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Chicken, Mozzarella & Basic Panini

Posted by Brande on March 1, 2011
in Contributing Writers, Food and Treats

Once, I was able to get my daughter down to sleep. I was flipping the pages of my new March 2011 Parents Magazine. When on page 115, I found this recipe. It immediately got my taste buds flowing! Check this out….
http://www.parents.com/recipe/chicken/chicken-mozzarella-and-basil-panini/

I made my own alterations to the recipe as I usually do. Instead of using basil leaves, I made basil pesto. I just spread a thin layer on the bread like mayo.

Here’s how I make my basil pesto.
2 1/2 to 3 cups of fresh basil
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of olive oil
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese

Combine all in a food processor and mix until well blended.

This is a lot for sandwiches, but you can freeze leftover and put over pasta for another night! We will be making this again for sure!

See Brande’s bio on our writers page.

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Nature – Ultimate Playground for Kids

Posted by html404 on February 24, 2011
in Education, Guest Post, Thrifty Thursday

This week’s Thrifty Thursday includes a free playground: Nature – The Ultimate Playground for Kids.

Every year parents spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on toys and activities for their kids. While many of things are great for keeping young minds and bodies active, many of them are unnecessary. Sure kids need structured play, but they also need “free” plan and this is easy to do when the world’s largest playground is right outside your back door. Why not let them play outside? After all, what else are we suppose to do with all the snow we have in the Midwest?

Every toy, book, and TV show that comes out has been designed and redesigned several times in order to make it educational and entertaining for children. The great thing about nature is that, while being entertaining and stimulating to the imagination, it is also educational. Nature can teach children the basics of science, economics, and creativity.

It is cheap. Depending on where you live, exploring nature is usually pretty inexpensive, if not free. It may mean going out in your backyard, local park, or perhaps going to the local nature center or state park (which usually have low cost fees or memberships). This way, you do not have to pay for expensive toys, jungle gyms, or memberships to expensive entertainment centers, but you still get the benefit of stimulating and educational play.

Nature makes children think. Lately there is been a trend in education towards inquiry based learning. Researchers have found that if students explore and experiment to figure out answers on their own, they are going to learn better, and retain more information. It also helps them develop skills to be able to learn things on their own later. What better environment to learn things than out in nature. There are lessons for kids of all ages to discover about the world around them.

Everyone these days is trying to be more green and more environmentally conscious. What better way to help do your part than to get your children interested in their own planet than right now when they are young and impressionable? What might be a fun time for them now, might be a future hobby, career, or world saving invention.

Nature is fun. While it is easy to forget, childhood is not just for learning about how to be an adult, it’s also about having fun. Nature gives kids a chance to use their imagination and be free to just be kids.

While unstructured play outside is great for kids, you can also find a lot of places offering structured classes and learning sessions for kids that focus on the natural world. Check your local park, zoo, or museum. There is a good chance they have classes you can sign up for, and since many of these places are not for profit, they’re usually affordable as well as informative.

Across the world, there are millions of dollars being spent to help promote sending your kids outside to learn from nature. That’s because spending time outside is so important for developing minds. It can also be a great escape for you as well.

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Natural Homemade Beauty Recipes

Posted by html404 on January 27, 2011
in Guest Post, Thrifty Thursday

Natural Homemade Beauty Recipes

Nature is the newest trend in skin and hair care. For years, we’ve been putting toxic chemicals into our bodies that build up and make us feel tired and sick, regardless of whether we eat them or if they seep though our pores. And people are finally catching on that natural is better.

Most stores now have a line of “natural” beauty products. Unfortunately, they often come with a big price tag attached too. Often times many of these products are not actually “natural” so it does pay to do your homework to ensure you are getting what you pay for.

Fortunately, actually making beauty products yourself isn’t too difficult. So if you want beauty products that you know are natural and are also inexpensive, just make them yourself. Here are 5 quick and easy recipes you can make at yourself.

