Spartan and his friends are great at using their imagination in different ways. Katie is especially good at art. She is able to use her imagination to create the images that she thinks of. We see this when she draws the rocket for the team to envision in order to contact Egg. Arts and crafts projects are great ways to allow your kids to use their imagination in creative and productive ways. The holiday season seems to lend itself to fun and creative projects that you and your children can do together. With the New Year on its way in, here are some fun, simple ways to spend quality and engaging time with your children.

Holiday Cards:

Holiday cards are always fun for children to make. Whether you celebrate a specific holiday or celebrate the season as a whole, greeting cards a great way to get your kids to use their imagination and be creative. All you need are a few pieces of construction paper (pick up a full pad of colored construction paper and let you child select their favorite colors to use), and crayons/markers/colored pencils/water colors etc. If you want you can add to the creative process by supplying your child with other elements like stencils, stickers, glitter, and glue. Let them decorate the card however they like and encourage them to put a seasonal greeting on the inside. You can choose to send this out to select relatives or friends or use the cards as decorations around your home.

Sugar Cookies:

No matter what holiday you celebrate, sugar cookies are a great treat that you can make with your children. You can always go with the prepackaged mix, which will save time, or use this simple recipe:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup golden brown sugar (packed)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Next, sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg; blend well. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead gently for about one minute. Shape the dough into a ½ inch thick rectangle. Cut the dough into four equal pieces and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least three hours. When you take the dough out, allow it to soften before rolling it out. Next, with the rack positioned in the center of your oven, preheat it at 350 degrees. Prepare a large cookie sheet by buttering it lightly. Next, roll out each piece of dough individually until they are about 1/8 inch thick. Next, take your favorite holiday cookie cutters and begin cutting out shapes and trimming the dough around the cutter. Your child will have fun doing this. Tip: lightly flour the cutters so the dough doesn’t stick to them. Remember to reroll the dough scraps to make more cookies. Transfer the cookies onto your baking sheet and bake them for about 11 minutes (until golden brown). Let them cool for five minutes. At this point you can choose to leave them as they are or frost them.

By choosing to frost them, you can allow your children to design them anyway they want. This can be made less messy and easier by using pastry bags or store bought tubes of frosting. Let their imagination guide them as they help you create these yummy holiday treats.

These are just a couple of ideas to both get your child involved in this festive season and use their imagination in creative ways. No matter what you choose to do, the most important thing is to have fun with your child as they explore the capabilities of their mind.

#traveltheworld #kids #seethesights #teachyourkids #fullcyclepublications #spartanandthegreenegg  #books #nabilakhashoggi #OnTheBlog

Spartan and his friends are great at using their imagination in different ways. Katie is especially good at art. She is able to use her imagination to create the images that she thinks of. We see this when she draws the rocket for the team to envision in order to contact Egg. Arts and crafts projects are great ways to allow your kids to use their imagination in creative and productive ways. The holiday season seems to lend itself to fun and creative projects that you and your children can do together. With the New Year on its way in, here are some fun, simple ways to spend quality and engaging time with your children.

Holiday Cards:

Holiday cards are always fun for children to make. Whether you celebrate a specific holiday or celebrate the season as a whole, greeting cards a great way to get your kids to use their imagination and be creative. All you need are a few pieces of construction paper (pick up a full pad of colored construction paper and let you child select their favorite colors to use), and crayons/markers/colored pencils/water colors etc. If you want you can add to the creative process by supplying your child with other elements like stencils, stickers, glitter, and glue. Let them decorate the card however they like and encourage them to put a seasonal greeting on the inside. You can choose to send this out to select relatives or friends or use the cards as decorations around your home.

