Painted Rocks

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/WiXvur Have some fun painting rocks with your child!

When Safety Isn’t Embraced

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We have a French Bulldog.

Bulldogs in general aren’t great swimmers.  So when we go to the lake, we always take her life jacket.

She is fine with that and can play all day in the water.

Not all safety is embraced.  Love this English Bulldogs reaction to a life jacket…

Other favorites…

Know a Helicopter Parent?

The Holderness Family Tackles Helicopter Parents

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Picky Eaters: 18 Homemade Snack Recipes For School { And Home}

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Snack time at school is a big deal for most parents, particularly if you have picky eaters (like my daughter!). Most days lunch will come home ‘as made’ with a little nibble bite here or there! it wears me out to be honest. She lived on ‘fresh air sandwiches’ for the past year- no filling!! I’m always on the search for creative ways to get my daughter to eat, or at the very least show an interest in eating, and this school year I am on a mission to succeed!! (apologies for all the exclamation marks – you might be able to sense my anxiety rise as I type haha)

Check out these 18 classic kid favorite recipes I have gathered that are easy to pack, send to school, and of course tempt your picky eaters.

Energy Balls
The perfect go-to snack, on-the-go breakfast, or dessert! via Living On Love

Homemade Trail Mix
Invite your kids to pick their favorite snacks and help you make your own trail mix. The theory being that they will love taking it to school when they have helped you pick just what they want! via KidsActivitesBlog

Sneaky Chef Muffins
If your kids have a hard time eating their veggies then this is the ‘sneakiest’ recipe yet. So tasty your kids will be licking their lips and asking for more!. Muhahahaaaa…(sneaky laugh) via Lacy Stroessner

Sandwich Kebabs
I love this slight variation on the plain old sandwich – it’s the way you present it right! via simpleasthat

Homemade Granola Bars
I would feel happy and confident sending these to school for snack time. You could even substitute the fruit for mini chocolate chips and marshmallows for treat days.? via I Heart Naptime

Oven Dried Apple Chips
‘Most’ kids love to eat fruit and love chips even more! so combining the two into a healthy snack is genius. via Our Best Bites
My little miss will eat ‘any’ fruit as long as it’s a banana! so here’s hoping these chips will get her interested in apples.

Homemade Fruit Snacks
This homemade gummi candy looks easy to make! great idea via Skip To My Lou

Kale Chips
Kale is one of the healthiest greens you can eat, and they get so deliciously crispy. Recipe via Living On Love

Homemade Animal Cookies
Little cute oatie bites perfect with a sweet dip. via How Sweet Eats

Homemade Cheese Crackers
With only six easy ingredients you can have flaky delicious homemade cheese crackers in under an hour. Recipe via Tidy Mom

Homemade Potato Chips
Customize flavors of homemade chips and make them exactly how you’d like them, from super basic to super fancy. They look so so so good! via Our Best Bites

Banana Carrot Crumble Top Muffins
So simple. So delicious. So having in 20 minutes! via Living On Love

Homemade Fruit Roll Ups
Everyone’s favourite snack whether you’re 5 or 95 – but without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. via Our Best Bites

Popcorn Trail Mix
Instead of the traditional popcorn and butter, try this Popcorn Trail Mix for your school snacking needs. via Good Life Eats

Crock Pot Chex Mix
Another tasty snack that is so simple to throw together!… in a cork pot! via Skip To My Lou

Pizza Buns
I love that these pizza buns can be made ahead and frozen, which makes for a quick lunch snack for the kids any day via Rebecca Cooper

Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
One of the few times you will read chocolate and health in the same sentence! Yummy cookie bites for all the family…. and at only 50 calories per cookie I will be sneaking some too! Recipe on I Heart Naptime

And last but not least…

Lacy Stroessner of Living On Love blog has a great article giving Tips for Getting Your Kid to Eat (Healthy) that will definitely want to check out. My daughter goes back to school tomorrow so I’ll be taking each and every tip I can get my hands on!!

