I posted last week about Nursery Helps, and I wanted to follow up with this. Nursery is a hard calling. I honestly think that the Lord puts special people in Nursery, and that's how it should be. The children need so much love, attention, and creativity.
Snack time is important for Nursery aged children, not only does it eat up some time (yeah I said it), but it keeps them from getting hungry, aka cranky. But you have to be careful what you feed them. If you stuff them full of sugar and cookies, prepare yourself for another hour of meltdowns, screaming, and chaos. And since I'm sure you are going to have awesome things planned for that hour that do not include any of those things, it's probably better to avoid that whenever possible. So I wanted to post a few ideas on what to bring for snacks, that kids will eat. Every child is different, but maybe this will help you brainstorm.
PLEASE remember to ask parents/guardians about allergies before feeding their child anything!! Write this down in a "Nusery Binder/Folder" so when your not there, whoever is filling in will know.
1. Pretzels. I have met few children that don't like pretzels. Even my son, who has parents that don't really care for them, likes pretzels.
2. Fruits/veggies. Children love fruit. My son would rather have a tomato or strawberry over a cookie. Yes, it's true. Fruit does have sugar in it, but it's not going to get them wound up like frosting on a cupcake would.
3. Graham Crackers with peanut butter. The peanut butter has protein in it that will help keep them full and kids love graham crackers!
4. Yogurt covered raisins. My son would eat these all day if I let him. Seriously, he doesn't like raisins, but when they're yogurt covered, game on.
5. String cheese. Store in the fridge until snack time and have your assistant go grab it.
6. Applesauce. They make them in the pouches they can just slurp up now, no spoon feeding, perfect for nursery! They also have smoothies and other things in those same pouches, so you can mix it up.
7. Roaring waters Capri Sun. I believe it only have 7g of sugar, so it's a good drink option.
So what do you guys love using in Nursery for snack? Any go-to items?
My baby is two. Two years old. I know many of you think that is so young and little, and it is, I just can't believe it. He's my baby. Maybe not so much anymore. Oh well, he'll be my baby forever.
I've been blessed with a boy that does not watch a lot of TV. Even though I will admit sometimes I wish I could get him to sit still for a few minutes so I could use the bathroom without him rearranging our cats food and water around the house. That being said, this boy loves Yo Gabba Gabba. He loves to dance and thinks all the characters are funny. He doesn't sit well during it, but with Gabba, as we affectionately call it, that's kind of the point. It encourages dancing and playing games instead of just sitting on the couch, I guess a lot of kids shows do that nowadays though. Okay rant over.
The point is, when it came time to decide on his cake, I knew I wanted to do a Gabba one. When I told my mom, the party quickly escalated, you know how Grandma's are. Next thing I knew she had bought hats, napkins, streamers, and a special birthday boy cup, all Gabba themed. She bought generic table cloth, cups, plates and party blowers in the Gabba colors. With her doing all of this, there wasn't a whole lot for me to do beyond dinner, cake and ice cream. So I decided to do a couple projects I found on Pinterest. One was a banner. Truth be told, I have been wanting to do one of these for years. I have just never had the time for. So thanks mom for doing so much so I had time!
The first thing I did was go to Target and pick out scrapbook paper. You don't need to use scrapbook paper, but I do recommend it. I got a pack of 12x12 cardstock paper for about 7.50 on sale (normally 10.59). It came with about 82 pieces of paper, needless to say, I didn't need all of them.
The next thing you do is make a templet. You have to decide how big you want your pennants on the banner to be. I wanted mine to be 7 inches wide at the top and 10 inches long. I got a blank piece of paper and a ruler to measure. Okay so I probably should've used a classical ruler, the kind you use in school, but believe it or not, I couldn't find one. So if you can find one, yours will look that much better.
Okay measure out how ever many inches wide you want your banner to be at the top of a blank piece of paper. In my case I chose 7 so that's what I measured out. Mark at 0 and then at 7 (or whatever you chose for the width). Okay, ready for your math for the day?? You're going to divide that in half. So in my case, (7/2=3.5). Mark out that half way point, for me it was 3.5 inches.
From that halfway point measure down how long you want the pennant to go. I measured 10 inches. If you don't have a paper cutter like mine, you may want to draw a line connecting the tip at the bottom to either side of the top of the pennant.
Now we get to cutting. Line up one of the edges of the top of the pennant with the bottom point on the cutter. Cut!
Do the same with the other side.
TA-DA! You have a templet!
Now you are going to trace it on your piece of paper. Put the top corner in one of the corners of the paper to get the most out of the paper. You can use the scraps to make cards, embellish scrapbook pages, etc.
If you used 12x12 paper, flip the templet around and trace it again like pictured below. This is going to fit 2 pennants on one piece of paper so that you aren't wasting a whole lot.
Cut the flat edge first so the paper will fit better in your cutter. (If you don't have a cutter, it doesn't really matter.)
Cut the line between the pennants that connects the two. **TIP** Just worry about measuring up both the ends. Unless you're super great, your line probably isn't straight. Don't stress yourself out over it. It's just a guide.
Trim the other side in the same way.
Now you have TWO pennants! You can either layer them for a thicker look (that's what I did. I wanted mine to hang in his room long term, so I wanted it to be as durable as possible). Or you can use them individually.
*Finishing up* I don't have pictures of this because I couldn't find my tool. BUT it's really simple. All you do now it use a hole punch and punch one hole in each upper corner of the paper. I even used a three hole punch and just angled it so it was only one going in. If you want to buy a single one, it's under two dollars at my local Wal Mart.
After you punch the hole, tie a ribbon or string to connect them and knot it. I made the bow on the back since I have a boy, but it'd be super cute on the front for a girl.
And there you go! Super cute and easy project for any event, especially birthdays!
This is yet another tip I found floating around Pinterest. I was really intrigued by it and finally tested it out a few weeks ago. I've been making a lot of chili and soups lately in my crockpot. Well, a lot of the recipes have you throw the chicken in frozen or thawed, either way it is uncooked. So you pull it out 4 or so hours later to shred it, well it is HOT! Normally what I do it put it in a strainer and have cold water running over it while I shred it. That way it cools it off while I use my hands to shred it and I don't get burned. Well, let me tell you, this is even better. I don't cool it off. I don't rinse it off. I literally take it out (with tongs, because I'm a wuss), plop it in a bowl, plug the mixer in, and go to town. I never even touch it. It's wonderful. I use my lowest setting to do it, but I have a super cheap mixer that goes pretty fast even on the lowest setting.
Don't believe me? A picture is worth a thousand words.
