Dehydrating Fruit

My good friend, Rachael, teaches me so much about food. Her passion is preparing and eating whole foods. Last year she taught me to can and together we canned fruit like crazy women! This year I decided to try to dehydrate some apples and pears I received from my parents and a neighbor.

What a healthy, yummy snack. It's totally helping me to not eat all the leftover halloween candy!

It's so easy. My oldest dipped the pear slices in a honey water mixture and placed them on the dehydrator racks. They took about 6 hours to dry and taste great.

Swinging

The Wonder Years wrote a fascinating post a year or two ago on rocking, swinging and swaying. It has continued to stick in my mind as such a great activity. And I love going to the park and seeing you cuties swing. I recommend reading her post! In it she shares how rocking slows down the heart rate and releases endorphins which elevate the child's mood (adults too). It also provides a calming effect and can relieve pain.

In the book "Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children" by Sharifa Oppenheimer She writes: "Swinging and rocking motion both gentle and vigorous, stimulates proper brain growth and "wires" the different areas of the brain together."

We have a park nearby we can walk to. Mia and Claire in the double stroller and Owen in the baby bjorn. We're quite the sight! Lately Mia loves pushing brother in the swing and does a fantastic job at it. I push Claire, which swinging is her ultimate favorite at the park. I love to see Owen's joyful smile and excitement and Claire and Mia's too. But I also love to see Claire and Mia close their eyes, lay their heads back and enjoy that awesome feeling of swinging.

Kids Creativity Declines in America

I felt too strong about this not to share. I think it's crucial that we as parents encourage and allow our children to be creative. Research is showing that creativity is declining rapidly in America.The Wonder Years posted today some great info on what parents can do (quite simply) to encourage creativity in your children.

This is a must read for any parent! But especially those with children 5 and under.This whole article gave me a kick in the pants. And I'm making plans to implement some of her ideas more fully in our lives.

Here are some ideas she added to her post. I'm printing these out and putting them on my fridge. Whenever I get the urge to put the tv on for the kids I'm going to try and do one of these instead.

"Wanting to know what I can do, I searched around a bit. This is a list of ways I can and others, as parents and educators, help save childhood creativity.
1. (Obviously) Limit tv and video games (I believe 1 and 1/2 hrs a day is the recommended max)
2. Provide toys that are more open ended, toys that encourage imagination.
3. Provide props for role playing (house, doctor's office...)
4. Tell stories. Look through photo albums and relate stories about the pictures.
5. Emphasize process rather than product
6. Encourage exploration
7. Allow for long periods of uninterrupted play inside and out
8. Adapt to your child's ideas
9. Give independence. Don't hover over your child. Creativity is stifled when someone feels they are being watched or critiqued.
10. Accept unusual ideas and suspend judgment.
11. Avoid evaluating statements about their work/play
12. Provide art exploration
13. Use music and make music
14. Cook with your children(It's not a complete list so feel free to share how you like to encourage creativity in your children.)"