Homemade Yogurt

There is nothing more delicious and easy to make than homemade yogurt. All you need is a good bacterial culture starter, milk and a warm/room temperature spot in the house. My family has been making yogurt for generations and the recipe with specific techniques are passed down generation to generation. Homemade yogurt is fresh, healthy, easy-to-make in large batches and cheaper than the store-bought alternative. Are you ready to uncover the secret of making yogurt at home and getting it right each and every time? Here it is (shhhh... ;)

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Materials

• A container with a fitted lid (plastic, stainless steel or glass; they all work).
• 1 cup Milk (preferably 2% and up; I use higher fat content for my growing kids but you can also keep it light for a healthier version)
• 2 Tbsp thick fatty yogurt (Greek yogurt is the best!)
• A pot for warming the milk

Procedure

1. Thoroughly wash and dry the container. 
2. Spoon 2 tbsp yogurt in the container and place the lid. Now shake the yogurt very well so that it coats all the corners of the container (hence the fitted container; to avoid messy spills).
3. Now take the lid off, make sure the yogurt is coated in all corners of the container (if not, then repeat step 2).
4. In the meantime, pour the milk in the pot and bring to medium low heat. When you start to see little bubbles form on the top edges of the pot, then turn off the heat.
5. Now, COMPLETELY cool the milk (I emphasize the word "completely" because if you don't then you won't get yogurt but runny goop..hehe). Check the temperature of the milk with your pinky finger; if it is at room temperature or just slightly warm, then the milk is ready).
6. The most important step is this one. PLEASE DO NOT MOVE THE CONTAINER WHILE OR AFTER POURING THE MILK! So place the container before pouring, in a safe, unreachable or unmovable spot (like the inside of a turned off oven or in the corner of the counter close to the stove). Milk needs a warm environment to begin the fermentation process of making yogurt. If you move it, then you won't make yogurt. 
7. Carefully pour the room temperature milk in the container and cover with the lid.
8. Finally, cover the container with a cheese cloth without moving the container and leave it as is for 1 whole night (around 12 hours).
9. Now the hardest part begins...waiting. I know you are tempted to see if your yogurt is ready but don't open it or it will be wasted and there will be no yogurt. This happened to one of my friends, but she got it right once she followed all my steps.
10. The next morning, carefully remove the cheese cloth and open the lid. Touch and taste from the corner of the container and if it is thick and acidic, then your yogurt is ready. (If the yogurt is not ready, place the lid and cheese cloth back on (w/out moving the container) and leave it for another 12 hours.) You are ready to serve homemade yogurt. Note: It is best to keep homemade yogurt refrigerated.

Enjoy! Tell me how it turned out...
Annie

Questions, Questions, and Questions!

Do you have a toddler, preschooler or a big kid that asks you non-stop questions? Always, every time and about everything?

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That's good news! It tells you that your little person is very inquisitive and wants to be on top of his or her game. Never ever squash their questions! Take the time to really listen and provide open-ended answers (Minus the yes or no questions and give ones that will lead to more questions). Huh?! More questions? YES! Sometimes you may be too tired to answer him/her back or you may just want some peace or quiet. But that is where parents go wrong. By taking the time to answer those questions, you are helping your child's mind and imagination grow in leaps and bounds. This will help them in the later years of their lives (i.e. schooling, work,...). 

How should you answer the questions that your pre-schooler asks?

- Close-Ended Answers: when you give a 'yes' or 'no' or one word answers to a question, you put up an invisible barrier that says "this is the end" of questions. These kinds of answers are limited in vocabulary and provide very little insight on the topic at hand.  This signals the questioner that there is nothing left to learn about the topic or you create a frustrating road block for them. An example of a close-ended question and answer:

Q: What do whales eat?

Close-Ended A: Food

- Open-Ended Answers: when you give an answer with a sentence full of details, then you are opening a channel to further communication. This leads the questioner to believe that 'there's more to the story than meets the eye.' Which further leads to more questions in consent of more knowledge. Usually the 5W's & H (who, what, when, where, why, and how) questions are the ones that helps you create a link to the ideas of the topic. An example of an open-ended question and answer:

Q: What do whales eat?

Open-ended A: Other animals that live under water (this answer will definitely prompt more questions about the names of the prey, eating habits of whales, food chain, etc.)

What are some of the advantages of questioning?

1. It opens up your critical thinking processes where one thought leads to another, forming a new question(s). This keeps on going in the head, once our mind fully understands the concept.

2. Questions help you with forming new ideas or thoughts in your head. This is great for researching/learning about something new or going in-depth to understand more about something.

3. Asking questions will build your curiosity making you eager to learn more.

Remember to encourage questioning in your child. You can do that by modelling the questioning technique. Some great opportunities to try asking questions or to model the questioning technique are:

- During book read aloud or book sharing

- Discovering something new

- Learning a new fact

- Researching for facts 

- Brainstorming for ideas

- Interviewing someone for facts or research, and

- Many more

Remember you have the key to unlock that door....so share your wisdom generously!

