Touch and Mix

Touch and Feel with Textures

This activity is loads of fun and keeps your toddler entertained for a good hour or so. Mixing, covering and dusting. This can be either a indoor or outdoor activity, if you choose to be indoors, make sure you stay away from any carpet. 

I wanted my toddler to experiment more with touch and feel activities and what a fun way to do just that.

So all I did was:

Half a cup of flour on a small baking tray,

Half a cup of macaroni pasta, in a separate cup

Half a cup of whole corn in a separate cup

(you can use any texture you have in your pantry)

I also put down some measuring cups and spoons!

Then sit back and watch! 

My Toddler had an absolute blast! He was a bit hesitant to get his hands too dirty in the beginning but in the end, he just couldn't resist. Patting, poking and picking up.

I can't wait to play this again, but next time I think I will try different objects like lentils, beans and even rice etc.  I think getting the Vacuum cleaner to help clean up could be fun too, at the same time teaching them to clean up after play.

Just remember, when choosing textures for your toddlers, please make sure they are edible.

Playing with spaghetti

Sensory Activity

This is a fun way for your toddler to play with slippery worms, that will give mum peace of mind.

I feel it's very important for a child to have a safe and friendly environment for him or her to be able to explore different textures that won't harm them, and in this activity they can even eat it (if they reallllly want to).

All you need is:

Spaghetti

Oil

Food colouring

Simple!

So you cook up your spaghetti, once cooked place a drop or two of your selected food colouring (I chose the colours I had, blue, red and green) for extra slippery and wriggly worms add a touch of oil (I add before and after, add as you feel), then place your concoction in front of your toddler and then :)  try and stand back and admire.

In no time he was mixing, squeezing, tasting and spreading this slippy, dippy, wriggly spaghetti all over. 

We did get our fingers stained, but that came off in the bath easily with a little scrub!

When we do it again I will do it outside, if the weather permits, as it was quite a messy affair. 

BUT SOOOO WORTH IT! 

Too Many Carrots

Canning Carrots

Where we live, our carrot season is coming to an end as we hit hot summer. I have got too many carrots for our family to eat. So with a little research; I decided to Can them, which turned out to be really easy, which is right up my ally.

So first of all;

~ You collect all your carrots that you want to Can, picked fresh is better!

~ Sterilize the Jars, in boiling water (very important)

~ Wash and dice (only if you want diced) the carrots, enough to fill your jars.

~ Put them into the jars, to about a inch from the top,

~ Fill the jars with boiling water to cover the carrots also about an inch fom the top.

~ Push the carrots down to remove any air pockets

~ Optional, You can add salt or sugar for taste, I didn't.

~ Put lid on, make sure not to tighten lid too much

~ Place jars into pot of cool water and bring up to the boil (this process cooks the carrots slightly)

~ Once it starts boiling, time it to 10 minutes

~ Remove Jars very carefully

~ Leave to cool before putting on shelf for storage.

Once the jars are cooled, you can check if the jars are sealed properly by seeing if the lid is sucked in, if not place it in the fridge for eating, not storage. You can also press the center of the lid and push it in, if it moves up and down it is not sealed.

You can remove the ring of the lid if you like, to prevent rust, due to moisture trapped in the ring lid. If you choose to leave them on, just loosen them.

Salt and sugar are not preservatives for vegetables: they are added to stabilize and improve flavor, but will not prevent spoilage.

My carrots that I Canned

We opened a can yesterday and they were delicious, I was very impressed, I really didn't think the carrots would taste all that good, but they retained flavor and had a slight crunch, perfect for adding to stews or casseroles etc... 

Once opened, store in refrigerator.

I'll defiantly plant extra carrots again next year.

This post links to
Flour me with Love

Re-Growing Celery

Re-Growing Celery, I mean how cool is that!

So all you have to do is;

Get yourself a celery clump and cut off the end (where the roots grow)

Then firmly poke 3 tooth picks around the base, so that it doesn't fall into the water completely, 

Put it into a jar full of water, so that the root part is submerged in water.

Then wait 3-4 days and see if there is any movement or change.

Mine started to form a head.

Then wait another 3-4 days and wa-laaa!!

I will plant mine out in a day or two.

Pigs

July - PotBellied Pigs

We got given 2 Pot Bellied Pigs from my mother in-law half way through July.

Such awesome characters! When you go in to the pen, they come snorting and oinking wanting something, as you start to scratch them, they almost go into a trace and topple over, they just love it!

Maggie is pregnant, "we going to have babies! Yay!!". I reckon she's been pregnant for about a month and a half.

And......

My husband, being the spontaneous type; gave us a day to get the pen ready for pigs! He was on his way home, and the pigs where quite far from us. 

So there we were, racing around the farm trying to make a pig pen fit for pigs. Because as we all know, Pigs are escape artist!

When the pigs arrived we made a make shift, off-loading ramp and scuttled them off, with a push and tug down the ramp. They settled in quite nicely.

Behind the pen is the chicken run and behind that is my veggie garden!

Indigenous Zulu Chicken

Zulu Chickens ~ 2010

Our Zulu chickens are beautifully coloured, but are very nervy chickens. They dont let you get close enough for a touch. They give us eggs, but not as much as we would prefer, as they are all over 2 years, when there production level gradually lowers. So if we get a egg a week, we are happy. 

Below is Speckles, one of our oldest hens, she is defiantly the bees knees in the flock, and is not shy to let any other hen know who's the boss with a firm peck. 

.