Yogurt

As I have explained before, my greatest interests are young children, nutrition, and cooking.  Fortunately for me, these interests combine easily and work together well.  This does not always happen - imagine trying to cook while skydiving...  Anyway, I have begun making my own yogurt.  It is easy, cheap (a week's worth of yogurt for about 99 cents), and it really impresses people who don't know how easy it really is.  Yogurt making is very simple, and children can help. 

All you need for successful yogurt making is a kettle, thermometer, whisk, 8 cups of milk (any kind - I use skim), and a small container of plain yogurt.  You do not need olive oil - that was just on the counter.

Heat the milk to 180 degrees to separate the proteins.  If your thermometer is the kind that is encased in Pyrex, make sure that it is not touching the bottom of the pan, since it will not read correctly.  Stir the milk occasionally to prevent sticking.  If you are the type that multitasks, do not wander off.  scorched yogurt tastes terrible, and if it boils onto the stove it makes a mess (trust me on this one!).

 



Take the pot of milk off the burner and let it cool to between 120 and 110 degrees.  Put about 1/2 cup (more or less) plain yogurt into a bowl.  Add about a cup of the warm milk, whisk until smooth, and add to the pot of warm milk.  Stir.  Do not try to save time by stirring the yogurt directly into the milk - you will have lumps of yogurt (trust me on this, too!),

Place the mixture into a container with a lid.  The mixture will have to stay warm to incubate for at least eight hours.  I found that the best way for me was to wrap it in an old bath towel and place in one of those foil-lined insulated Wegmans bags with a zip lid.  Any kind of container that would hold the temperature would work. 

 

 

The yogurt can be removed after eight hours, or it can stay longer.  I often make mine after work and leave it overnight, and I have left it as long as 24 hours.  The longer the yogurt incubates, the thicker it becomes and the more the flavor develops.  To thicken it a little more, I strain it through a colander that is placed over a bowl.  I line it with an old cotton dish towel, and I strain a few cups at a time just to make it easier to scoop into the containers that I use to store it (in my case, I have a complete matching set of margarine containers).

Draining the yogurt takes off some of the whey and thickens the yogurt.  Exactly how much you drain off will depend on the thickness of the yogurt when you start and on your patience while you are draining it.  It is okay to wander away during the draining; in fact, I recommend it.  Make sure to save the whey in the refrigerator - it is wonderful for baking.  You do not need to use anything fancy to store the whey, although I do have a lovely matched set of mayonnaise jars.

Your yogurt will be thick, much like Greek yogurt, and will be tart because it is plain yogurt.  It can be sweetened with sugar or honey.  I usually eat mine plain, since I put it over fruit which sweetens it enough.  This is a matter of taste.  Once you have made a batch, there is not need to purchase more yogurt, since you can use the batch that you made to start a new batch.

Yogurt is very easy to make, especially once you have made it several times.  It is a great feeling to produce something that is so good and healthy while saving money also.  Have fun and enjoy!



Spin, Spin, Spin

When I was cleaning closets in the center, I found a spin art thing.  The staff told me that it was a lot of fun - all you needed was batteries, some paint, and a round piece of paper.  The child would put the paper in the machine, squirt in some paint (carefully supervised by a teacher), and push a button.  Voila!  A piece of art work.  This was used with the children who were in the school age program.

The teachers were amazed when I would not let them use it.  While the children might perfect their button pushing technique, I could see no other value in the experience.  I brought in a salad spinner that I had purchased at a yard sale many years ago for $1.00 that the children could use for spin art.  The school age teachers had a great deal of difficulty trusting the children to use it "correctly", and tried to micromanage the whole process.

Fortunately, the teachers who are now working with the children at the center understand that children need to manipulate, explore, and experience to learn.  They also understand that children are capable of doing many wonderful things by themselves.  A few days ago I went into the four year old room and watched the children have wonderful adventures with the salad spinner.

