pancakes feb. 19th

Mornings like this make life fun, interesting, engaging, and meaningful. It was definitely the best session we've had thus far. The boys were so cute...the way they interacted with eachother...the camera just can't capture it.

Centers ran smoothly. The boys started in the cooking center, playing with the pots n' pans. We looked at the empty box of hamburger helper, read the instructions on the back, and the boys acted out my intruction reading. Kind of fun. So save your empty food boxes with instructions and let's do some pretend play:). I put some plastic food nearby but wondered if they would want to add them to their play. Riley answered this question. He found the corn on the cob and decided that it needed some cooking. Later he needed a plate and utensils so that he could eat it properly. Meanwhile, Carsten was supportive of adding the plastic food. He threw in all he could find into the large pot and was very busy cooking. Then he took the muffin pan and used the grater to dump a food item into the pan, one by one. Carsten decided that he needed some water to add to his cooking play. He first poured some in Riley's corn on the cob pan, to which Riley responded, "oh, thank you." They were so cute.





Riley and Anneclaire were then ready to draw in the art center. Riley enjoyed drawing a rainbow, telling me the colors that he chose to use. He was very focused on writing his name, calling out the letters as I helped him write each one. Carsten went to join them and was intent on painting his paper with water. He is more interested at this point in the process of what he is doing than the outcome.


At this point, Riley moved to the block center and started building. Missing his friend, Carsten brought his pan of food and water to the large table and cooked next to Riley the builder. Riley was excited with each new thing he created.

During Movement/Music time, we sang , signed, & moved with the "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Give said the little stream", "Here we are together," and the "Snowman song". The boys enjoyed moving like bears, making bear noises. The picture below was taken by Carsten. Not bad :). We also reviewed some of our sign language, "spinning" around the room.


The boys enjoyed a puzzle together. I was impressed with how well they did it together. Carsten would ask Riley where a piece went, they would each point to a spot, Carsten would place the piece and Riley would confirm the action, "yes, right there!" After they did this ritual a couple times, Carsten told Riley that they were to take all the pieces out and make a snake with them, "no, a caterpillar." With the snake suggestion, Riley looked confused, but caught the vision and anwered to the caterpillar suggestion with a resounding, "yes!"

Above: Carsten moving and growling like a bear.

Below: Train time fun...making tracks in the carpet.

The pancake project began by reading the story, If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. As always, the boys were great help in cooking. They know the routine: they wash their hands and climb on to "their" chair, as Anneclaire sits in her highchair. They love helping me find the ingredients, telling me which are the eggs, flour, salt, etc. It's easy to have them help because they are so good at waiting their turn to add the ingredients. They were anxious to add chocolate chips, this is not a normal ingredient, but, they being the chefs in training, I thought, "why not?" Of course, the boys wondered where the chips went when they tasted their pancakes, for they could not see them after the batter had been through the blender.

Here's the pancake recipe:

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups oats

1/2 cup spelt flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup almond butter

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

a handful of chocolate chips

1. First blend the milk & oats, add rest, giving the oats time to soak up the milk.

2. Cook on griddle or pan med heat or 275-300 degrees. There weren't many bubbles, but you can see the batter start to pull away from the pan...a good time to flip the pancakes. They take longer to cook, but are worth the wait!

For Outdoor Time we went for a walk down to see the cows, dogs, goats, and ponies. Riley enjoyed watching his shadow as we walked (wearing his backpack:)). Anneclaire was ready for an adventure...ahead of us most of the time and with no desire to stop walking. Carsten rode his bike, of course. Thanks for a wonderful morning kiddos!