Baking: The Ultimate Craft

Whether it's from scratch or a ready-to-bake mix, baking is really the ultimate craft. If you don't mind a little mess, this is a perfect rainy-day or any day boredom buster. Let the kids measure, pour, stir, and watch as their creations slowly grow and turn golden brown. The children I care for especially love when I turn on the oven light and they can see how it changes as the baked good bakes. Here are a couple ideas to get you started:

• Sugar cookies- Find you favorite sugar cookie recipe and some awesome cut-out shapes. If you don't have any shapes to bring and the family doesn't own any either, use a glass to make circles and frost them into moons, smiley faces, or pumpkins. =) If you are extra creative, you can even try cutting out shapes with a knife. After the dough is made (note: you may want to crack eggs if you want shell-less treats, but let the kids see the inside of the shell and make it a learning experience for them!) cut out whatever shapes you have and place them on a baking sheet and into the oven. Frost them with fun designs and many colors until every cookie is decorated. If you want to make everything homemade, you can even bring a recipe for frosting and let the kids pick colors from food dyes. Little extras like sprinkles, decorating gels, and various candies (m&m's, skittles, licorice, candy corn, etc.) will make the activity even more fun! When you are finished, enjoy some of your creations with the kids, if you have more energy, you could even make up tea or cocoa and have a tea party together!
• This one is simple and can be easily varied for each season and holiday. Simply make rice krispy treats, and roll them into balls, placing a Reese's mini peanut butter cup in the center. If it is winter, top them with powdered sugar and edible glitter for a snow ball look. For autumn, find orange rice krispies and top them with green icing and candy corn to make pumpkins. In spring, make Easter eggs with pastel icing writers. In summer, make beach balls out of rainbow-toned cereal. You can also change up the type of candy in the center to your own tastes. 

Have fun with the kids and enjoy the treats you create together!

Tools of the Trade

I recently started a new babysitting job which requires many hours spent with only one small child who cannot do much. This has really been a challenge for me because it is very difficult to think of new, fun things for a child with a short attention span to do every day. My mother came to the rescue with four tools of the trade: blocks, books, beanie babies, and balls. Basic, old fashioned wooden blocks are great for younger children, while the modern version, Lego's, bring hours of creativity and are great for boys and girls. Books are a life-saver. When a child refuses to go down for a nap, suggest reading a couple books (until they nod off that is). If you are at your wit's end and cannot think of one more thing to do, read a book. The children's section at the local library has been great; just go get a pile of books and rotate them through on different days. When the stories are getting old, simply return them and you will never have to read that book again... or at least for a while. Beanie babies (or any sort of stuffed animal toy) are also a wonderful staple. Although they will require a little more imagination, they can easily keep a child entertained. Try building a cardboard home and coloring it, setting up a tea party, or even creating outfits if the child is older. Bouncy balls, kick balls, basket balls, rubber balls, and super balls all offer endless options. Most department stores offer fairly cheap rubber balls throughout summer months. Bring one along and encourage the kids to kick it back and forth outside. Have a contest on who can kick it the furthest. You could even make up a game together... just be careful it does not turn into a harsh game of dodge ball. During the winter months, snow balls are a great option in colder regions. Throw them at "targets" such as trees or bushes, or ambush a snowman. These tools of the trade are life savers and great to keep children occupied throughout long days.

to entertain a child...

Hi guys! So I recently spent an entire day- literally- babysitting 3 kids, 9 and 7 year old boys and their 2 year old sister... If you're anything like me, one of the first thoughts in your head is how to keep them busy all day! It's a challenge. So I thought I'd offer a list of things to keep kids of all ages occupied!