Sugar Cookies:

No matter what holiday you celebrate, sugar cookies are a great treat that you can make with your children. You can always go with the prepackaged mix, which will save time, or use this simple recipe:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup golden brown sugar (packed)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Next, sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg; blend well. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead gently for about one minute. Shape the dough into a ½ inch thick rectangle. Cut the dough into four equal pieces and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least three hours. When you take the dough out, allow it to soften before rolling it out. Next, with the rack positioned in the center of your oven, preheat it at 350 degrees. Prepare a large cookie sheet by buttering it lightly. Next, roll out each piece of dough individually until they are about 1/8 inch thick. Next, take your favorite holiday cookie cutters and begin cutting out shapes and trimming the dough around the cutter. Your child will have fun doing this. Tip: lightly flour the cutters so the dough doesn’t stick to them. Remember to reroll the dough scraps to make more cookies. Transfer the cookies onto your baking sheet and bake them for about 11 minutes (until golden brown). Let them cool for five minutes. At this point you can choose to leave them as they are or frost them.

By choosing to frost them, you can allow your children to design them anyway they want. This can be made less messy and easier by using pastry bags or store bought tubes of frosting. Let their imagination guide them as they help you create these yummy holiday treats.

These are just a couple of ideas to both get your child involved in this festive season and use their imagination in creative ways. No matter what you choose to do, the most important thing is to have fun with your child as they explore the capabilities of their mind.

#traveltheworld #kids #seethesights #teachyourkids #fullcyclepublications #spartanandthegreenegg  #books #nabilakhashoggi #OnTheBlog

Spartan and his friends are great at using their imagination in different ways. Katie is especially good at art. She is able to use her imagination to create the images that she thinks of. We see this when she draws the rocket for the team to envision in order to contact Egg. Arts and crafts projects are great ways to allow your kids to use their imagination in creative and productive ways. The holiday season seems to lend itself to fun and creative projects that you and your children can do together. With the New Year on its way in, here are some fun, simple ways to spend quality and engaging time with your children.

Holiday Cards:

Holiday cards are always fun for children to make. Whether you celebrate a specific holiday or celebrate the season as a whole, greeting cards a great way to get your kids to use their imagination and be creative. All you need are a few pieces of construction paper (pick up a full pad of colored construction paper and let you child select their favorite colors to use), and crayons/markers/colored pencils/water colors etc. If you want you can add to the creative process by supplying your child with other elements like stencils, stickers, glitter, and glue. Let them decorate the card however they like and encourage them to put a seasonal greeting on the inside. You can choose to send this out to select relatives or friends or use the cards as decorations around your home.

Sugar Cookies:

No matter what holiday you celebrate, sugar cookies are a great treat that you can make with your children. You can always go with the prepackaged mix, which will save time, or use this simple recipe:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup golden brown sugar (packed)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Next, sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg; blend well. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead gently for about one minute. Shape the dough into a ½ inch thick rectangle. Cut the dough into four equal pieces and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least three hours. When you take the dough out, allow it to soften before rolling it out. Next, with the rack positioned in the center of your oven, preheat it at 350 degrees. Prepare a large cookie sheet by buttering it lightly. Next, roll out each piece of dough individually until they are about 1/8 inch thick. Next, take your favorite holiday cookie cutters and begin cutting out shapes and trimming the dough around the cutter. Your child will have fun doing this. Tip: lightly flour the cutters so the dough doesn’t stick to them. Remember to reroll the dough scraps to make more cookies. Transfer the cookies onto your baking sheet and bake them for about 11 minutes (until golden brown). Let them cool for five minutes. At this point you can choose to leave them as they are or frost them.

By choosing to frost them, you can allow your children to design them anyway they want. This can be made less messy and easier by using pastry bags or store bought tubes of frosting. Let their imagination guide them as they help you create these yummy holiday treats.

These are just a couple of ideas to both get your child involved in this festive season and use their imagination in creative ways. No matter what you choose to do, the most important thing is to have fun with your child as they explore the capabilities of their mind.

#traveltheworld #kids #seethesights #teachyourkids #fullcyclepublications #spartanandthegreenegg  #books #nabilakhashoggi #OnTheBlog

Let’s face it: teaching your kids to go green is great, but getting them to clean up after themselves and not to forget their underwear before walking out the door may come first on your secret priority list.  Yet there is a huge opportunity to teach our children how to become more conscious of the environment in the everyday actions they take by developing habits that will stay with them for a lifetime. Here are three dynamic yet simple action steps that will have them respecting their own home and personal development while forming lasting habits toward a safer environment!

