Edible Nests

Here is one more birds' nest activity, and this time it's edible. I got this idea from Discover the Joy of Easter, and tweaked the recipe a little bit. 

Crispy Nests

1 cup chocolate, butterscotch, or peanut butter chips

1/2 cup peanut butter or Nutella

3 cups crispy rice cereal or chow mein noodles

Combine chocolate, butterscotch, or peanut butter chips with peanut butter or Nutella.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth.

Stir in crispy rice or chow mein noodles.

Spoon into greased or paper-lines muffin pan and press against the sides to make a nest shape, or grease your hands and form into a nest shape by hand. 

Chill until set up.

Add egg-shaped candies to your nests.

We used butterscotch chips and Nutella and they turned out really yummy, but very rich!

If you are a better about controlling your sweet tooth than I am and want to make a healthier version, here are a couple of ideas.

Veggie Nests

Cut carrots or cucumbers (or both) into thin strips.

Pile them up to make a nest.

Or

Use the bottom half of a bell pepper for the nest.

Add grapes or grape tomatoes for the eggs.

So simple.

The next recipe is a bit tricky, but can be a lot of fun, and still tasty, even if it doesn't work out and your nests fall apart.

Rosti Nests

4 medium potatoes (you can also use sweet potatoes, and/or add other grated veggies like carrots)

1 egg

1/4 cup flour

2 tablespoons cream cheese (optional, but helps nests stick together better)

salt and pepper

1 egg for each completed nest

Wash and boil or steam whole potatoes (and other veggies).

Let cool and then peel.

Grate potatoes (and other veggies).

Squeeze out excess liquid and combine with other ingredients.

Form into nest shapes and place on greased baking sheet. Place under preheated (to medium) broiler and broil for about 7 minutes. *Watch carefully for burning*

Carefully turn them over and broil for another 5 minutes.

Break an egg into the well of each rosti and broil for another 4 minutes, or until egg is set and the rosti are golden brown.

More Birds' Nests

Here is the second birds' nest activity we did. I found this cute idea at Chocolate On My Cranium. It took a few days to complete because we had to wait for the nests and clay to dry. But you could also use the kind of clay that you bake to dry.

Here's what to do:

Mix 1/8 cup cornstarch with 1 cup water, and heat to boiling.

Stir constantly and let it thicken a bit, then remove from heat and let cool.

OR

Just use store-bought liquid cornstarch.

I think that using some glue mixed with water would work well too... maybe even better.

Cut pieces of yarn or string into varying lengths.

Wrap some bowls or cups with plastic wrap.

Dip the yarn into the liquid cornstarch and wrap around the outside of the upside-down bowls or cups.

Let dry... it may take a day or two.

In the meantime, make some little birds and eggs to go in your nests. You could make them out of clay and paint them like we did (my daughter even made worms, bugs and seeds for her birds to eat), or come up with another way. I'm sure there are a lot of crafty ideas out there for making cute little birds.

Have fun!

All About Birds' Nests

This week, we learned a lot about birds' nests. It was a fun way to get even more excited about spring. We learned about the different kinds of  birds' nests that there are, and the things that birds use to build their nests. Then, we went for a walk and found some nest building stuff to try to make our own birds' nests.

On our way, we met this snail that was attempting to cross the street. Not the best idea.

My girl immediately decided that the snail needed to be saved from it's very likely untimely death, so she moved it back into the bushes.

Meet Mr. (or Mrs.) Snail.

(When we studied slugs and snails last summer, we learned that they can be both.)

Digging up some mud.

More mud.

Lovely flowers.

Collecting sticks.

Once we felt like we had enough stuff (actually, once baby boy refused to go any farther because he suddenly remembered the scary goat that lives down the path we were walking on), we headed home, dumped our treasures on the table and made some nests.

My boy decided his nest needed some eggs so he went out back and got some white rocks. The long stick poking out the side of his nest is an "animal poker... so bad animals won't get the eggs."

My girl also added white rock eggs, but you can't see them because she put a roof on her nest. Inside, where she put the eggs, she did a bit of interior decorating with a pinecone, some dried leaves, and some flower petals. She also added a leaf to the outside for a door.

I decided to try to build an ovenbird's nest, which is suppose to look like a dutch oven. It kind of worked.

While we made the nests, we talked about how great it is that birds can build these nests so well... much better than we can, even though they don't have hands. We also talked about how great it is that the birds can find all the things they need to build their nests in their natural environment, in the season that they need them.

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, and for the next two days, we followed up with a couple more birds' nest activities... coming soon.