• Build a blanket fort with chairs and sheets in the living room! If you babysit in a small apartment, try building it off the couter and stretch the sheet over a chair on the other side. Once inside, you can get a flashlight and tell stories, whether silly, scary, or from a book you brought along! This is especially good for keeping them quiet during a little one's nap time.
• Build with legos, blocks, duplos, K'NEX, etc... (if there's a little one, have the "building center" in one room and shut the door and play with baby toys with the baby. Also, pick up carefully when done or make it a point to keep the door shut!)
• If it's winter, go outside and build a snowman, sled, make snow angels or a fort! Have them do most of the work and help them along so that they wear off energy, but you still have some left =) When you come in, let them have a special treat, like hot cocoa and a snack.
• Act out a story! Find a favorite book or an old fable and dress up and set up a stage (if they have hand puppets, make them charectors!) and bring the story to life! Make lines easy, or even tell them which charector to be and then simply read the story as they play out the charector. 
• Play dress up! This works especially well for little girls! If you have some make-up things, bring them along (check with the parents first!) and give them makeovers. All little girls love getting into mommy's make-up, so they will just love this! 
• If you're good at doing nails, bring some polish along and offer to give them a "manicure". If you can't paint flowers, bring nail stickers or do little polka-dots! They'll think it's special just because a "big girl" did their nails!
• If it's summer, let them draw with chalk, take a walk to the park (bring a few water bottles, especially on a hot day!), play in their sandbox, have them put on their swim suits and "flood" the sandbox with the garden hose even! 
• Bring new board games that they don't have! They will love learning a new game, especially if it's about something they like! For example, if a little girl loves ponies- what girl doesn't?- then bring something like "Herd Your Horses".
• If you have some older kids, try bringing a more complicated craft like origami!
• If you are there for a long enough time, try baking some cookies with them! Let the little kids dump in ingredients as you ask and have older kids roll the dough into balls or even try a spritzer! Let them color or watch a cartoon while they wait for the cookies to finish baking!
• Make a scavenger hunt list and have them touch every item and check it off. If you have little kids who want to participate, try teaming them up with their older siblings!
• Make a clue trail! Draw pictures or write clues on pieces of paper and put them all over the house or yard! Place the clues in ideal spots to wear the kids out, for example, if one clue leads to the upstairs couch, have the next clue lead to the downstairs bed room, and that clue might lead back to the top level and so on. have a special prize at the end for each kid, like a piece of candy or a quarter or something!
• Play blind man's bluff!
• Try making a store! bring some old stuffed animals or toys and set them up, then give each kid some "money" (you could use monopoly money even) and have them "buy" the items from you. They will think this is great because they don't normally get to buy things on their own.
• Make playdough! Put 1 cup flour, 1 cup water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 Tablespoon oil, 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar, and a color of their choice into a pot and stir it over medium-low heat until it feels like mashed potatoes. It will be hot, so put it into the fridge to cool quicker! Soak the pot so it's easier to clean later.
• As a very last resort, when you can't stand the constant questions and squabbling any longer, bring out a few movies that you brought from home that they haven't seen or don't own! Know your audience- for girls, try a princess movie or even a Little House on the Prairie or Shirley Temple episode. For boys, try an age-appropriate knight, car, or dog movie, like one from the Beethoven series. If you have both boys and girls, try an animated disney movie with both guys and girls in it!

Hope that helps you! Good luck and have fun with the kids!

the basics

As my fifth year of childcare approaches and I prepare for yet another long- and incredibly fun!- day of keeping children entertained, I thought I might share some ideas on the subject, thus this blog. :D To start at the very basics, a good babysitter is mature, trustworthy, patient, safety-conscious, organized, prepared, fun, and punctual... and of course likes kids! Here are some great ideas on actually getting a babysitting job for those just beginning!

1. Talk to your parents, uncles and aunts, friends, teachers, or anybody who may know somebody with or have kids who need babysitting! If you have an older sibling who babysits, ask them to enquire if the kids parents know anybody in need of a babysitter! Free advertising never hurt anybody! =)
2. If you're in a group or club or anything like that where parents with small children come. Talk with the parents and hint that you're old enough and interested in babysitting for them... if you are too shy to ask, just play with their kids! Often times parents will notice that you genuinly love working with kids and will hire you to babysit.
3. ADVERTISE!! make flyers and put them on doors or mailboxes of neighbors with small children. Be sure to list your age, phone number, past expirience, and rates. If you don't want to list a rate, you can always put "call for rates" on the bottom. Often times parents will either ask what you regularly charge or pay you depending on how good of a job you do. If the family has a pet or a child under 10 months old who will need more attention, you may want to charge a little extra for the trouble... it makes mopping up the puppy's "accident" a little more worthwhile! Even if you've never babysat officially before, your experience can even just be having watched a little brother or sister.
One more tip in closing is to sign up for a Red Cross babysitter's class. Even though you may never use baby CPR, it can never hurt to be prepared! Besides, the certification looks good on a flyer! Goodbye for now and good luck!