1. Leave Something, Plant Something

If your child forgets to make her bed or pick up his toys that you’ve tripped over one too many times, your list of subtle, yet effective ways to drive that habit home once and for all may have become quite long by now.  However, there is one habit that when done together can work to heal both the environment and a forgetful mind.  Have your child plant a seed each time he or she forgets a crucial household chore.  Planting a seed in your own yard teaches them to hone the skill of patience, understanding and consciousness.  Watching that seed grow is a healing act that they will forever associate with being more mindful of the world, and home they live in. 

Take Them Out in Nature

When Spartan and his friends arrive in the rainforest they see many different animals that live there. These animals depend on the plants and trees around them for survival. This may be a difficult notion for children to grasp. By taking them out to local parks or forests you can help them get a firsthand look at these animals in their natural habitats. Admiring these animals in their natural habitats can show your child how careful they are with how they treat their surroundings.  Watching a bird carefully construct and then live in its own nest can be a powerful analogy to how your child treats his or her own room at home.

Teach Them That Everyday Items Come from Nature

Not into picking up after themselves? Spartan and his friends learn that the trees that are being cut down may be used for things like making paper. If you teach your child that paper comes from trees or that cotton clothes come from cotton plants you can help them realize that nature is their biggest resource. If they see the environment as a necessity instead of as an arbitrary setting, they will treat it better to ensure that it remains useful, while thinking twice about how they treat the possessions they already have.

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Spartan and his friends are great at using their imagination in different ways. Katie is especially good at art. She is able to use her imagination to create the images that she thinks of. We see this when she draws the rocket for the team to envision in order to contact Egg. Arts and crafts projects are great ways to allow your kids to use their imagination in creative and productive ways. The holiday season seems to lend itself to fun and creative projects that you and your children can do together. With the New Year on its way in, here are some fun, simple ways to spend quality and engaging time with your children.

Holiday Cards:

Holiday cards are always fun for children to make. Whether you celebrate a specific holiday or celebrate the season as a whole, greeting cards a great way to get your kids to use their imagination and be creative. All you need are a few pieces of construction paper (pick up a full pad of colored construction paper and let you child select their favorite colors to use), and crayons/markers/colored pencils/water colors etc. If you want you can add to the creative process by supplying your child with other elements like stencils, stickers, glitter, and glue. Let them decorate the card however they like and encourage them to put a seasonal greeting on the inside. You can choose to send this out to select relatives or friends or use the cards as decorations around your home.

Sugar Cookies:

No matter what holiday you celebrate, sugar cookies are a great treat that you can make with your children. You can always go with the prepackaged mix, which will save time, or use this simple recipe:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup golden brown sugar (packed)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Next, sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg; blend well. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead gently for about one minute. Shape the dough into a ½ inch thick rectangle. Cut the dough into four equal pieces and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least three hours. When you take the dough out, allow it to soften before rolling it out. Next, with the rack positioned in the center of your oven, preheat it at 350 degrees. Prepare a large cookie sheet by buttering it lightly. Next, roll out each piece of dough individually until they are about 1/8 inch thick. Next, take your favorite holiday cookie cutters and begin cutting out shapes and trimming the dough around the cutter. Your child will have fun doing this. Tip: lightly flour the cutters so the dough doesn’t stick to them. Remember to reroll the dough scraps to make more cookies. Transfer the cookies onto your baking sheet and bake them for about 11 minutes (until golden brown). Let them cool for five minutes. At this point you can choose to leave them as they are or frost them.

By choosing to frost them, you can allow your children to design them anyway they want. This can be made less messy and easier by using pastry bags or store bought tubes of frosting. Let their imagination guide them as they help you create these yummy holiday treats.

These are just a couple of ideas to both get your child involved in this festive season and use their imagination in creative ways. No matter what you choose to do, the most important thing is to have fun with your child as they explore the capabilities of their mind.

#traveltheworld #kids #seethesights #teachyourkids #fullcyclepublications #spartanandthegreenegg  #books #nabilakhashoggi #OnTheBlog