Peter Rabbit, Day 3

Here are a couple of Word Searches using words from The Tale of Peter Rabbit. The first is easier than the second. More Peter Rabbit activities here.

Peter Rabbit, Day 2

Here are some more activities for studying The Tale of Peter Rabbit. More info here.

Peter Rabbit, Day 1

Here is the first activity for studying Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit. For more info, go here.

Beatrix Potter Stories

For the next month, until Easter, I've decided to study some of the Beatrix Potter stories with the kids. We'll be doing one story a week, and have a different worksheet for four days every week. This week, we'll be starting with The Tale of Peter Rabbit. I'll be posting the worksheets or activity pages here on the blog, so feel free to come on over and download them.

* This is for my four year old and six year old, so it's designed for young kids. But kids that are a bit older might have fun with it too.

Discover Christmas

Discover Christmas

I just wanted to share this great resource I found several months ago... Discover the Scriptures makes scripture study resources for kids. I haven't started using the scripture curriculum books with my kids yet (they were still a little young for it), but now that my oldest is reading, I think we'll start using it in January. Discover the Scriptures also makes books to go along with Easter and Christmas. They contain stories, activities, recipes, and history all about these special holidays. I just bought the instant digital download of Discover Christmas, and I'm so excited to start using it today. There are activities, etc. for each day in December, leading up to Christmas. Today we'll be making a countdown to Christmas paper chain, with a Bible verse about Christ on each link. The download version only cost $7.99, which is very worth it to me. It would take me hours to put something like this together myself. I'm really thankful for this resource, and just wanted to pass it along!

Train of Toys

This is what the kids did the other day while I was making these puppets for Joy School.

Starting in the bathroom...

down the hall...

into our bedroom...

and across the room. 

See where it tapers down to the tiny toy soldiers, and then stops with the big trucks at the end.

They have quite the attention span when they want to.

I'm excited to start Joy School again in September. We always just used stuffed animals for the puppet shows before, but I finally got around to making some puppets, and I think the kids will think that they're a fun addition. It would be nice to have others nearby to have Joy School with, but we'll still have fun doing our 'homeschool version' with just us. We've already started our other school stuff for the year (mainly math and reading), but adding Joy School will be a lot of fun. My oldest will be a great Joy School 'helper' for her younger brother.

Be Out There

We're finally getting some warm, sunny days around here so we've been spending a lot more time outside. I love being outside. I'm just happier out there, and I can tell the kids are too. I guess I also need to not be such a wimp and just bundle the kids up and take them outside more often when it's cold.

The National Wildlife Federation's Be Out There Campaign has some great information and ideas for giving kids a Green Hour every day. I love it!

Now if I could just figure out how to synchronize getting all three kids slept, fed, watered, sun-screened, pottied, warmed up, cooled off, and band-aided so we could actually spend an entire uninterrupted hour outside, we'd have it made.

I suppose I could also start remembering to bring the bag of supplies with me, but that might be asking too much of my chaotic brain.

Kids and Kites

For Joy School one day the kids made these tiny kites out of nothing but paper, string and tape. I know, you don't even have to tell me. A professional kite flyer would be jealous of these little masters of the sky. These babies will fly like eagles, is just what I thought... not.

But...

Guess what happened?

Well, first let me just say that we have had  a few afternoons of unsuccessful attempts to get real kites in the air -- you know, the kind you buy in the store, spend two hours trying to get to stay in the air for more than three seconds, and all you end up having to show for the ten bucks you spent is a broken kite, and a couple of kids wondering why exactly we called that activity 'flying kites' -- yeah, we've been there, done that, and the kids have been disappointed.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when the kids took these kites outside and thought they were the greatest things since peanut butter. They had so much fun with them, and ran around the yard flying/dragging their kites along for quite some time.

Maybe it's because the kites were their own creation.

Maybe it's because they could fly these kites without any help.

Maybe it's because the kites actually did fly (sort of).

Or maybe it's because they looked at the kites, developed extremely low expectations of the kites' potential performance, and were pleasantly surprised like I was to see that they actually did sort of work.

Whatever the reason, the kids and the kites reminded me of something very important that day.

They reminded me that creating something simple is usually better than buying something fancy. I think it's because a lot of joy comes from the creating part, and then being able to actually use it, magnifies that joy.

Oh, and you can never have too much paper, string and tape.

Spontaneous Delight...

... is bubbles.

Lots of them.

And...

Finger-painting without paper.

And if you're going to finger-paint, you'd better do a little toe-painting too.

You just have to.

And it's eating Funfetti frosting straight from the can.

(That one was all me.)