 

The children loved to squirt in the paint, and used liberally.  There was no teacher telling them not to use too much, or to use all of the colors, since their teacher understood that children need to have control over their own art work.  Even more that squirting, the children loved turning the handle.

The teacher held the spinner steady while the children spun and spun.  When it looked at though they might be tired, they spun some more.  Some of the children spun for five or more minutes.  They spun and spun.  They twirled the basket so hard that the handle popped off and had to be stuck back on (sorry - no picture of this!).  When they finally stopped, everyone admired the masterpiece.

The fun, however, didn't stop there.  As soon as one painting was done, the children hurried to start another.  The discovered that colors swirled together to make other colors.  They discovered that if they turned the spinner really, pulled off the top, and dropped more paint into the spinner they could watch the paint swirl around the paper.  One child discovered that he could turn until the basket was moving very rapidly, lean over, and watch the paint cascade down the sides of the bowl.

The children kept making spin art for several days.  They explored velocity, centrifical force, colors, decision making, cooperation ... the list is endless.  Unfortunately, however, they did not have a chance to perfect their button pushing technique.  $1.00 yard sale kitchen find vs. a $12.00 electric toy - which is better?  The children know and, fortunately, so do some teachers.

A Boy Scout is Truthful

Work and life have been very busy lately, so blog entries have not been getting done.  That doesn't mean that my mind has not been on them; I am often writing entries in my head while I am occupied at another task.  I have been tying to decide which order to use when writing them, but one thought has been coming to my mind more often than any other - the need for absolute truth when caring for young children.  Everyone knows (I hope) the need for truth at work - not stealing, not faking illness to get out of work, not lying about reimbursable expenses.  I am talking about the need for absolute truth when dealing with children and their families.

Everyone who has worked in a child care center can probably relate a few horror stories - the director who tells a parent about a child's day when she has not been near a child all day, the staff member who tells a parent that they applied sunscreen when they didn't, the staff member who "fixes up" a child's project to impress the parents... the list can go on and on.  Little white lies and harmless untruths?  No.

This was brought forcefully to mind by a mother who visited the center seeking child care for her son.  The administration gave her a tour, explained the center's policies, and explained the center's curriculum, which consists of developmentally appropriate activities that allow the children to explore and investigate their environment.  She told us that her son (who had just turned three) had been in a home day care.  When he was 18 months old the owner had moved him from the infant/toddler room to the preschool room (ages three and up).  There he had learned how to count in English and in Spanish and to say the alphabet.  The mother was very proud that her child had such a body of knowledge.  The only trouble was that most children his age can count and recite the alphabet.  That does not mean, however, that they understand what numbers are and how letters are used; it is the first step to learning that every child must take.  The mother ultimately decided to take her child to another center because we were not "advanced enough" for her child.

It is okay that she decided to use another center; not every center is a perfect fit for every family and every child.   What bothers me is that her child care provider was not honest with her.  If a child was moved up to another room 18 months before he was old enough, he was most likely moved because the day care provider wanted to enroll another infant but did not have enough room until a child moved up.  This means that a child was moved into a room of three, four, and five year olds.  He was playing, socializing, and learning with children who were as much as three and four years older than he was.  I do not mean to belittle the child - he could very well be very bright.  Even so, each child has certain developmental stages that he must reach before he can go on to the next one.  Forcing a child to skip a stage or two does not help him and may even make things more difficult for him in the future.  Convincing a parent that a child is ready to do something that he is not is inexcusable.  The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has developed a code of ethics for those who care for young children.  The first principle of the code (P 1-1) is "Above all, we shall not harm children".  This does not refer only to physical harm, but to emotional, social, and intellectual harm.  While this child may not have been hurt physically, being put into an environment that the he was not not developmentally ready to enter was not in his best interest.  Was he happy trying to play with children who were on a completely different developmental level?  Was he stressed trying to do work that was not appropriate for him?  Was he frustrated trying to do activities that his hands and eyes and brain were not ready to do?

