WFMW Archives - NurtureStore

Starting School: school dinners

By Cathy James on March 28th, 2010%

Little is starting school in September. (See how calmly I typed that?) She is already excited about it and can’t wait to follow in Big’s footsteps. She currently attends the local pre-school each morning, where she has two best friends and lots of fun. She is confident and gregarious and I’m thinking she’ll find the transition to school OK, but I’ve been thinking about how I can help her get ready for her next step. I have no checklist of ‘Things Your Child Should Be Able To Do When They Start School’ in mind – that’s not how I think at all. But there are certain things it would be useful if she’d practised or skills she’d tried, before September rolls around.

Thinking ahead gives us plenty of time to play around with the idea of school. I thought I’d share some thoughts with you on a ‘Starting School’ theme as we go along – and hope you’ll offer some comments and ideas too. (And if you are homeschooling I hope you’ll still find some of the later topics relevant.)

Launching the Starting School topic is ‘School Dinners’.

Eating lunch somewhere unfamilar, helped by unfamilar adults can be a big deal. So how about some trial runs before the big day? We started off by going shopping for a special lunchbag and drinks bottle, chosen by Little herself. Then I let Little play with them – getting used to opening and closing them and having a pretend school lunch. This gives lots of opportunity to practice what might happen at school. We chatted about what she might like to eat and who she can ask to help her peel her banana. (Please note how many slices of cake she packed for herself.) If your child is going to be having dinners provided by the school they might benefit from practice at carrying a tray.

After Easter Little’s pre-school is running a Lunch Club one day a week, where the children can stay half an hour longer than usual had have lunch. This is a perfect first step, in a familar environment. If your own pre-school doesn’t offer a lunch club, maybe you could suggest one? Alternatively you could pair up with a friend and take turns hosting your own lunchclub at eachothers house.

Even if your child is used to having meals at a nursery this kind of roleplay is valuable. Get them used to the bag, bottles, containers they will be using at school. Can they open their own yoghurt pot? Unwrap the clingfilm on their sandwiches? You’d hate them to go hungry simply because they couldn’t get at their food.

So, those are my thoughts around school dinners. Do you have any other suggestions – I’d love you to leave a comment. And if there are any other topics you’d like me to cover, please let me know and I’ll do a post so we can swap ideas.

Happily shared with weareTHATfamily

Magic sauce recipe – get your kids eating vegetables

By Cathy James on January 13th, 2010%

This post is happily shared with wearethat family’s Works for me Wednesday.

I have lots of children around my kitchen table during the week and boy are some of them fussy eaters. It can be really difficult to find a healthy meal they will all enjoy as there’s no way I’m cooking more than one meal a night (this ain’t no restaurant!). This is my recipe which they will ALL eat – it’s easy to make, it freezes really well and it squeezes in seven types of vegetables without them even knowing. It definitely works for me.

You’ll need:

1. a onion
2. a clove of garlic
3. a stick of celery
4. a red pepper
5. a carrot
6. half a small fennel bulb
7. a tin of chopped tomatoes
8. a little olive oil
9. a teaspoon of sugar (optional)

Optional extras are herbs such as basil and oregano (but my kids will object to any tell-tale green bits) and a slug of balsamic vinegar.

To make it, chop up ingredients 1 to 6 and fry in a little olive oil. Add the tomatoes (and the sugar, if you’re using it) and leave to cook for 20 minutes (or until all the veg is softened). Now you need to whizz this with a blender and all those little bits of vegetable magically disappear to leave a delicious tomato sauce which you can eat as soup, as a pasta sauce or as a pizza topping. That’s it – seven veggies inside your child with no fussing!

I’m always looking out for recipes like this that are easy to make and child-friendly, so if you have any to recommend I’d love you to post a comment.

Drowning in kids art – help me please!

By Cathy James on January 6th, 2010%

Today’s ‘Works For Me Wednesday‘ theme over at wearethatfamily is reaching out to readers to ask for help. So, can you help me?

With a house full of creative kids I need some ideas on how to use their masterpieces. The fridge is covered already (and the walls, and the doors…) so can you give me some other suggestions for ways to display or re-use their paintings and drawings? Please post a coment with your idea.

Please help!

Organise your school run morning routine

By Cathy James on December 30th, 2009%

It’s back to school next week and I find it can be hard to swing back into the school-run routine – for me and the children. One thing which has worked really well for us is to have a pictorial ‘Get Ready’ chart to help the kids organise themselves more, ready to head off to school. It also saves me having to ask / remind / yell so much in the morning, which everyone is happy about! It also encourages the children to be more independent and take responsibility for themselves – good life skills.

It’s easy to make:

1. Make a list of the individual tasks the children have to do each morning – in the order which you’d like them to do them. (After all, there’s no point them putting their coat on if they aren’t yet wearing their jumper)

You can include things they need to do (brush their teeth) things they need to put on (socks and shoes) and things they need to take (lunch bag) – whatever suits your routine.

2. Take photographs of each item / action. My kids think it’s so cool they have their own personal chart featuring their own items.

3. Make a poster of the photos in the right order. (You can add a word description too, even if the children are young, as it’s always good to promote reading and letter recognition).

4. Put your chart up somewhere prominent and at the kids’ eye level, so they can use it easily each morning.

We’ve been using ours for over a year now and it’s definitely made our mornings run more smoothly. Hope this works for you!