Preparing for Monday: Let's Get Cracking!

On each day of the March Break (with one day "off") I'll post ideas of activities you can do with your children ages 2-6. Many of the ideas can be adapted if you have older children.  I hope to post each day's ideas the dayjui before so you can prepare and plan ahead!

On Monday, we'll be celebrating the humble egg!

Culinary
In the morning, gently tap on the top of a few eggs; pick out the shell to create an opening on the top of the egg. Pour out the yolk and whites into a bowl and scramble. Set the shells aside...you'll need them later! Let your child help assemble this fun and delicious breakfast.

Now, make your breakfast:
Nest Eggs
1. Oil/grease the cups of a muffin tin (one per egg or person in your family; adults might eat 2 each)
2. Press a slice of ham into the muffin cup, to line it.
3. Pour some scrambled eggs into the ham cup, to about 3/4 full.
4. Pour about 1 tablespoon of cream on the egg, with a sprinkle of grated cheese, salt, pepper, and basil.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 min. (or less if you like your eggs soft). Serve on toast or an English muffin! My kids like these with a healthy dose of ketchup, of course!

Creative
Egg Heads!
You'll need:

• egg shells with tops cracked out, washed
• permanent marker
• a bit of planting mix/soil
• seeds (sunflower, alfalfa, red clover )

Fill the egg shell with soil. Spread seeds over the soil, and cover with a thin layer of more soil. Draw silly faces on the eggs with the permanent marker. Water gently, and set in an open carton in a sunny window, with some plastic wrap over them until they germinate. Now wait for the egg heads to grow "hair". Different seeds will produce different hairdos. Once their hair has grown, let your children give the egg heads a haircut! Eat the sprouts! 

Social/Outing
Contact your local library and find out what kids' activities are planned for the week! Or visit a local farm and see some newborn lambs or kids. If neither of these options works for you, call a friend with kids and get the gang together for a playdate. Find out if there are any kid-friendly matinees at your local theatre (for those of you in the Ottawa Valley, there will be a FREE puppet show and concert for children at Festival Hall in Pembroke on Monday, March 14 at 2 p.m.!) Your children may not be stir crazy yet, but it's a good idea to have at least one outing planned for the week!

Fine Motor

This may seem like a funny one to include, but this is a skill near and dear to my heart. Many children come into my Kindergarten class without having had any practice cutting with scissors or holding a pencil. We spend a lot of time working on this. Any experience your child has from the age of 2 on is a big help!

Today, give your child some straws; stripey ones or colourful ones are the most fun! These are easy to cut because they are not floppy like paper. Have your little one snip snip snip the straw into bits! Encourage them to keep the elbow of the cutting hand close to their body. This takes coordination and practice, as well as close supervision! You can help by doing "hand over hand" cutting (opening the scissors up is a particular challenge for beginners). Once your child is comfortable with cutting up straws, they can graduate to strips of cardstock, then strips of paper. Just being able to snip something narrow into little bits can be very satisfying for a wee one. They can then use a glue stick to paste the bits of paper on to a bigger sheet of paper! ART!

Your older child can cut up straws, then take the fine motor practice a step further by threading the pieces onto a piece of yarn. A blunt tapestry needle is helpful, or just wrap a bit of tape tightly around the end of the yarn (like the end of a shoelace). Wear the beautiful necklace your child created for you!

Join us tomorrow for Tuesday: Somewhere Over the Rainbow!
PS My apologies if I've broken any copyright laws by borrowing the photos in this post from the world wide web.