So often it is tempting to take the easy way out - to tell the little white lie or to stretch the truth a little.  We must remember that we are not just making Aunt Rose feel better by telling that we enjoyed her prune pie, but that we are dealing with children's growth and development as well as with parents' perception of their children.  We need to truthful if everything if we are to be professionals who are dedicated to the growth and perception of young children.  No exceptions!

This post is entitled "A Boy Scout is Truthful" because I was thinking that was a part of the Boy Scout code that would apply to caregivers.  When I looked it up, I discovered that truthful is not part of the Boy Scout code.  Boy Scouts are cheerful, reverent, loyal, trustworthy, etc., etc., etc., but not truthful.  (It is, however, implied!)  Anyway, even though I was wrong about the Boy Scout code, I liked the title so I kept it (and that is the truth!).

Love That Internet!

As far as I am concerned, the internet is a wonderful invention.  When I was growing up, if we needed to know something we had to use the encyclopedia, the card catalog, and the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.  Now, if I need to know something, it is at my fingertips.  Where did John Wayne say, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do"?  Google  Need a recipe for coconut cookies?  Ask  Don't know how to go to Naples?  Mapquest 

This year I used Google a number of times.  When I loved the fire roasted tomatoes that I had purchased (with a downloaded coupon for $1 off per can), I found directions for roasting my own on the grill.  I purchased a half bushel of roma tomatoes and roasted them on my grill.  When I needed window coverings for the large window in my back room, I found excellent directions for making Roman shades.  (I still haven't made them, but I have excellent directions.)  When I needed a new knitting project I checked out the free patterns, and when the Exercise on Demand channel closed down, I found free yoga downloads.

As an early childhood teacher, I have used the internet to find lesson plan ideas, words to songs and poems, and low cost used books.  As with everything else, however, anyone who is looking for program ideas must remember that just because it is on the internet doesn't mean that it is a good idea.  Many on-line lesson plans are made by people who have little training in child development.  When a lesson idea starts with the words, "This is a cute idea...", it is usually a signal to look elsewhere.  One of my favorite examples is from a page of "cute" Christmas ideas.  It involved having the children make their own nativity scene.  The children were to take a cupcake paper, put chocolate pudding in it, and sprinkle shredded wheat over the top.  This made a manger.  The children were then to put the baby Jesus on the manger.  I forget exactly what Jesus was (I probably blocked it out), but I believe that it was something along the lines of a peanut.  Once the manger was done, the children could eat it - Jesus and all.  I don't know if I am the only one that finds the project a little creepy, and of course it is not developmentally appropriate, but it will never be done where I am directing. 

The internet is full of exciting, helpful information. It is also full of nonsense. Before you use something from it, make sure that you evaluate it for appropriateness, safety, and just plain common sense. The internet is a powerful tool. Just remember, as a wise man said, "Use it well, young Skywalker".

Now I've Got It!!

Children's language development fascinates me.  I have been reading a great deal about brain development and the process of learning language and reading.  Many parents and teachers, who worry about their children developing language and learning to read, tend to push the children to learn the alphabet, phonics, and sight words at a younger and younger age.  Although more pressure is being put on children to learn at an earlier age, reading scores in this country continue to slide.  One of the countries that outranks the US in reading scores is Finland.  Do they have a secret formula for teaching reading?  Do they know something that we do not?  Do they have some kind of reading magic?  Their solution to raising good readers is simple - they do not start to teach reading until the children are at least 6.5 years old.  This is not rocket science - it is the age at which first graders began to learn to read many, many years ago when I was in first grade.  Now, in our rush to improve reading scores, we are pushing children to learn at a younger and younger age.  While they often can recognize sight words, they lack the years of preparation that they spend learning how language works, learning the sounds and rhythms of language, learning how letters are put together in different combinations to create different words, and learning how that we read top to bottom and left to right.

