The juice can be made earlier before your bedtime.
Paper could be called the ultimate craft material. There are so many types of paper, from tissue paper to shiny magazine pictures, and from basic construction paper to newsprint. Here are some ideas for some creative paper crafts for kids using this fun medium.
Like many paper crafts, you can use a variety of paper types for this craft. Leftover wrapping paper is particularly attractive, but you can use catalogues, magazines, or construction paper. If you have an old phone book, you could even use pages from that! All you need is the paper, scissors, and glue. Here’s how.
* Fold a rectangular piece of paper in half lengthwise.
* Cut slits along the fold, 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart, stopping about an inch from the top edge.
* Unfold the paper, and then turn it sideways.
* Curve the cut paper around and attach the short ends of the rectangle using the glue (clear tape or staples would also work).
* To make a handle, simply take a strip of paper and glue each end across the top, leaving a curve over the top. If you like, make lots of lanterns and string them on a cord or yarn using this handle.
Crafts for Kids
If you take your lunch to school or work, you know how many of these handy little bags you go through. Why not recycle a few with some crafts? Here are some paper bag craft ideas.
* Gift Bag – Decorate a brown bag with a stencil, stamp, or free-hand painting and create a custom gift bag, perfect for a jar candle or other similarly-shaped gift.
* Puppets – Fold a paper bag so that its bottom is flush with the side (the way it usually is in the package). On the flap, which is the underside of the bag when it’s unfolded, make a face using cut-outs from construction paper, feathers, buttons, markers, googly eyes and so forth. Bird faces work well because the beak overlaps and covers the flap like an upper “lip.” Put your hand in a have fun!
Paper craft for kids
* Luminaries – Using a hole-punch, cut designs in the sides of a folded paper bag. Open it up, and then fill the bottom with an inch or so of sand. In the middle of the sand, well away from the sides of the bag, insert a votive candle or tea light. Use these only outdoors on concrete or asphalt, away from any grass, leaves, or other foliage and objects.
Paper Crafts for Kids
Search online or at your local library for a template of a paper house. It will have tabs along the edges of the template that you will use to attach the “walls.” Print it out or photocopy it, using the paper type and color of your choice. Then color the parts if you like. The template can then be cut out and assembled by folding along the lines and gluing the tabs together.
Try out these fun and easy paper crafts for kids to spark their creativity!
Where do I start?
(I actually stared at the screen for a solid 5 minutes before any sentence came out from me!)
I’m the MAma in mom-MA Rants. I have 2 beautiful healthy kids, a girl (Ayra) who’s turning 8 in April and a boy (Elhaan) who just turned 4 in January. Since I’m going to pour my heart, soul and life into this I might as well tell you how I got here and why I started Energise Kids.
Choosing to feed the kids, healthy food was no brainer for me especially so for Ayra, my first born. Everything had to be home-cooked. No salt before 2 years, no processed food, no excessive sugar and all that jazz. I was pretty sure I could keep her in a bubble but then pre-school happened! They have birthday parties EVERY SINGLE month, they party harder than we do. We party? What party? My thoughts exactly.
I know some pre-schools are strict on party packs, good for them and bravo for you moms and dads for making sure you chose the right school. Mr. MAma (my babies’ daddy) and I, we made our decision based on a lot of other factors and well we overlooked this itsy bitsy tiny part. Instead of beating ourselves to death, we decided to educate Ayra on what is healthy and what is not. We can’t control her life (What do you mean? Of course you can, she’s 8!). What I meant is, instilling healthy eating habits early in life is important for our children to grow up knowing what is good for them and what is not. We’re not always there to tell them what they can and cannot do (even if we want to desperately).
Choosing to be fit and stay fit. Now that’s a struggle. I was a fit kid, played sports actively until I was 17, then I turned cold turkey and totally stopped. I avoided sun like a vampire, all I cared was trying to be fair (Asians can relate). I was lucky, blessed with good skinny genes. Credit goes to my high metabolic rate. For the next 13 years or so, I didn’t gain that much weight (please, don’t hate me) even though I wasn’t mindful of what I was eating or whether I was exercising. Little did I know skinny doesn’t mean you are healthy (I know that now).
