For additional resources and classes, go to www.thehappiestbaby.com.

The book teaches you how to use your peaks and valleys at work and in life to manage your good and bad times, to get out of a valley sooner, to stay on a peak longer, to get to your next peak, and to help other people.  I would highly recommend this book.  It is a very quick and easy read.  Before you get a chance to read the book, try four things to start feeling better:

• stop judging people
• be happy
• accept responsibility
• count your blessings

Children engaged in even the simplest act of applying color to paper or hands to dough are encouraged to plan, devise, act and predict. These become the building blocks for critical thinking.

Artistic activity is a form of reasoning, in which perception and thinking are indivisibly intertwined. A child who paints, draws, composes and dances thinks with their senses. Genuine artwork requires organization that involves many, and perhaps all, of the cognitive operations known to theoretical thinking. ~Dr. Maria Montessori

Nature; an admission-free museum for young artists! Sometimes all you need to help inspire your child’s creativity and your own, is a walk outside. Nature is filled with tones, sounds, smells, temperatures, images and textural sensations that shape the foundation of creative expression. Below are some nature-inspired activities that boost your child’s fine–motor ability and artistic sensibility… and they can all be done out-of-doors!

Nest Sculpture

This beautiful hand sculpted birds nest will hold the dough and paper creation your child will place inside of it. This activity invites your child to “plan and devise” the direction the nest sculpture will take based on their creativity and perception.

• Aluminum foil
• Glue
• Water
• Lunch bags
• Dough
• Cereal Bowl

Assist your child in scrunching a sheet of foil around the outside of an overturned cereal bowl. Remove foil to reveal a foil nest sculpture. Tear a brown lunch bag into strips and glue inside the foil nest. Dip paper in water to make them pliable and fun to manipulate. Invite your child to mold dough to create a sculpture of whatever will go inside the nest. This may include eggs, chicks, flowers, earthworms or imaginative shapes.

Birdfeeder Bead Strings: Thread o-shaped cereal onto colorful strips of yarn. Knot the end to hold the pieces in place. Walk around yard or park and help your child hang strings from trees and shrubs. Watch as birds flock to tasty treats!

Alfresco Shapes & Shadows: Lay sheets of paper on ground on a sunny day. Allow shadows and the shapes from people, plants or your own movements to be cast across paper. Use sidewalk chalk to trace and draw the outline of shadows on the ground.

Stone Sculptures: Collect rocks and stones together as you walk. Find a comfortable spot under a tree or on the grass and explore stacking and arranging stones into a sculpture.

Fresh Cut Grass

This activity introduces printmaking techniques, as your little one fills the paper with lines that resemble fresh cut green grass.

• Sheet of art paper
• Washable, nontoxic green paint
• Plastic fork
• Fresh picked blades of grass

Set sheet of art paper across table. Invite your child to apply green paint across paper.  Next drag a plastic fork across paint, creating blades of grass design in paint. Sprinkle wet paint with fresh-picked blades of real grass as an added touch!

• Encourages Creative Confidence  
• Invites Individuality
• Supports Self-Expression
• Instills Independence
• Provides Emotional Release
• Creates Pleasurable Challenge
• Stimulates Sensory Response
• Promotes Pride in Artwork

 With a background of experiences and the appropriate motivating materials, children in creative process are put in charge. They are the ones who must search their memories of an experience, think of symbols to represent their ideas and transcribe them to paper. The “All About Me” Board. This activity explores collage and assemblage while celebrating all the things that make your child unique.

 They are the ones who will be setting goals for themselves, planning ways to achieve these, and finding new methods for ideas that did not work in order to continue. In the end the child will be the one who experiences the joy, the thrill and the pleasure of attaining their artistic goals. ~Carol Seefeldt, ‘The Colors of Learning’

 You’ll Need

• Poster board
• Glue
• Tape
•  Colored paper 
• Collectables 
• Old magazines 
• Finger paint 
• Crayons 
• Markers 
• Photos (optional) 
• Mirror (optional) 

Activity: Assist your child with collecting favorite items and taping or placing them around a sheet of poster board. Include personal photos or images of “favorite things” torn from old magazines and collage to board. Invite your child to draw, finger paint or make handprints on their special board. Prop a small mirror in the middle and encourage your child to share All About Themselves  and their art.

Click on link below for Summer Staycation information and specials:

staycation_blog_v32

If you would like to take a Baby Sign class, please contact Gymboree Play & Music (732-493-1993) for our next scheduled class time.

Very simply, I would purchase various vegetables or fruits and cook them in the oven to soften.  Then, I would remove the skin and puree in the food processor.  I poured the pureed vegetables or fruit into ice cubes trays and froze the food.  When they were ready to eat I would pop out a cube and heat it up. 

The cubes were a perfect size when they just started eating.  As they needed more food, I just heated up more cubes.  The small size also ensured no wasted food.

I would spend a couple of hours over the weekend preparing approximately 2 weeks of food.

2 tbl olive oil

2 tsp finely chopped rosemary

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

pinch of pepper

1. preheat oven to 425F.  Line pan with foil.
2. Combine carrot sticks, olive oil, rosemary, sugar, salt & pepper.  Stir to evenly coat carrots.
3. Dump carrots onto pan.  Spread carrots out as much as possible.  Bake for 20 minutes, until tender and well browned.

• 1 cup brown rice, uncooked
• 2 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced (1 cup)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons fresh chopped oregano or 1 teaspoon dried
• 1 stalk celery, finely diced
• 1 large carrot, finely diced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes
• 1 (15.5 ounce) can low-sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley leaves

Directions

Place rice and chicken broth in a saucepot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook rice, covered, until tender and all the liquid is absorbed, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from heat, uncover, and fluff with a fork.

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, celery, carrot, cumin and chili flakes and cook, stirring occasionally, until carrots are tender but not mushy, about 6 minutes. Stir in black beans and cook until just warmed through, about 1-2 minutes.

Combine onion-black bean mixture and hot rice in a serving bowl and toss to combine. Garnish with parsley.

Come Join the Party!
Past, present and future members are encouraged to participate in
a FREE Gymbo Birthday Party! Can’t make it? Tell a friend!

Enroll during the party and get 50% off first months’ tuition!
Ocean:
April 4, 1:00 pm
April 16, 6:15 pm
April 20, 11:00 am
April 29, 9:15 am
Howell:
April 3, 1:00 pm
April 18, 4:00 pm
April 19, 11:00 am
April 27, 12:45 pm

Call to register for Ocean at (732)493-1993 and Howell at (732)462-4450.