Face Mask

Eating good food helps give you the right nutrients you need to look good. You can get more of these vitamins and minerals by putting the good stuff right on the skin.

Combining a mashed carrot, mashed avocado, and a beaten egg with a half cup a few tablespoons of honey creates a great face mask that provides vitamins, and improves the tone and texture of your skin. Just stir well, apply, let sit for about 15 minutes, and then wash off with cool water.

After you’re washed and nourished your skin, you can use grated cucumber or diluted lemon juice as a toner to help tighten your skin and close up your pores to close your pores and keep your skin looking great.

Hair Conditioner

Many people pay a lot of money for a conditioner that makes your hair look and feel good. Here’s a great natural recipe to save you money and help your hair:

Just mix an egg yolk with a tablespoon of castor oil and apply to hair. Let sit for about ten minutes and rinse out. You can use this every so often as a conditioning treatment for healthy shiny hair. If you like being experimental, you can try mixing other kitchen items, herbs, and natural items with eggs for healthy, shiny hair.

Hand and Foot Cream

A quick face mask will help make you look great in not a lot of time, but hands and feet require extra care.

Use ½ cup of olive oil mixed with natural sea salt and massage into your hands and feet. Leave a few minutes to soak and then rinse off with warm water.

When it comes to natural beauty products, these recipes are just the start. You can find hundreds of different combinations in natural beauty books, magazines, and on the internet. Or you can go to your kitchen cabinet and make your own special creations.

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Bilingual Education Starting Young

Posted by html404 on January 24, 2011
in Contributing Writers, Education, Guest Post

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post. While we appreciate our guest writer’s submissions, this does not constitute endorsement or agreement to the opinions expressed in the articles featured.

Bilingual Education Starting Young

For the past four years the economy has been struggling, the unemployment rate has been on a steady increase, and families all over the U.S. are feeling it in some respect. It seems that even though the economy has finally started to improve there is no guarantee for the future. Having an education may be the only way to stay ahead in this cut-throat society.

What the Future Holds for Language

The existence of a diverse, global society seems to be a trend that is going to stick, this is especially prevalent in the U.S. The U.S. has been known as the land of immigration for a large portion of its history, and while the “melting pot” has been an interesting theory, it has not happened in practice. On the contrary, most major U.S. population centers have become more of an ethnic and linguistic checkerboard; Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese and Chinese speakers represent some of the fastest-growing segments of the immigrant U.S. population.

Being Prepared

Wisdom, traditionally, has been to start teaching a second language in middle school, or even high school. However, numerous studies clearly demonstrate that the optimal period in a child’s life for multilingual education is during the preschool years – at exactly the same time they are learning their first language. Yes, it is possible to learn a second and third language later in life, but it is more difficult, because that neurological “window of opportunity” – when the brain is most malleable – has passed.

Dr. Fred Genessee, Professor of Psychology at McGill University in Montreal believes it’s as easy for young children to learn two or three languages as it is for them to learn one. He’s not alone; educators throughout the world (in countries that often have two or even three official languages) have understood this for decades.

The way a child learns a second language is by actually speaking it in a total immersion environment. You may recall an episode of the animated series The Simpsons in which young Bart gets trapped on a farm in France – and by the end of the episode, finds he’s actually speaking the language. While this was a fictional scenario, the phenomenon is real; anyone who has taken young children abroad to stay with relatives in a foreign country for any length of time has observed this happening.

Enrollment in a preschool program that offers immersion in other languages is the best way to get your child started. This investment will make him/her much more competitive in the job market later on.

Co-written by Emily Patterson and Kathleen Thomas

Emily and Kathleen are Communications Coordinators for the Atlanta day care facility, a member of the AdvancED® accredited family of Primrose Schools (located in 16 states throughout the U.S.) and part of the network of day care preschools delivering progressive, early childhood, Balanced Learning® curriculum.