How to Make Dandelion Play Dough

There are so many dandelions popping up right now. Take a walk and collect some danelions to make this fun recipe for dandelion play dough.

Things you need:

• A Big Handful of Dandelions

• 1 cup of boiling water

• 2 cups of flour

• 1/3 cup of salt

• 2 T. baby oil (or vegetable oil)

• 1-2 T. cream of tartar

Bring one cup of water to a boil and remove from heat.

In a blender, mix the hot water and dandelions.

Once the dandelions are pretty much completely destroyed in the water, transfer the water to a bowl and add in oil, salt, and cream of tartar. Give it a good stir to dissolve the salt.

Add in 2 cups of flour to the mixture and stir really good until it is fully mixed.

Then dig your hands in and mix some more. If it is sticky at this point you might need to sprinkle in some more flour and knead until it no longer sticks. The amount of flour that you may need to mix in will vary based on how much water the dandelions were holding.

Making Stone Soup with Your Child

By Jennie Ellis, Kindergarten Teacher

We love to make stone soup in our class! This is a two day, will work activity. We use our will to wash and chop all the vegetables. We help with prep all the way to clean up. An excellent exercise in direction following, will, patience and fine motor skills. Perfect for all ages! 

Chopping vegetables on the first day, we chop on Tuesdays, but this is a fun activity to do before a rainy or over cast day as you could enjoy the warm soup-the true fruits of your labor on a cold, rainy day.  

Waiting a day after chopping to enjoy your soup will build up your child's patience muscles and the joy that comes from  the anticipation. 

Materials Needed

• child safe knife (butter knives can cut most vegetables if you don't have a smaller knife)

• cutting board

• cooking pot

• vegetables

• bouillon or broth

We wash and prep all of the veggies. We chop them and add them to our pot of broth. We add any herbs and spices that would compliment our vegetable pallet. Feel free to add whatever will make this soup appetizing to your family's taste. I usually do a stone soup day in my home on a day I am cleaning out the fridge to make room for new groceries. Carrots and celery that are looking limp make great soup additions! We let the veggies sit in the broth overnight in the fridge. We put the soup on, in the morning, allowing the delicious aroma to take over our classroom, much like on bread baking day. You could cook on low heat the next day starting at noon and it would be ready for dinner. Piggy back your soup chopping day with bread baking and you could enjoy a fresh loaf of bread with your stone soup. 

Working Parent Tip 

Prepping dinner around lunchtime to put to the side in a crock pot or oven on low has proven to be a time and sanity saver in my home over these past two weeks. Involving them in cooking may take a bit longer to complete the prep but you will gain in the long run. They will hold onto the immense connection they made with you during dinner prep help and carry it with them into free play. They may not need your attention as much as they were able to recharged their incessant desire for undivided connection and attention from you. You are their life forces!!  This might lead to some prolonged independence away from you, allowing you to possibly get some work done. Fingers Crossed.

Please find this story below that can go along with your stone soup project. 

Stone Soup Story

Once  there was an old man who had been traveling for a long time. He was poor and had no money or food. When he came to a village, he began to go from door to door to see if someone had food to spare. But wherever he went, the people said they had nothing to give and sent him away.

When he came to the last house, the man of the house  jeered and said, “All I have to give you is water.”

“ Oh, thank you,” the old man said with great enthusiasm. “I can make some stone soup with that water”. The man from the village shook his head at him, but because he was curious about this stranger and his stone soup, he gave him a big pot of water.

The old man sang a merry tune as he built a small fire and set the pot upon it. He took a small, round stone out of his pocket and ceremoniously placed it in the pot. After a while a passerby stopped beside him and asked what he was doing there.

“ Oh, I’m making stone soup. Would you like some when it’s ready?”

“ What does it taste like?” asked the villager.

“ Well, not bad, but it would taste a lot better if it had an onion in it.”

The villager said he had one onion he could put in it, if that was all the old man wanted of him. He gave an onion, and into the pot it went. Pretty soon another villager came and asked about the soup. When he asked what stone soup tasted like, the old man replied:

“Well, not bad but it would taste a lot better if it had a potato in it.”

This villager had a potato, if that was all he wanted. So, a potato went into the pot. Since news travels pretty fast  in a small village, it was not long before a carrot went into the pot, if that was all he wanted. Another brought a tomato, and one after another, the whole village added one vegetable each.

At last, the soup was ready.  Great tables were placed in the square and all around were lighted torches. The villagers brought bread and cider and soon a banquet was spread and everyone sat down to eat. And they ate as much as they wanted.