Then along came Elhaan, my youngest (for now maybe forever). Like Ayra, I breastfed him. So I had no problem bouncing back to my pre-pregnancy weight. That was all that mattered to be back then (hello, shallow hani). Again, I took it for granted. Elhaan was 2 years old, when I realized I was getting sluggish. I didn’t handle stress very well, I wasn’t sleeping well, even though I had enough sleep I would wake up feeling so tired the next morning. Worst of all I had no stamina whatsoever, I’d be out of breath climbing a flight of stairs. I was SKINNY FAT.
You would think, I was tired because I was juggling 2 kids, a husband and a demanding career. Nope! I had a full time live in helper by then. So no, it wasn’t because of that. It was because I was not exercising plus I was enjoying too much good food and desserts. Mr. MAma on the other hand started a cycling club with his buddies and was cycling on an average 100km weekly. Did he inspired me to start? Perhaps, that and the vain pot in me got a shocked of my life when I could no longer fit in my POST pregnancy jeans. Just to prove this is not a typo, I repeat POST pregnancy jeans.
I am forever thankful to a close friend of mine (shout out to Nivin!). She practically dragged me to yoga and signed me up for my virgin 10km run. My lifestyle slowly changed. I was not only eating healthily but keeping fit at the same time. I would go to my yoga classes on weekdays and do my runs on weekends.
Our weekly routine would start with me going running first then the kids get their turn when I’m done. They get to choose to either go running, cycling or sometimes roller-blading. Ayra normally can’t decide (a chip of the old block), she wants to do it all. Elhaan will choose cycling always, like father like son. We’re blessed to be in Malaysia where it is sunny (mostly!) all year round. Unless it’s raining, there is no reason not to go outdoors (ok except when it’s scorching hot, common sense is required here).
Has it been easy? Hell no! It’s a constant struggle and still is for me personally. There are days I’d rather just lie in bed to read or binge watch my favorite TV series.
So what is it that keeps me going? My kids. They keep me in check. On days I don’t feel like running, I still have to bring them out. Technically, I still run because I’m forced to chase after them. Hey, win-win situation! I get my workout, they get their workout. They spend more time outdoors now compared to when I was a couch potato (a skinny potato one mind you – not trying to rub it in, I promise! Haha!). Less screen time too. Don’t get me started on screen time, I’ll tackle that in another post. We’re still working on it.
Well, that’s how I got here. It took me a long time but I’m here and I’m moving forward. I worry about a lot of things and I worry more when I became a mother. I’m sure you can relate. I worry when I read the rate of obesity slowly increasing in children around the world, especially so in Asia. Am I doing enough to teach my kids the importance of eating right? Do they have enough exercise? Are my kids happy? Will I raise kind kids? Will my kids develop empathy? All those questions led me to wanting to read more to find more information and talk to parents (or “stalk” on social media) to see what they are doing and how they do it.
My partner in crime, the MOMmy (Meet Emiza Merican) in MOM-ma Rants, is one of my go to moms I would talk to seek advice, exchange notes because our kids are BFF. We have a lot in common, our girls being diva daddy girls and all. It started with just us wanting to make a positive difference in our own children lives but we felt we could do more. That was how Energise Kids was born. We hope to create an open platform, to build a community that inspires, encourages and supports each other when it comes to our children wellbeing.
It’s not something that will happen overnight but it is a conscious journey in ensuring that we are creating a sustainable healthy lifestyle for our children. Together, lets’ make it our mission to cultivate healthy habits from young!
Love, Hani Ramli (MAma)
I am a foodie, bookworm and also a Certified Child Specialist Nutritionist. Most importantly, I am a mother to two lovely girls, Elayna who is 8, and Dzeeya who is 3. My girls are the reason behind Energise Kids.
In 2004, I started dating Mr MOMmy, my future husband. Like me, he loved to eat, so the initial days of our relationship was based entirely on food. We were constantly trying out new places to eat, and that was the excuse we used to spend time with each other. At that young age, health and fitness were the last things on our minds, and the blessings of youth meant that we could eat whatever we want without putting on any noticeable weight.
After we got married, our habits still did not change. It was only after my first pregnancy that my lifestyle started to change. Being a first time mother, I had mixed emotions. I was excited at the thought of experiencing something new, but yet worried because I had no idea if I was capable of being a good mother. This was when I started reading books and doing online research on pregnancy and babies. I had the usual morning sickness for 6 weeks, and put on 20 kgs during this time, mostly due to the fact that I was binging a lot on burgers and nachos. Elayna was breastfed, so this helped me lose weight post-natal, but I realized at this point that I would have to relook at the kind of food I ate. If I wanted Elayna to eat healthy, then I would have to eat healthy too.