Other Popular Related Articles Here On KidsActivitiesBlog Include:

– What Do I Do About A Picky Eater?
– 18 Kid-Friendly Snack Hacks
– Choosing a Healthy Plate: A Nutrition Activity for Preschoolers
– Dinner Table Challenges with Toddlers
– Three E’s For Optimal Child Nutrition – Educate, Expose & Empower

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Awesome Soccer Snacks With Free Printable

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For many of us back-to-school is synonymous with soccer season.  Little soccer players work up quite an appetite and post game soccer snacks are often a major highlight of the day!  We partnered with our sponsor Horizon, to bring you an awesome soccer snack idea complete with a cool free printable.  This easy soccer snack idea is sure to be a hit with the players and their cheering section.

The Perfect Post-Game Treat

Horizon snacks are great way to celebrate a game well played.  Horizon has an awesome new line of kid-friendly snacks that are perfect for sharing.  Win at snack duty by choosing a few of these fun and tasty treats.  Here’s what I packed for soccer snacks this week:

• Horizon Fruit Snacks provide a tasty dose of vitamin C, these little chewy cows are always a huge hit.
• The 5 grams of protein and excellent source of calcium found in Horizon Super Squeeze milk and fruit pouches make them a great snack for active kids.
• And sweet and delicious Horizon Snack Grahams have 8 grams of whole grains per serving to help fuel little athletes.

Both the kids and the parents loved these simple soccer snacks.  The kids thought they tasted great and the parents felt good about what was in them.

Free Printable Soccer Snack Labels

These cool labels say “Way to Goal!” and they are have a blank spot on the other side if you’d like to write the children’s names or numbers.

Click here to download and print Soccer Snack Labels

Make sure that you print them with no scaling or at 100%.  Simply cut around the outside of the label, fold in half, and staple over a filled sandwich bag.  Add a name or number if you’d like.

Connect With Horizon

Get lots of great snack ideas and much more by connecting with Horizon on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Horizon Organic. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Halloween Treat Bag Printable – Franken-Treats!

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Halloween is almost here!  Are you ready?  

If your little one is taking treats to school on Thursday, you can add one of our free treat bag printables to make it a little more fun!

Halloween Franken-Treats

Just follow the link below to print your own, then cut them out and fold in half.  You can fill a plastic bag with any of your favorite candy (we used Mike & Ikes) and tape or staple the treat bag topper on.  We found some festive monster face bags that were perfect for this, but you can use any you have at home.

Click here to download and print : Franken-Treats bag topper 

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Feely Box

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/1vQ9Shm Ask your child to identify her possessions by touch alone.

Listen to your kids

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It can be really hard to drop everything and just listen to our kids.   It can be hard when we are being pulled five different ways.  It can be hard when we are trying to get ‘one more thing done’.    The thing is… it matters.  It is so important.   How can you show your kids that you love them, respect them, care about them?  How can we raise their confidence, help them become leaders, teach them the value of their voice?  Listen to your kids.   Stop what you are doing and give them your full attention.

Listen to your kids:

I went to the University of Pittsburgh and I have spent the last ten years either teaching a class or working as a play therapist.   All of that education could not have taught me the one lesson that I learned in the most unexpected of places…
I watched an episode on Oprah once, when I was a teenager, and it has stuck with me for all of these years.  Here I am, now the mother of four children, and the words of that episode repeat themselves daily in my ears.

Maya Angelou was the guest that day.  She is full of so much wisdom, so I knew that what she was going to say would have great meaning.   Ms. Angelou told Oprah that one time her son brought her a picture that he had made.  He had drawn it and colored it himself and when he had finished, he was excited to show her.  (I am sure that you can picture your child doing this same thing!)

When he showed it to her, she didn’t give him her full attention, but instead, just said something like “its nice” and then continued to cook dinner for her family.

He walked away, saddened, but what he did next was what stuck with me.  He took the picture, ripped it up and threw it away.  Later, Maya Angelou found it in the garbage can and asked him why he would do such a thing to such a beautiful picture and he said that it was because she didn’t like it.    She found out that by not giving him her attention, he took it to mean that he didn’t like his picture, that it wasn’t good and that it wasn’t important.

She vowed then & there to pay attention to everything that he showed her, because he truly valued her opinion, just as I know that our children are valuing ours.   When they say “Mom, look at this!”  and we respond with “Just one more minute”  or “Hang on a second, honey,”  what our kids hear is “this is just a little more important to me right now.”   It isn’t what we mean, but it is what they hear.

Today, lets try to STOP what we are doing and really LISTEN to our children.  It matters to them.   It matters to you.  

What a wonderful feeling to know that someone cares about you enough to really LISTEN.

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