Our program is a relaxed, developmentally appropriate program which allows the children to learn naturally by experiencing and experimenting.  Rather than drilling the children with the sounds of the letters and worksheets that involve copying letters, they are allowed to develop a love of and understanding for the language.  The children listen to stories and talk about the sounds and letters in the books.  They learn poems and rhymes (did you know that the child who knows eight nursery rhyme type poems when he begins kindergarten is a measurably better reader by third grade?) and experience lots of environmental print.   By the time that they start kindergarten they are well on their way to learning to read.

Let me tell you about several of our children that are discovering how the alphabet, language, and writing work together.  The three year old teacher had printed the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill" on a piece of paper and hung it on the wall in the reading area.  When I came into the room, Danny was standing at the paper, tracing under the words with his finger, and reciting the nursery rhyme.  About half way through, his finger was far ahead of the rhyme.  He looked at the page, said, "No", and began again with his finger following his words.  Was he reading this?  No - he had learned from watching the teacher that his finger had to line up with the words that he was reciting.  He was learning that specific combinations of letters make different words.  Without this knowledge, learning to read would be difficult, if not impossible.

Several days later, George was awake at nap time.  He looked at Jane, who was asleep, and said, "Jane is a sleepy-head".   Suddenly the light bulb came on.  He smiled and said, "I get it!  Jane  is asleep and she has a head!"  Again, the understanding of language, and the ability to decode compound words is an essential prereading skill that can only be learned by using language.  A young child who has a conversation rich environment will be a better reader than one that is forced to drill letter sounds.

One of the four year old girls was bouncing when I saw her a few days ago.  The children had been grinding whole spices with a mortar and pestle (sensory stimulation, gross motor experience, language development), when she noticed that the spices that she was using came from a bottle that was labeled "Nutmeg".  She couldn't wait to tell me that she found my name on the bottle.  She told me that if I had the word nut in front of my name that my name would be "Nutmeg".  Again, Nancy was learning that letters work together to make words, that a word can be broken down into its parts, and that the same combination of letters can make the same sound in different words. 

Do you want your child to be a successful reader?  Get rid of the "educational" toys, turn off the TV, and read, read, read to your child.  Talk about what you have read, talk about what you see, and talk about what you are doing.  Let your child see you read.  When you need to look up information, let the child see you do it and talk about how you are using the words in the phone book, cookbook, directions, etc.  Teaching reading is not done in a vacuum - it takes place every day.  Unless a child has an understanding of language and how it works, and appreciates that reading is important, he will not be a successful reader.  The best part is that while you are helping your child to become a successful reader, you will be having a lot of fun together and sharing some special times that he will remember for years to come.

To all parents and teachers - I would highly recommend the book Reading Magic by Mem Fox.  Mem is an author of children's books and a teacher.  I spent a whole day at her workshop at a NYS Association for the Education of Young Children conference several years ago.  She is extremely wise and extremely funny, and I often give her book as a baby shower gift, along with some children's books.

A Writing Rant!

One of my biggest frustrations as a child care director has been trying to convince parents of the value of play and hands-on learning in an early childhood setting.  Between advertising by companies that want to make money and politicians who think that they know about education, many parents are convinced that their child will not succeed in school unless he or she is drilled in academics at an early age.  One example of this is the issue of writing, which can be illustrated by two children in my care.

Child #1 attends a very academic nursery school, as well as our program.  At his nursery school, he sits at a table each week with a pencil and a ditto sheet and practices printing the letter of the week.  It does not matter that he has just turned four, and it will be several years yet before the bones in his hands will ossify enough to allow him to form the letters correctly.  It does not matter that there is almost a two year continuum of development at each age and he might not be developmentally ready to do so.  It does not matter that the lines are closer together than he can write at this age.  Each week he sits and practices. 

