Schools are closed this week and little ones are home for the holidays! Today's post includes some new ideas to keep them occupied as well as some flashbacks to posts from the past! If you're staying in for New Years Eve this year with your little ones, why not plan out a fun, kid-friendly dinner that they can both help you make and ...

At the preschool where I work, we teach about the three holidays of Hanukkah, Kwanza and Christmas during the month of December. As you may or may not know, each holiday has various foods that are an important part of the core celebration, just as turkey is a key part of any traditional Thanksgiving meal. Last December I shared two ...

Today I have two fun activities that can be easily incorporated into your Thanksgiving curriculum sessions! OUR THANKSGIVING TABLE First is a language-based lesson that talks all about ''What We Eat On Thanksgiving Day!'' Using boardmaker pictures, I put together a sentence strip that reads, ''I EAT ____ ON THANKSGIVING DAY,'' and ...

Before writing today's recipe post, I decided to take a quick glance back at my November blog entries from the past three years. In doing so I realized that I have not written many recipes for turkey time! This year at our preschool, we are preparing a pint-sized turkey day feast right before our Thanksgiving holiday break. We have ...

Halloween is almost here! Have you been busy making all things pumpkin? Well here is a yummy recipe that can serve as the perfect use for left-over pumpkin puree and can be easily made in a classroom lesson setting! Ingredients 1 cup pumpkin puree 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 ...

This is the last week of my Piccolini Perfecto Pasta creations. Please take a look at my previous two recipe posts for ideas on how to create a delicious rainbow of flavors and nutrients using Barilla's Piccolini vegetable pastas. The third and final recipe includes the Mini Rotelle (aka mini wagon wheels), wonderfully made with spinach ...

Last week I introduced my latest pasta passion--Barilla's Minature Piccolini veggie pastas! I also shared one of my own creations using the Mini Pipe Pasta. This week, I have a new recipe using different vegetables and a different sauce. These pasta dishes are a great way to incorporate vegetables into your picky eater's diet! ...

This week I would like to share my most recent love affair with food for little ones: Barilla's Piccolini Pasta with Veggies! Each box of pasta ''contains 25 percent pureed fresh in-season vegetables.'' There are three different types that Barilla currently makes, shown below: From top to bottom: Mini pipes made with carrots and ...

This week I am sharing the yummy food secrets of a wonderfully creative woman, wife and mom who I met through a mutual close friend several years ago. Rebecca has two little girls, ages 2 and 4, and loves to cook for and with her family. See below to read how the Food Network and ''Dora the Explorer'' have helped to shape the way she ...

This week instead of a recipe, I would like to share a fun lesson that expands on the apple theme from last week's recipe post. This is a lesson I created and implemented with my occupational therapist colleague and is an imaginative mix of communication and sensory-enriched activities! The Story of Johnny Appleseed The lesson began with a ...