During Elayna’s first year, all her food was entirely homemade, no salt, no sugar, and no artificial colouring or flavouring. There were some challenges getting her to eat vegetables after she started going to playschool when she was 2. Somehow, she picked up the idea that vegetables were “yucky”. She refused to eat her vegetables and the battle to feed her started. I tried to trick her in many ways but it all failed. Then finally, when I was close to giving up, I came up with the idea of hiding her vegetables in her pasta sauce or smoothies. And it worked, she had no clue that she was eating vegetables, and she even said the food was “yummy”.
This was the road to us eating healthily, but after a while, we realized that eating healthy alone was not enough. There were some health tragedies that happened to some close friends of us, and that was when we realized that exercise was important too. So we started a weekly routine of exercising, and it was a good way of spending time with Elayna too. When Dzeeya came along, we continued the same pattern of healthy eating and exercise, and teaching Dzeeya how to eat healthily was easier due to what I learned with Elayna.
My love for my children made me want to do something that can benefit all parents and kids. Mr MOMmy and my good friend, Ida, persuaded me to create a platform that shares my experience on how to lead a healthy lifestyle. I started discussing this with Hani “Mama”, who happens to be Elayna’s best friend’s mom. Because of our daughters, we were already really close and when I discussed my idea with her, she immediately jumped on board. Like me, she is equally concerned on health and fitness, and because of this, Energise Kids started.
Energise Kids is here to help make things easy for parents’ to make their children’s lives better
Juicing can be a great way to get the nutrients that are in vegetables and fruits combined into a tasty juice that has all the flavor of fruit but doesn’t have a vegetable taste. This article can help you learn more about juicing and discover ways to incorporate it into a healthy juice diet for your family.
When you start a juicing routine and are adding vegetables to your combos you should start out with veggies that are gentle on your system. The vegetables that you should start out with are carrots, celery, cucumbers, and perhaps squash. Once your body gets used to drinking fresh juice you can move on to other veggies.
Throw away your ideas on what a fruit or vegetable should look like when buying organic produce to juice. An apple doesn’t have to be perfectly round as you’re just going to be cutting it up and throwing it in a juicer anyway! Stick to the basics of knowing if a fruit or vegetable will be edible or not, like squeezing it or checking it’s color.
Healthy Juicing Diet
Whenever you can, try to buy organic products for your juicing diet. You are more than likely juicing for the health benefits, and maximum health benefits can be found in organic products. Your juice will be free from dangerous additives, and pesticides. You will also gain optimum levels of valuable vitamins and minerals.
Healthy Juicing Diet
Make sure that you always have what you need to make your juices. Always make sure that you have the food on hand where you can see it. Just like with keeping the juice machine visible, you need to keep the ingredients for your juices where you can see them. Otherwise, you could forget about them.
Healthy Juicing Diet
Beware the efficiency of calorie intake from juicing! When you mash up foods like fruit and vegetables, they become much easier to digest. This means that everything they contain, from vitamins and nutrients to sugar and calories, will be taken into your body in full. Watch how many calories the items your juice contain to make sure you don’t stop your weight loss.
Juicing is a lot of fun, but it can turn disastrous if you don’t take care of your equipment! Make sure that you clean out the pulp reservoir every time you make juice, and sterilize all your tools from knife to cutting board to extraction container each time you use them.
Juicing fresh fruits and vegetables will be a delight to your taste-buds. Juicing is a great way to try vegetables or fruits that you have never tried. If you are concerned that you might not like vegetable juice or prefer something sweeter, put in some apple or other fruit.
When it comes to juicing, one thing that you want to keep in mind is the fact that you may wish to invest in an expensive set of knives. This can be very beneficial because with nicer tools, your juicing experience will become that much easier to do and you will find that you are much more efficient.
Healthy Juicing Diet
Juicing gives you all the vitamins and minerals of whole veggies and fruits without spending the time to eat them. Use the advice in this article to kick start your healthy juicing diet by making delicious juices right away!
Depending on the age of the children you are inviting, the time of day, and other factors, what kind of food you’re going to serve at a child’s party can vary. Make sure you check with the parents of all the guests to find out if there are any food allergies among your prospective guests.
Here are some party food ideas according to various ages.
