Monday, July 11, 2011

Summer Fun! Weeks 1 and 2!

Summer fun, our way, means finding things to do at home and away.  It's not hard to do things away, swimming, hiking, riding bikes, etc.  But, with a little baby I don't enjoy being away from the house every day.  I'm trying to keep a schedule for him, some what.

Summer break isn't [ever] long enough, so I've broken it down to our 10 weeks of summer.  Before the mayhem began (aka, kids out of school) I made us a little schedule.  The only way I can be sure to get things done, it seems, is to make lists.  I have weekly themes centered around nursery rhymes.  The nursery rhyme idea is to help with my incoming kindergartner's reading/language skills.  We have a recipe and a craft each week. and some times a science experiment--if I'm up for it!

Week 1--Months and Dates

nursery rhymes: "The Days of the Months" and "A Week of Birthdays"
recipe: Cookie Art
craft: marathon letter

COOKIE ART

Sugar cookie dough (store bought is okay or use my recipe below)
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. water
food coloring
tiny cookie cutters
clean paint brushes

Chill cookie dough a few hours.  Roll out on a baking sheet.  Divide into sections, if applicable.  Mix egg yolks and water well.  Separate mixture into small bowls or cups.  Tint each to desired shades (I kept it simple with red, yellow, green, and blue).

Let each child decorate a cookie section.  Pressing cookie cutters down gives good shapes to fill in, or children can paint free style.

Bake as directed.  Let cool.  Eat your "art" out!




 Before the oven


The finished product.


Sugar Cookies
1/3 c. butter or margarine
1/3 c. butter-flavored shortening
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt

Cream butter and shortening.  Add sugar and beat until fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla extract.  In separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir in to wet ingredients, mix well.  Cover and refrigerate a few hours.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll out dough to 1/8 inches thick.  Cut with floured cookie cutters.  Bake for 7-10 minutes 'til edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned.  Cool on rack.


Marathon Letter
My brother is on the Hill Cumorah Pageant work crew right now http://www.hillcumorah.org/Pageant/.  The whole extended family is feverishly writing him letters to help him win a contest, whoever gets the most mail wins.  We thought he might enjoy a 40 foot letter.  I found a long roll of paper at a nearby parent/teacher store for $8.00.  There is still a ton of paper left on it (I threw away the wrapper which had the total length on it).  We rolled it up an sent it in a cardboard poster tube, along with some candy.





Week 2: Patriotism

nursery rhymes: "Yankee Doodle," "The Grand Old Duke of York," and "Humpty Dumpty"
recipe: Fruit Jewels
craft: Pinwheel Wreath


FRUIT JEWELS

2 3-oz pkg. jell-o, any flavor
1 1/3 c. water, divided
small pieces of fruit
mini-muffin tins

Place a small piece of fruit in each mini-muffin tin.  Dump jell-o packages into two separate bowls.  Boil water.  Stir 2/3 c. water into each bowl.  Stir until dissolved.  Use small cup to pour jell-o into muffin tins.  Refrigerate until set.  Use butter knife to loosen fruit jewels from muffin tins.  Enjoy!
You missed a spot.
Mmm...
Patriotic fruit jewels

Patriotic Pinwheel Wreath
http://www.playsational.com/4th-of-july-crafts-pinwheel-wreath/

We didn't get to make this--it's really more for the 5-year old.  We were going to put stars on ours, too.  However, 4th of July week was busy so we missed doing this one--the kids didn't even notice :).

5 comments:

the Holyoaks said...

Wow! What great ideas! Audrey would LOVE your house right now. I'm such a lame mom. I really don't enjoy doing crafty stuff with my kids. It's terrible of me, I know. But maybe we could attempt that cookie art...that looks pretty fun and tasty.

Jennifer said...

What fun ideas for at home fun this summer! You are such a great mom! :)

ldsjaneite said...

How fun this is! And I just plan occasional programs here and there in the summer and am exhausted. Go you!

Love your witticism, too! "art" out. Ha ha!

Tara said...

You are such a fun mom. I remember when I used to do summer activities like that. What has happened to me? Your kids are so lucky.

Dustin said...

Thanks for all the fun ideas! What lucky kids to have you! I love the cookie art!