I love my children’s preschool. It is such a cheerful, sweet and nurturing place. It makes me happy every time I drop them off (not just because it means I get a few hours to myself). I know how happy they are there and how much they learn. One of the wonderful programs they do is called Book and Cook where parents are invited in to read a book to the children and then do a cooking activity that ties into the book. Books are a huge part of our lives. Not only do we read to our children at least once a day, but we are also in the process of writing a book of our own.
I have always wanted to write a book and becoming a published author has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. Although it is in the early stages, we have decided to write a book for preschool children. A lot goes into publishing a book. Everything from the illustrations, to the font, to the front cover, has to be perfect. Then, of course, you have to decide whether you want to publish your book independently through self-publishing or traditionally through an established publishing company. While our book is a long way off being finished just yet, I cannot wait to share it with you as soon as it is complete.
Anyway, it was hard for us to narrow it down to one book for the Book and Cook event, but we did. We chose one of our favorites called Sophie’s Squash.
My husband read the book to very attentive listeners and after reading the book we made squash smoothies. I brought in a blender and made smoothies out of crushed ice, vanilla yogurt, milk, blueberries and cooked butternut squash. You can really add any fruit or vegetable to smoothies. The flavors of the squash and blueberries blended nicely with the vanilla yogurt. I used lactose free milk and yogurt for any children with dairy intolerance. Everyone covered their ears when I put the blender on.
The kids loved their smoothies!
Days with toddlers are very long. There are a lot of hours in a day to fill. We go to the library at least once a week and come home with a stack of books. We often read books during breakfast so it’s fun to read books that relate to food. Here are some of our favorites that you may want to pick up for the holidays or on your next trip to the library.
Sophie’s Squash-On a trip to the farmers market with her parents a little girl picks up a squash. Instead of letting her parents cook the squash, she names it Bernice and takes care of it. When it starts to rot, she plants it in the ground and then is happy when it produces more squash for her to take care of.
Dragons Love Tacos-In this adorable book we learn about how dragons love to eat tacos but you must never add any hot sauce to the tacos because they will not like it!
The Prince’s Breakfast-This is one that many parents with picky eaters can relate to. The prince will not eat anything so his parents take him all over the world to try new foods only to find that adding ketchup to his food is the secret.
Yummy Yucky-This is still a favorite with our kids. It shows the differences between yummy things like apple pie and yucky things like mud pie.
Chopsticks-Not only is this book adorable with the food references, it teaches a great lesson about having individual interests. As a mom of twins, I love this message.
Reading and cooking are two of our favorite activities so it’s fun to combine them. These are some fun titles to read with your kids. I would love to hear about your favorites!
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