Dill and potato cakes recipe = DOUGH PLAY fun for infants and toddlers!!!

On a rainy day, your children can't go outdoors, they have got lots of energy bursting within them and all you wish is to bake something that will warm your kitchen with yummy aroma, yet you are not in the mood for sweet stuff and bread proofing takes too long... So what can you do?
Presenting the Dill and potato cake recipe! This is an all in one wonder!!!
Why?
Because you will be able to
1. make soft and malleable dough with your children to have dough play and have fun shaping and using cookie cutters,
2. Bake little cakes that are savory and fragrant when your children are done with dough play!

Yes! A perfect dream come true for a busy and ambitious mum as well as all Early Childhood Educators!

This recipe is taken from the book: Complete baking by Martha Day, but I have modified it to use cream cheese instead of butter and so think of light and fluffy cake in the middle and crispy and golden crust all in one made from potatoes, cream cheese and dill! Best of all, it was the product from the dough play your children had! (So please wash their hands thoroughly before the dough play!)
My daughters enjoyed eating the little cakes after the dough play! I'm also very proud of Tiffany as it is her first dough play and experience using the rolling pin and cookie cutter at 14 months old! I must also add that I'm proud of Trinity as usual for her long attention span in cookery and baking since infanthood!
What joy and satisfaction!

Side notes: making it into thin bite size pieces taste more like a biscuit with a crispy crust. If you like it to taste like a cake, make it thicker and bigger. After it has completely cooled down, it will be soft and a little chewy for the bite sized pieces. We toasted it back and it is crispy and nice again! :)

Ingredients:
225g self raising flour
75g cream cheese
Pinch of salt
A heap of dried dill
170g plain mashed potatoes
2-3 tablespoon milk as required

1. Sift flour into bowl.
2. Add cream cheese, salt, dill.
3. Mix in mash potato and enough milk to knead into a soft malleable dough.
4. Roll out the dough on a well floured surface and have all the dough play with your children.
5. Preheat oven at 230 degree Celsius.
6. When dough play is done, introduce cookie cutters and have fun cutting out fun shapes on the dough that has been rolled out fairly thin.
7. Grease the baking Sheet or use a silicone baking sheet and bake for 10 -12 minutes for bite sized pieces or 20-25 minutes for 3 inch sized cutters.

Enjoy!!!

Inspiring Yummy Mummies
PoshPearl

Homemade non toxic edible paints for infants and toddlers

Infants and toddlers learn through their 5 senses through interaction with their environment. One must bear in mind that they are never too young to learn and never underestimate their ability and wisdom. Body painting is a very good way to learn about Science: colors, texture, temperature, strokes, fine motor control and being comfortable with mess.

To begin art, always allow experimentation with edible paints then move on to inedible ones.

Fruit paints:
red dragon fruit for purple,
Mango for yellow
Papaya for orange

Allow child to squeeze and explore each fruit and smear onto himself.
Let the child be seated on a mahjong paper with a disposable picnic mat under for easy cleaning.


Corn starch paints
Ingredients:
The following juices blended and strained:
Spinach/ pandan for green
Rosella/ red dragonfruit for red
Turmeric/ mango for yellow
Cornstarch and water mixture to your desired consistency

Mix each juice with the cornstarch mixture and allow child to explore as he would for the fruit paint experience.

Chocolate pudding/ yoghurt/ honey body paint

Ingredients:
Jello chocolate pudding powder
Plain yoghurt
Honey

Choose either of the above and allow exploration as child would for the fruit paints.

Cleaning up:
Since child is on mat, remember to lay down the ground rules before hand. Be with child and tell child to signal once he or she is ready to clean up. Hold the 4 corners of the mat and wrap the child to prevent spillage. Then carry child to the bathroom. Throw away the mat with mahjong paper and bathe child. It's a breeze :)

Inspiring Yummy Mummies
PoshPearl

Opinion on child raising

Baking bread now! 2 loaves, chocolate chip and fruit & nuts. I conclude that baking bread is like raising a child. Under proof or over proof will not maximize the bread's optimum texture, just like raising a child, nature and nature are both equally important and we have to nurture our children to their best potential.

Personally, I believe in nurturing. Just a child born in a family of doctors, if abducted by thieves and raised by them, he will never get a chance to be a doctor if he doesn't have the means to proper education and learning from his real family.
Similarly, a child who is adopted by a family of educators will be raised to be a person of good values.

Of course one may argue about peer influence and that one might go astray, but peer influence or pressure, my friend, is a form of "nurture" as well, in my opinion, "Nurtured" by friends to become someone else. In another words, as long as a person is under an
Environment with certain people, after sometime, that person will be "nurtured" or influenced to become like the people around them.
But is it possible not to be influenced?
Yes. With a strong and firm foundation of values, beliefs and knowledge, one is rooted and will not be easily strayed. This is because the person has his own identity and need not succumb to unnecessary pressure to become someone he doesn't like.

So start nurturing your children from birth. Believe in their ability to learn. Never underestimate a child's ability and potential and they will never fail to
amaze you!

Inspiring yummy mummies
PoshPearl

The voice of a child

You said I was creating a mess,
Actually I was learning to feed myself.
You said I was wasting your time,
Actually I was learning to wear my shoes.

You said I was trying your limits,
Actually I was trying to tell you I need to sleep.
You said I was slow and incapable,
Actually I was not given any chance to prove my worth.

You said there's no point in reading to me as I am still too young for it,
Actually I will be your no. 1 fan no matter how inexperienced you are in storytelling.
You said that I am misbehaving because I was smearing the juice on the table,
Actually I was doing hand painting and exploration.

You said I was making way too much noise,
Actually I was just imitating you.
You said I was wrong to hit others,
Actually I was just imitating you.

You said I am stubborn and rebellious,
Actually I am just determined to
Accomplish my task.
You said I am too young to learn,
Actually My brain is developing faster than yours.

Brain development is the fastest from 0-3 years old and every child ought to be given a chance to learn.

Never underestimate your child's ability to learn. Your child is a Reflection of you and his or her level of capability depends on how much you believe in him or her.

Inspiring Yummy Mummies
PoshPearl