ninjapoodles

One of my very favorite things about fall is the harvest of many delicious foods, particularly apples in all their varieties. One fun way to celebrate the apple is to hold a family apple tasting contest. This is a tradition my sweet aunt started a number of years ago and I think your preschooler will enjoy it too.

What you’ll need:

• An assortment of different apples—try your local farmer’s market to find varieties beyond Red Delicious or Granny Smith
• Toothpicks
• Caramel dip

What to do:

1. Invite family and friends over for a fun night of apple tasting—you can even ask them to bring their own apples for even greater selection.
2. Cut each apple into small, bite-size wedges—remember, you’ll be sampling a lot of apples so don’t make them too big or you won’t have room to try them all!
3. Provide some caramel or other sweet dip. One thing we’ve noticed is that some apples have a much different taste when paired with the caramel versus eaten alone, so try both and compare.

One thing we do to make it even more fun is to encourage each person to vote on their favorites. Each year we tally up the vote and crown a new reigning champ for the families’ favorite apple. What’s yours?

What you’ll need:

• Bagel or stale bread (or even a paper towel roll)
• String
• Honey or peanut butter*
• Birdseed

What to do:

1. Smear honey or peanut butter on all sides of the bagel or bread.
2. Dip or roll the bagel in the birdseed.
3. Tie string to it and hang it up for the birds to enjoy.

So your kids can enjoy the birds that come to eat, try to hang it near a window they can watch from inside.

* Keep in mind that honey is fatal to hummingbirds so do not use it when feeding these birds. Also corn meal or lard should be added to peanut butter to keep the birds from choking on it.

• Decide together home much time they can watch TV a day.
• Practice selective television viewing by going over the television guide in your Sunday paper and deciding in advance what you’re watching and when.
• Watch your child’s television programs with them. This will allow you to make suggestions and to have discussions about what is being shown, making the activity more interactive and less passive.
• Help your child to understand the difference between the world on television and his real world.
• Use television viewing as a springboard to reading. For instance, a TV show about wild animals could prompt a visit to the library to find books on these subjects.
• Help your child to avoid watching TV while eating a meal by having family meals away from the TV. A 2002 study from The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center showed that children who eat meals in front of the TV spend more time watching TV—more time than it takes to eat their meals. They believe this promotes overeating and minimal activity and thus increases the risk of childhood obesity. The children in the study who watched more than 2 hours of TV a day weighed more than the children of the same age who watched less than 2 hours of TV a day.

So while TV may be an unavoidable part of most children’s lives, these simple ideas can maximize the positives and minimize the negatives.

Some fun ideas to try with your preschooler on that day or the whole month long is to make cookies with your child to take next door, create a card, or just make a little visit to a neighbor in your neighborhood. Talk with your child first about neighbors. Who they are, what they mean to you and how we can befriend them and be good neighbors.

1. With the bag flat on a table, draw two eyes, a nose and a big smile with funny teeth (like you would on a jack o’lantern) on one side.
2. Opening the bag up, cut the features out of just one side.
3. Gather the bag around a flashlight, using the yarn or string to tightly attach it. (Make sure you can reach the on/off switch).
4. Stand the bag up in a window, and it will shine like a jack o’lantern without the danger of a burn for little ones.

What you’ll need:

• A milk carton, the plastic-coated paper kind
• 12 toothpicks
• colored construction paper
• ice cube tray
• a plastic dishpan or other container for floating the boats in (your bathtub works too!)

What to do:

1. Cut 12 squares from the clean milk carton, each should be a little smaller than the top of an ice cube.
2. Stick a toothpick into the middle of each square.
3. Fill the ice cube tray with water.
4. Float each square in a square of the ice cube tray, with the longer end of the toothpick sticking up, and place in the freezer.
5. Cut small paper sails out of the colored construction paper.
6. When the ice is frozen, pop out the ice "boats".
7. Put a sail on each toothpick and you’re ready to launch your own fleet!

jpctalbot

Ah, there’s nothing like a crisp autumn day for going on a walk with your preschooler. Next time you go out with your child, collect some pretty autumn leaves and make some very practical placemats.

What you’ll need:

• Clear Contac paper
• Autumn leaves (look for a variety of colors and species)

What to do:

1. Cut two pieces of clear Contac paper 12” x15”.
2. Remove the plastic from one piece and lay it down, sticky side up.
3. Choosing pretty, bright leaves, have the child lay them on the plastic.
4. Strip the backing from the second piece and lay it on top of the leaves.
5. Now have the child rub his hands over the entire surface to seal the two pieces together.
6. You can use a pair of decorative, scrap booking scissors to cut around the edge to make an attract appearance to the leaf mats.

This is a great activity use in conjunction with Chapter 6, Day 2: Fall Leaves of Teach Me Mommy

What you’ll need:

• 2- to 3-inch lollipop sticks (toothpicks are too little, popsicle sticks are too big)
• A melon baller
• Granny Smith apples (1 apple makes about 8 mini-caramel apples)
• Butterscotch or peanut butter chips
• Sprinkles, chopped nuts or whatever you like (optional)
• Small paper candy cups or wax paper

What to do:

1. Use your melon baler to extract a ball of apple (with the peel intact).
2. Pat the apple chunk dry and push the stick through the peel into the apple.
3. Melt the chips (follow the package directions) and swirl the mini apple in the melted chips.
4. Have your child roll the mini caramel apple in his or her choice of sprinkles or nuts.
5. Place on wax paper or mini paper cups to set.

Yum, yum!