Annie 

Have a Picky Eater? Try these true and tried techniques

Have a picky eater? Here are some suggestions below to guide you through the Picky Eating Frenzy: 

 

Picky Eating Issues	Common Coping Ideas
Refuses to Eat	§ NEVER force your child to eat, as your child’s appetite changes every day. Also, kids are going through many growth phases. Some days they may feel tired or cranky due to aches, pains or lack of proper sleep. § Keep the pattern of eating meals ongoing. Set up a plate for them every time the family eats, even if they refuse to eat. My child’s paediatrician told us to offer our ‘picky eater’ a meal for three times and then retry after 2 hours again.
Not Tolerant to new foods	§ Start off by including a small portion of the new food item on their plate every day. Don’t get discouraged if they don’t eat for a few days. They will try it eventually. § Offer the same food item to all the children and/or eat them yourself to show that you like it as well.
Won’t eat Vegetables	§ Hide ‘em and feed ‘em: is my new motto. I offer vegetables by pureeing them and then include them in the cooked meal. For example, I use crushed onions as a base for ground beef or use vegetables for soup base in the form of a broth. § Another option is to make it attractive or make edible food art by using fruits and vegetables to decorate a food item (i.e. make a happy face using blueberries on a pancake). § Offer vegetables sticks with their favorite dips such as hummus, ranch, cream cheese, cheddar cheese sauce, etc. § Sometimes, kids don’t know what vegetables are and why we eat them (nutritional value). Talk to your children, as your buy vegetables by pointing out their colors, shapes, unique flavors or their nutritional benefits.
Likes to eat one type of food only	§ Kids are happy with comfortable and regular food items. So don’t get frustrated when they refuse to eat anything other their favorite cereal. Offer new nutritious items with their regulars. § When the family sits down for dinner, don’t make ‘specialized’ meals for your child that they like. Offer them what the whole family will eat.

Note: Always talk to a registered dietician or your doctor about picky eating concerns.

  
In the next article, I will be talking about refusal to eating meat, drinking or not drinking enough milk, juice drinking craze, and slow eater.

To be continued....
Annie

Happy New Years!

I hope and pray that everyone has an awesome start, middle and end in 2014! 

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Best Wishes and Good Health, 

Annie

Series of Themed Play - Construction Equipment Toys

This is a continuum to the Themed Play Series. Kids need daily exposure to verbal, written, heard, and spoken vocabulary for the growth of their speech and language development. In this blog post, we will look at construction toys and how you may use them in your day-to-day play with useful vocabulary for your baby, toddler or preschooler. Construction toys can be anything from toy cars, diggers, haulers, dump trucks, tractors, bulldozers, cranes, road graders, construction clothing to many more. Construction toys are fun and can be played by anyone (boy or girl) of any age. All you need is a bit of imagination and creative energy.

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Let's look at how we played with our construction equipment toys:

1. First of all, we discussed the topics/questions below:
• What is construction? The words construction means to build something or to put something together (construct it).
• Where do we see it? We normally see construction going on in new parts of the city or in areas where something was destroyed or needs to be rebuilt.
• What is the purpose of construction equipment? It is important to have construction going on in the city or country, for its growth and progress. For example, if a city has a lot of people that migrated from another city or country, then they will need more houses for everyone to live in. Or if a building collapsed due to an earthquake, we need to clean the old mess and build a new one in its place. 
• Who is allowed to use real-life construction equipment? Only an adult (18 or older) can operate a construction equipment. Most construction companies require their workers to write tests or pass certifications to operate a construction equipment.
• What are some construction jobs? Heavy Equipment Operator, Construction equipment Mechanic, Laborers, Traffic Controller, etc.
2. Next, examine each equipment and talk about what it does? You can also demonstrate actions that go along with each construction equipment. Say:
• A Digger/Excavator will dig a large hole in the ground; it is a powerful electronic shovel.
• A Tractor will carry heavy loads in the front or the back depending on the type of tractor; front-end or back-end. It is sometimes used to carry a certain piece of equipment to the construction site.
• A Bulldozer will push large amounts of dirt or rocks.
• A Dump truck is used to carry heavy loads of sand, dirt, or rocks to a construction site that is in need of it.
• A Crane is a very large construction equipment used to pick up or lift heavy things from one place to another.
3. Finally it is time to play by making "beep beep" sounds for warning that the construction equipment is on the move. Here are some play suggestions:
• Move the toys back and forth and say: push or pull.
• When an equipment moves, say: Vroom, Vroom!
• Whenever you move a toy, say: beep...beep...beep. This gives others working on the construction site a warning; that an equipment is on the move. Beep means CAUTION.
• Use hand signals to show going forward or backwards. Similar to a traffic police officer.
• Make STOP, SLOW DOWN, PROCEED WITH CAUTION, UNDER CONSTRUCTION signs on a yellow/orange/red diamond. Talk about how to use them on a construction site. Then play with the construction toys and take turns using the made-up signs.
• Set up obstacles around the house and have your child maneuver the obstacles by taking their construction equipment for a ride. Avoid hitting the obstacles.
• Set up cushions around the house in a line (in likeness of speed bumps) and have your child go over them slowly. Say: whenever there is a speed bump, we slow down.
• Set up blocks or toys around, then have your child push the toys using a Bulldozer.
• With a Dump Truck, pretend to load it up with little toys, move/drive it to another place and then dump it. Say: load it, drive it, and dump it.
• Look at construction signs on the internet and talk about what each one means. For example, whenever you drive by a construction zone, talk about the low speed sign. Most construction sites tell drivers to slow down. This is for the safety of the construction workers on site who may work close to the road.
• Discuss why majority of the construction equipment or signs on the construction site are either orange, yellow or red. All these colors means Please Proceed with Caution.

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These activities can be done with intervals to avoid information overload! :) Overall, it was a fun learning experience and we love to play with construction toys all the time. How about you?

Annie