Take time to watch this video. Jamie has a lot of great idea’s and is very passionate aout helping people eat healthier and battle obesity.

My little C really wants to do this. Looks exciting. Hope you are enjoying the Olympic build up.

Tangrams are great for math. They help with spacial awareness and they’re fun.

We have a great book the kids like to use with the tangrams, “Grandfather Tang’s Story” by Ann Tompert.  It’s a great story with different puzzles through out.

You can find lots of different Tangram sets on the web. We are particularly fond of out wooden set, but I would love to have a travel set as well.

I don’t know about you but I love buttons. No, it’s not some weird fetish. It’s just a warm memory of my Grandma. She had humongous jar of buttons. Actually it probably wasn’t that big but everything seems bigger when your a kid. I used to love to look at the buttons when I visited her. I would pour then out and sort them. You can do a lot with buttons. There are different shapes, sizes , colors and textures.

I now have have my own button collection although not as big as my grandmas. My daughter loves to look at them. She will sort them and tell me what color they are, which ones are here favorites etc.

We use them for word bingo. A great spelling/reading game.

We also use then for math checkers. And once for a Medieval History craft project we made button bracelets. Can’t find the picture for the life of me though. We learned that buttons were a status symbol for wealth and people sewed them to their clothes for decoration. See I ‘m not the only one who loves buttons.

OK, I have a rule that I try to follow (we all cheat now and again) that you can’t have junk food unless you make it yourself. My reasoning for this is that it might be less than healthy but at least I know what every ingredient in it is.

A also love convenient foods (who doesn’t) but I am a food snob and won’t compromise on taste. There are those Sunday mornings when I just want that extra 15 minutes of sleep. These are the mornings I love instant oatmeal. My 10 year old can heat up water in the microwave and make his and his siblings breakfast. (What can I say I am a lazy mom)

Plus oatmeal is cheap even the organic stuff. And if you lucky you might even be able to get local oats. So here’s how it works. You need 3 cups of instant oats (I always make a double batch). Take one cup and grind it up in a food processor or blender until it is powder. I then add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 TBSP salt and 1/4 cup cinnamon. Blend this together in with the grown oats in the blender. Now there are two options:

First you can package this into individual bags with 1/4 cup instant oats and 2 TBSP of the powdered mixture.  To make just add to 1/2 cup hot water and let stand for a minute.

Second, You can put the powdered mixture in a container and the instant oats in another and tape instructions to the top.

I normally use the second method mostly because I don’t want to pay for the baggies or do the extra work. But I do occasionally package it up for things like camping. You decide what works best for your family.

There are also all sorts of variations. Try adding nuts, dried fruits or other seasonings.  Have fun and enjoy your Sunday morning.