it has worked out well. After being used for a while it starts to get sticky and yucky, so we don't keep once it gets too 'nasty'. That time was coming- so - Today I let them go ahead and take it out and play with it like slime again. It didn't take long for Mew to dive in and have it all over his arms. He had a blast and even made a sort of cool looking 'glove' out of it. Jocie tried to imitate everything he did with his, but she was not so into it getting stuck to her skin- she was pretty cautious with it.

  

They had a great time with it thought and they actually listened and were very careful NOT to get it onto their clothes. YEA!

L is for Lemon

Lemons- sour yet yummy when added to other foods and drinks. What better way to she the kiddos how small changes to one food can make so many different variations? To prepare for the activities, I made some lemonade cookie dough (go HERE for the recipe from Parents magazine) that would need to be chilled for about 3 hours before we could actually make the cookies. Jocie and Mew with me when I started the mix, but as soon as I had to turn on the hand mixer, Jocie ran to the living room and refused to return until I was finished with the entire mixture. Mew stuck around but would only watch from across the room. I got the dough finished and into the fridge for later and we got started on the rest of the activities.

As always, we did the usual finding of the letter magnets and practicing our writing and letter sounds. Then we moved on to the foods of the day. To begin this part, I gave Jocie and Mew each half of a lemon and half of a lime. I was not sure that they would even taste them, so I told them to go ahead and smell each one and see which one had a stronger scent and let me know which they thought would have a stronger taste. Before I could grab the camera, Mew licked the lime, the face he made was a classic SOUR one(so sorry I missed capturing it ) and as soon as he tasted, Jocie followed suit, but she actually licked BOTH of them. Mew would not lick the lemon after getting a taste of the lime. Jocie had predicted that the lemon would have a stronger flavor because it's smell was stronger(which is great, she can still smell!! YEA! we didn't have that sense for a long time!) and she let me know that she had guessed properly because it was stronger, and sooo sour(but she didn't make much of a face at all!) 

Next we took the same lemonade mix we used for the cookie dough to make glasses of lemonade. I let them add their own powder slowly and taste, deciding on their own when there was enough. Mew did not want much. Jocie liked hers with a little more flavor. Mew did not drink much, but Jocie LOVED it and had a few small glasses as we worked on other things.

We then got out the lemon pudding. They really LOVE to make pudding now. I just wish they loved to eat it as much as they love to stir it! Mew added the powdered mix and Jocie added the milk. The both took turns stirring it with the whisk. After it was soft set, we put some in bowls and added some sprinkles to the top. I tried to get them to 'paint' with some of it, but neither one wanted anything to do with that today so I didn't push. They did both take a taste of the pudding. Jocie didn't like it much. Mew took such a huge bite I think the cold stunned him. He yelled and spit some back out and said he was "not eating that cold stuff". 

After a little break, we came back to finish the lemonade cookies. My log was a bit lop-sided so the cookies were not quite round, but they didn't seem to mind. The idea  was not only making the dough(which I ended up mainly doing) but also cutting and decorating the cookies. To decorate, we were to brush on light corn syrup and roll them into pink sugar- I thought this would be a great thing for them both to get into- BUT they did NOT want anything to do with making them at this point. So I was left to do it on my own, although Mew did come to watch after a little while. I think he spent more time getting into the water in the sink than anything else. When the cookies were done baking, we piped on the icing and they each took one to try. Jocie said they were 'too sweet' and Mew, well he took a bite and said it was yummy until he swallowed, then he threw the rest into the garage making it known he was NOT happy with it! I also thought they were a little 'strong' with the lemonade flavor but their Dad liked them(they are ALL his now ha ha) 

K is for......

We cheated a little today and did 2 letters instead of one. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. It was one of those days where I needed to stick home close to the phone waiting on a call so we had to keep busy somehow right?
So K it was! Not an easy letter to find fun foods that they might actually try so we just did the best we could. Still started with finding the letters on the fridge and doing wipe-off/paper book work which they do actually enjoy more than I thought they would. Mew was still more into erasing today than writing but no biggie.

Kiwi was the main 'new' food today. We talked about how it looked and felt before we cut into it, and how it looked and felt after I cut it in half. Jocie was not fond of it being 'wet' but was a good sport and did still touch some once I cut it up and put some on her plate. No one was going to try it though, after all, it was green. HA HA

We then moved onto Kabobs (yeah stretching a little here but it worked). I cut up several different types of fruit that we had on hand- the kiwi, apple, watermelon and grapes(left those whole). I put the chunks on a plate on the table and handed them each a wooden skewer. I showed them how to carefully stick an apple chunk on and told them they could do them any way they chose. I was not surprised that they both stuck to a pattern using each fruit- Jocie using each once and Mew using each twice and then finishing with another piece of apple.

As soon as Jocie finished, she held it up to her mouth and actually licked each piece at least once. She went back and licked the watermelon again a few times. She did not want to eat any of it, but did enjoy the taste she said.

Mew went right to the apple chunks. It took him a few minutes to figure out how to bite them off of the stick, but as soon as he got the hang of it, the chunks started to disappear. He then wanted to get the grapes off and squeeze the juice out of them. He did this by using his mouth to move each piece of watermelon and kiwi off of the end of the stick. He seemed to like the watermelon but made a face when he had his mouth on the kiwi, but he stuck with it until they were off. I really think if we make these more often, it won't take Mew much time before he is eating the watermelon and grapes as well as he did the apples. He really seemed to enjoy himself with these!

No sooner did Jocie finish hers, she was asking me what letter we would do tomorrow HA HA. I asked her if she could figure it out herself, and she did.... not sure if we will do all of L tomorrow, but at least some of it. Busier day for us on Tuesdays so we have less time.