Whole Grain Nutty Crackers

Dig In Manitoba to the Rescue: Finding Time to Purchase and Prepare Healthy, Local Food

Between running a household and looking after the kids, there’s no doubt that motherhood is more than a full-time job – and that’s not even counting any additional work you might be doing outside of family life. Even when it’s something you love, it can keep you busy enough that juggling everything can be tricky to manage!

With all of that in mind, who has the time to buy locally-grown, ethically-produced food, cook meals from scratch and provide their kids with healthy snacks?

The Dig In Challenge is here to help you out! As a member of momstown, you already know the value of joining a community for support. The Dig In Challenge is just like that, with a focus on healthy, local, sustainable, and fair food.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be a huge hassle. There are so many ways to fit it into your busy lifestyle, regardless of whether it’s summertime or back-to-school season. Just some of the things you can do include:

·       Visiting www.DigInManitoba.ca to find healthy, local recipes (plus kid-friendly snacks!), and to share some of your own

·       Getting your kids involved with having fun with food – start them off at an early age by taking them to the farmers’ market or put together a quick, easy meal with them as your special helper

·       Picking local fruit with the whole family through www.FruitShare.ca

·       Playing Heifer games and activities with your children to learn about the importance of fair food

·       Joining the Dig In Challenge (www.DigInManitoba.ca/challenge) to participate in a community of families eager to learn about healthy, local food – it’s free to join, and you’ll get to attend food skill workshops and might even win a prize!

Hungry for more healthy eating ideas? Visit www.DigInManitoba.ca/challenge/action for over 40 ideas!

Check out our Dig In forum for inspiration about what other Manitoban families are doing to eat healthy and local this summer – and how they’re going to continue to do so during the back-to-school season. 

Back to School Tips

Summer is almost done. I'm not sure where the time went, but I blinked and next thing I knew it, I saw back to school supplies everywhere! So we asked our members what were some back to school tips to help kids and parents ease back into their school routine. Because let's face it, many kids have been going to bed way later and sleeping in until noon.  Well, not in this house yet, but one can dream! 

So here it is. Tips from our member, and a pretty fun and inspiring junior high teacher, Amber.

• Have a 'sweater hanging rack' in the closet. Choose their weekday outfits on Sunday. It makes getting ready in the morning that much easier/quicker. If the child is old enough, have them involved in picking out their outfits. Kids start to assert independent dressing around kindergarten. 
• Parents should also plan their wardrobe ahead of time to make mornings easier for all.
• Mabel's Labels...enough said
• Give your child input on their lunches... I cannot tell you how much food gets thrown out at school!! I believe sending more grazing/snacks works than the big sandwiches. Check out Weelicious for great bento box style lunches. You can also check out some more brown bag ideas on the momstown meals blog.
• Set up a specific routine for 'homework', even at a young age, your child should spend some home time working on skills...when they're young it can be the routine of unpacking their school bag, putting notes on the fridge, home reading....you need to immediately establish that learning is lifelong and doesn't just happen at school.
• Meet the teacher and find out the best way to contact them (agenda, email, phone, etc). If you're interested in volunteering, let them know specifically what you are interested in (Is it craft prep? Reading with individual students? Field trip supervision?). You will also need to see the office for volunteer forms and a child abuse registry form.
• Get the kids back to their regular bedtime schedule a few weeks before school starts. A full nights sleep is very important for learning.

Thanks Amber for these wonderful tips. Be sure to check out more tips on our message board from other mom's with school aged children.

How to Handle the Big Day: Kindergarten!

So it's your child's big day! They are starting kindergarten. And let's face it. You are probably more freaked out then they are. It's a new phase it their life and they may not quite get what kindergarten is all about. 

We are lucky to have a few teachers as momstown members. So I asked them what tips and advice could they pass along to our fellow moms and dads that have a little one starting kindergarten this fall. 

So here it is. Tips from a members who is a local Kindergarten teacher. She has seen it all on the first day.

• Make it an exciting thing, as hard as it is for parents to let our little ones go it is a fun new thing for them and our worry/stress/sadness can make it a harder transition for them.  
• There are lots of starting school and starting kindergarten picture books out there to help out with this.  The kissing hand is a favorite from the mommy perspective, but there are fun and silly books too.
• Visit the classroom.  Most schools had some kind of open house for k back in the spring but you can always phone the school in the last week of august and arrange to have a tour or quick classroom visit to ease uncertainty.
• On the day of you can send along a family picture, stuffed animal or other special item in case they want something familiar.  
• Notes and special snacks are nice too.
• Make the school goodbye happy and don't linger.  Even if there are some tears from kids 99% of the time they stop as soon as they get involved in what the other kids are doing.
• Have a fun activity or special dinner planned for that day to celebrate their first day of school, yay!

Thanks Jacqueline for your wonderful tips on dealing with the first day of kindergarten.

Baby Sensory: Little Nature Lovers

This week we held a baby sensory playdate for little nature lovers at Assiniboine Park.  It was a lot of fun to collect the items that were used for our sensory.   

We used:

• mud (a little messy)
• sand
• cattails/ bulrushes
• skunkweed
• dried leaves
• pine cones
• grass clippings
• water
• water bottle rattles with rocks inside

When we arrived at the park, we all gathered around in a nice shady spot and the kids dug right in! 

It was neat to think of the ways that our senses were being used: the touch of the textures, the smell of the pinecones, the sound of the rocks, the different colours of the items - and even a little tasting!!

Find other sensory ideas here.

It was a great day at the park! 

This blog was written by Camille, our creative and crafty Event Coordinator!

Alphabet Craft: D is for Dump Truck

We've played outside a lot this long weekend, so we changed it up tonight and got crafty. My daughter spotted the sand when we went through the craft supplies. So of course what better craft to do then D is for Dump Truck. 

We did this craft last year at our momstown Tales for Tots and it was a hit. You can use sand, coffee grinds, loose tea, soil, oatmeal, or pretty much anything that can look like dirt. 

What you need:

• Sand, coffee grinds, or loose tea
• Pencil or marker (to draw out the shapes for the dump truck)
• Construction paper 
• Glue

Instructions:

Draw and cut out 2 rectangles (one larger then the other), 2 wheels, and some thin pieces of rectangles for the window and bumper. Draw and cut out the letter 'D'. Glue together the pieces like the picture below.

Let your kid go crazy with the 'dirt'. It's a great sensory craft that all kids will love.

Then end result!

Be sure to have some Huggies wipes on hand to clean up the mess!

Some other fun alphabet letter D crafts that you can do with the kids: 

D is for Dots

D is for Dragon!

D is for Duck!

Get a BONUS Today's Parent Subscription with a momstown Membership!

Today's Parent is such a well known, reliable resource for parents, that it's become a staple in Canadian households for veteran, new or even expectant parents.  One of the first things I did when I got pregnant was get a subscription to Today's Parent.  Today's Parent Magazine is a great place for meal ideas, tips, tricks and advice on raising children and a great place to find out the latest baby and kid's gadgets. 

There’s never been a better time to join momstown Winnipeg! When you purchase or renew a full year momstown membership in August or September, you received a BONUS subscription to Today’s Parent!

For a limited time, included in your membership to momstown is a one year (12 issues) subscription to Today’s Parent! This includes all new memberships as well as existing membership renewals, and applies only to full year momstown memberships ($45). This special offer is available from August 1st, 2012 to September 30, 2012inclusive.

Already receive Today’s Parent? Then your subscription will be extended one additional year!

Click here for full details and mark your calendars to renew or sign up soon!