For a party with toddlers as the main guests, it helps to focus on finger foods that toddlers can pick up and eat themselves. Make sure the foods served are soft and not choking hazards. Some party food ideas include:
Party Food Ideas
* Slices of fruit (melon, strawberries, peaches, and ripe pears are good)
* Cheese slices
* Small sandwiches with soft filling like peanut butter and jelly, cheese, egg salad, and so forth
* Pizza bites, either frozen or simply pizza that’s been cut into small slices or pieces
* Cookies that are relatively soft, not hard or that contain nuts
* Jell-O cut into fun shapes
Party Food Ideas
Like the food at toddler parties, preschoolers’ party food is probably best if it is simple and can be eaten with the fingers. However, preschoolers have more advanced coordination, are less prone to choking, and can enjoy a wider range of foods. Here are some part food ideas for preschoolers:
Children’s Party
* Fruit pizza (made with vanilla cookie dough and topped with cream cheese-based icing and fruit)
* Chips and dip (corn chips and salsa, potato chips and French onion dip, pretzels and honey mustard, etc.)
* Apple slices and caramel dip
Children’s Party
* Hot dogs on a bun cut in half. Condiments can be according to each guests’ taste, but it might be less hassle to make the half-dogs up ahead, putting ketchup on some, mustard on others, and so forth. Then the guests can choose.
* Pizza
Gradeschool spans a wide range of ages, from 5 to 11 years old. For younger kids in gradeschool, say between 5 and 7 years old, the same kinds of foods as you’d have for preschoolers can be served. For kids ages 8 to 11, here are some possibilities:
* Fruit kabobs (older kids know better than to use the skewers in inappropriate ways!)
* Watermelon fruit basket (it’s not too hard to cut a watermelon into a basket shape)
Children’s Party
* Build-your-own sandwich – set out breads and various sandwich spreads and fillings such as deli meat, cheese, sliced vegetables, etc.
* Quesadillas with salsa and guacamole dip. You can cut these into fun shapes, too.
Older kids might appreciate more “sophisticated” and interesting foods. For kids of middle school age, here are some party food ideas to try.
Children’s Party
* Camp fire cookout. Middle schoolers can cook their own food over a campfire, or cook out on a grill (with adult supervision, of course).
* Build-your-own pizza, where kids can add toppings according to their tastes. Bagels, English muffins, or homemade or store-bought mini crusts make good choices for the pizza base.
* Ethnic foods can be fun for this age. Try serving various foods from different countries and see how everyone reacts to the new flavors.
One of the most investigated subjects currently is children’s mind development and analytical skills. More and more studies are being made and more games, programs and lessons are being developed in order to boost early stages of growth and increase existing skills.
Analytical Games For Children
There are more options and possibilities now than ever, starting with different educational facilities suited for different levels of development, and carrying on with special TV games, books and shows. These games are especially built to work on the growing and developing areas in a child’s mind.
These skills can be developed in all kinds of different ways and not necessarily in a special kindergarten or a structural program. It can also be done in the simple and fun way of gaming. Considering the fact that there are hundreds of mind developing games for children, in this article, we will focus on card games.
Card games can come in different shapes and sizes and at different difficulty levels. The most basic card game is the card memory game. The game is played with half a deck or less spread on the table, while each card is facing down. Each player, on his turn, chooses to peek at one card at a time in order to eventually form couple or groups (based on what was decided earlier to be a group). This game helps to develop the child’s memory skills and his ability to divide logically the symbols into groups.
How To Develop Analytical Skills In Children
Another game similar to the memory game, but one that focuses and handles a completely different area of your childs brain is the group game. At this game, the deck of cards is divided to the number of player so all the players receive an equal amount of cards.
This game is more complicated then the other card games and therefore it contributes more to the child’s growth more. The game teaches the players to make decisions based on optional following moves and to solve problems using their giving cards, which is in this case literally speaking. The game is highly recommended for children and adults as one, for it is competitive and suspenseful as much as it is friendly and fun.
Games To Develop Analytical Skills
Another popular game that most kids enjoy is war. Do not let them play it the usual way where the stronger card beats the weaker one. Instead, set different rules for each round. You can determine such things as that a two of clubs and a six of hearts beat any cards. You could even make it more challenging by setting a range of cards as jokers.
The variety of these kinds of games is relatively big and it is growing more and more as people are constantly looking for new games to play. As for the kids, the may be participating for a whole different reason, but the outcomes are the same.
