8 January - Scavenger Hunting
Hi there. It's Sumari from EasyHealthyKids.com, and this week's newsletter is a special summer outdoor edition, with "no-cook" toddler dinner ideas, a nature scavenger hunt, and cars and trucks painting. Of course if it's cold where you are, you can have an indoor picnic and indoor scavenger hunt and painting.
The family: Fred is a headstrong 3 year old toddler boy, and Sarah is my sweet 1 year old baby girl.
Fred's favorite food of the week
Its summer here in New Zealand, so it's nice to have "no-cook" dinner options that you can serve as a picnic outdoors. Option 1 from this list is our favorite - deli ham, veggies and crackers.
I plan to work from the list for ideas for our picnic dinners. If it's cold where you live, you can have a nice indoor picnic.
Sarah's favorite food of the week
I bake breakfast snacks once a week, and then I have easy breakfasts the rest of the week.
These low carb blondies are healthy enough to have for breakfast or a snack, made with almond flour and added sweetness of dark chocolate chips.
Use sugarfree chocolate chips if you like.
Fred's activity of the week
If you have a nature kid like Fred, or you want your children to explore more outside, this nature scavenger hunt is fun to try out.
You first select some items for your kids to find so that they have a visual of what to look for, and then they search for it themselves.
If it is raining or cold outside, you can always adjust it to find indoor objects.
Sarah's activity of the week
Sarah loves messy play, and since Playcentre is closed for 6 weeks I plan to buy her edible paint to paint with. Fred would also like to join in so I'm going to use his cars to paint like in this article.
Book of the week
I really like the book, Unplugged Play by Bobbi Conner.
It's for toddlers and kids 1 to 10 years old, with screen-free activities for every age range.
There are solo play ideas, together play, indoor, outdoor and group play.
It's especially great if you have multiple kids to entertain at once.
Here's a solo play activity for 1-2 year olds I'm going to try from this book with Sarah:
- You take a plastic laundry basket, wiffle balls and a steel mixing bowl.
- You position the basket on its side next to a wall.
- Place the balls in the mixing bowl and position your toddler a short distance away from the bowl.
- You show her how to bounce or roll the balls into the basket.
I'm going to try this activity as I cook dinner and see if it keeps Sarah busy.
Do you have any great recipes or fun activities that you want to share? Let me know by replying to this email.
Talk to you next week.
Sumari
P.S. If you try any of these activities or recipes, let me know! I'd love to hear how you found them.