A few days ago child #1 was trying to write a friends name and was frustrated because he could not make an "R" correctly.  He worried and worried about that R.  It did not matter that he had written S, A, M, H quite well (some were backward, but that is very normal).  It did not matter that he had made a lower case R.  It did not matter that he was trying to make one of the more difficult letters.  It did not matter that his child care teachers reassured him that his work was fine.  He needed to live up to the unrealistic expectations of the nursery school teachers.

Child #2 is about a year older than child #1.  She has spent her days in a developmentally appropriate, play based child care.  She has been in a print rich environment, where books are read daily, children's stories are dictated to the teachers who copy them to go home to be read, and children and teachers discuss the things that they see and hear.  There are always paper, pencils, markers, and crayons available and as children are ready they can try to copy the letters that they see if they wish.   When we had our first snowfall, the slate floors in the entry room became wet and slippery.  The four year old teacher asked for help making a caution sign.  Child #2, who had learned to enjoy letters and writing, volunteered to help.  The teacher helped with spelling, and Child #2 made the sign that is now hanging in our entry.  While Child #1 is seeing writing as a stressor, Child #2 is comfortable and confident with what she had learned, since she learned it in a way that is appropriate for her age level and makes sense to her.

PS - The person on the sign is upside-down because he has fallen on his head on the wet floor!

I had started to write about Christmas several weeks ago, but ended up being so busy that I never completed it.  I have been feeling guilty about not writing for so long since I had made a commitment to write this blog, but I have noticed that all of the blogs that I follow have slowed down during the holidays.  I usually am very excited about Christmas, and enjoy every aspect of the season except for shopping.  I hate malls and crowds, so my shopping is always done early.  This year, however, I just did not have the usual excitement and Christmas feeling, but I wasn't sure why.  The grandchildren live 1000 miles away now?  They did last year. The 24 hour Christmas radio songs (many of which are not very good music) had been going on for days?  They did last year.  I didn't make cut out cookies this year?  I did have some at the center Christmas program, although a lack of cut outs is a serious problem.

That was as far as I got on my last blog post.  I had intended to write about the hustle and bustle of the season, the love that I have for Christmas, and my thoughts about the unkindness that many adults show to children by threatening them with a fat man in red suit while the children are becoming hysterically over excited about the tales of Santa, all of the parties and celebrations, and the fact that the Christmas season now starts on November 1.  This was my intention.  Instead I wrote blogs in my head while I cooked and cleaned, wrote cards and decorated, shopped and wrapped.  I had thought that since there were just two of us at home now that things would be calmer.  The presents that were going south to our family had to be on the UPS truck at the beginning of December.  The cards were written over Thanksgiving. Two of the parties that we attend were not held this year.  Still, it seemed as though there was always something to do.

As I said, this year I just did not feel the usual excitement about Christmas.  I also discovered that many others felt the same way.  I do feel that the Christmas season is being pushed on us so early that it does not have the special excitement that we used to feel when everything started after Thanksgiving.  I have discovered, however, that the missing ingredient was snow.  Last year the Rochester area had 46 inches of snow by Christmas.  This year we had about 5, although I am not sure where that much snow fell - it certainly wasn't at my house.  If I lived in the South it probably wouldn't bother me, but New York is supposed to have snow.  Last week we finally had snow.  Only about 4 or 5 inches fell, but it was enough to make driving in the dark with a strong wind tricky, and it had to be shoveled off the porches and the drive in 20 degree weather.  It did, however, make me breath a sigh of satisfaction - things were as they should be.  (Or as they should be until the temperature hits almost 40 tomorrow and it all melts!)

When Christmas came, when the tree was decorated, when the candles were lit at the Christmas Eve service, when we went to church on Christmas morning, when we drank coffee and unwrapped stocking gifts, I felt the peace and joy that had been missing.  I was celebrating the day that my Savior was born, and knowing Him is enough to celebrate.  It was a good Christmas.