The old man, who had eaten his fill too, was careful, however, to retrieve the stone from the pot and put it back into his pocket for another day.

How do we Stay Balanced in a Time of Uncertainty?

by Jennie Ellis, Kindergarten Teacher

How do we stay connected and balanced as a family in a time of such uncertainty?

A well-rooted sense of security, freedom, and imagination can grow into a strong, craved-for comfort for you and your children.

Strong roots, tangled and arranged with pure, considerate intention, will provide strong interconnections with one another.

There are some supportive steps that can help maximize your efforts.

Security

Security comes from providing a warm, protected environment. In these chaotic times, our usual environments can become unraveled. A flooded environment could cause your child to be immersed in too many strong sense impressions from all directions. This sends our children in too many directions at one time, asking them to filter and intellectually understand beyond their developmental growth. These days, this could be as simple as providing too much information about the COVID 19 Virus. Providing only the mandatory details for their safety is best. Leave the worry for the adults. Children birth to seven years old need only the basic safety directions. More than that can lead to anxiety and disconnection. Even in times of complete certainty, offering our children too many activities or too many books or toys to choose from can cause confusion and over stimulation. Imagine what this unexpected twist has done to our child's sense impressions? 

Providing a sheath of physical warmth is essential for very young children. Young ones have not yet developed the ability to self regulate body temperature. Between birth and age 7, children need all their energy for growth and organ development. If their bodies are too busy trying to regulate body heat, this period, they can experience illness, exhaustion, and frustration. 

Help your children by giving clear messages about what to wear. This can be difficult with children who have sensory challenges or express frustration with clothing and varying temperatures.. Layers of clothing help with this obstacle.   I have rarely met a child who willingly puts on layers, so pick your battles and trust your parental instincts. 

Rhythm, Rhythm, Rhythm. An enormous sense of security comes from a solid, family rhythm. As adults we follow our own daily rhythm, even if it doesn't feel organized, we have one. Getting up, taking care of our children, going to work, eating, sleeping, etc. We as adults crave variety in our lives; children crave repetition. Children are forever changing, developmentally, physically, and internally.  They require a stable external environment. The slow rhythm of nature can be a perfect base and healing tool to anyone’s rhythm, especially a child’s. Think about when the sun rises; we get up, eat breakfast and start our day. Mid-morning, we do our most productive physical and mental work. Mid-day, we refuel our bodies in order to continue our work in the afternoon. Mid-afternoon, we slow our work down and anticipate when we can move into our freedom mode. Our work is coming to an end and we can relax. Sundown, we are full of comfort and quiet moments as our bodies prepare to rest and recharge for another day, another season, etc. We can find small ways to make our days more rhythmic over time. It could be as simple as eating your three meals a day at the same time. Only you and your family can find the right fit -- be patient and give it time, each day will get easier. 

Freedom and Imagination

Children require age-appropriate freedom to move and lose themselves in imagination. A child flourishes where they can physically move about in a safe and open way. Make spaces in your home for creativity and comfort to blossom. A couple of pillows in a cozy corner of your house will welcome any child during times of imaginative play or even in times of frustration. A welcoming space, where they can safely gather their feelings, gaining comfort while keeping their freedom. This is an amazing tool to utilize during these days of insulated living. Put a story basket together by taking three or four animal or human figures, a piece of cloth and some rocks or pine cones. Have it in a space where they have room to set up a play area. Imagination will take flight and you can sit close by, reassured that your child is content and you have some freedom of your own. (Necessary freedom to get to the work that needs to be done for your job or household tasks.)

All of this may feel like an overwhelming, unattainable new item to add to your devastatingly long, ongoing list.  Apply or abandon any or all of these concepts to serve your family’s unique needs. Above all, trust your own instincts.  Sometimes the hardest part might not be hearing this instinct, but listening to it. As a parent, you truly are your child’s first teacher and already hold all the tools you could ever need to make them feel safe and loved.  My role as teacher is challenging most days, but I attempt to remind myself daily that I can give the children everything they really need.

Even on the most desperate of days, I can teach them patience through an extra deep breath before defusing a conflict.  I can show extra love through a reassuring hug in a time or disconnection. Or I can teach them strength with an encouraging gesture of trust. 

We are our child's main source of strength; we are their whole world right now. The connection will remain and a sense of family unity will shine through this somber cloud of unpredictability we now call everyday life. Find tenderness in your ideals and bask in the beauty of these unexpected moments we now get to experience with our families.