All things School & Cool

All Things School & Cool

It's not always easy being a parent and coming up with ideas for school lunches, hairstyles, homework help and school holidays can be quite tricky ~ Pop back regularly to check out some cool ideas that we'll source on these topics!  Feel free to send us in your cool ideas via Facebook or email too.. we'd love to hear from you xo

Wednesday 12th December

 

  

Reindeer Food
(Courtesy of a Wishful Whimsy)

 

 

Christmas is just around the corner and with kids at home on school holidays, it's the perfect time to get your 'craft on' and do some simple Christmas crafts/projects to get everyone in a festive mood!  A great idea is to make 'Reindeer Food' ~ It's cheap, cheerful and easy to make & whats more, seeing the kids sprinkle it eagerly on the lawn on Christmas eve is well worth it!

 

What you will need; {And you can vary the ingredients to suit what you have/would like to put in it..}

* Bag of rolled oats (porridge oats)

* Sugar (preferably the larger grain style, I used raw sugar)

* Food colouring (any colour you desire, I used red & green)

* Glitter

* Festive sequins

* Ziplock bags

* Reindeer Food Toppers (available to download here;
 https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7pe3wq93TPRcHNfSzV1Q0NERnc)

 

How to make Reindeer food..

 

Essentially reindeer food is all of the above, mixed together.. but first of all you need to start with 2 small bowls (ramekins are perfect) of the raw sugar.  Add a couple of drops of food colouring to the bowls and mix the food colouring into the sugar, keep working until all the sugar is coloured. Don't add too much food colouring or your sugar will get soggy and wet.  If you have added too much either add more sugar to help soak up the excess food colour. Set aside to dry.

Colour raw sugar with food colouring (photo courtesy of a Wishful Whimsy)

 

In a large bowl, pour in an amount of rolled oats (I used half a bag). When your coloured sugar mix has dried off pour the coloured sugar in with the rolled oats.  Also add your glitter and festive sequins.. using a spoon stir the mixture to give a nice consistent blend. 
 

Mixing the Reindeer Food.. (image courtesy of a Wishful Whimsy)

 

Once the mixture is complete you can start spooning it into the zip lock bags and finishing each bag off with a topper..

 

The poem on the topper reads;

 

Sprinkle on the lawn at night

The moon will make it sparkle bright

Santa’s reindeer fly and roam

This will guide them to your home..

 

Hand out the sachets to your children on Christmas Eve and head outside to sprinkle it on the lawn with them so the reindeers and Santa can find your home :)

 

 Enjoy! Keep an eye out for our 'snow' recipe to make with the kids as well. :)

 

 

 

Teacher's Gifts..

Monday 3rd December:

Here in Australia, the end of the school year is drawing to a close and Christmas is fast approaching! This time of year always leaves parents with many things to do, but so little time! One thing on your to-do list (amongst many) might be to purchase or create a gift for your Child's Teacher.  Teachers work tirelessly throughout the year,  to provide your child with an education, so it's a nice touch at the end of the year for you as a parent to thank the Teacher for the great work they have done and  also for your child to farewell their Teacher (which is sometimes a very hard and anxious time of year for some children) so this just puts a positive spin on things!

If you Google 'Teacher's Gifts' you will find no shortage of ideas and due to the world of Pinterest some of them are pretty impressive!  However, it's not about giving the biggest or the best, it's the thought that counts and you are able to make it as personalised, sweet or extravagant as you please.

First thing is first, work out the Teacher's whom you would like to give a present to.  Your child may have more than one Teacher who impacted upon their life throughout the year such as an Assistant Teacher, Teacher Aide, Music Teacher or even your child's swim instructor! And it's nice, where your able to recognise their hard work as well.

Once you have worked out who you will be giving gifts to, you need to work out your budget and whether you are opting for a store bought or handmade gift (even if you aren't going to make it yourself, there are plenty of fantastic, creative folk out there selling at markets and on websites/Facebook pages)

Sometimes it's nice to touch upon a Teacher's interests, for example you may give something music related to your child's music teacher or you could even stick to fail safe gifts such as chocolate, mugs, Christmas ornaments or even a book (you can even write that it's from your child in the cover!)

Why not even frame an artwork that your child is particularly proud of or get them to create a card letting their Teacher know just how special they are or what they loved about the past year! The options are endless!

 

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Its that Christmas Card Time of Year....

It's coming up to that time of the year again when your children will start to bring bag-fulls of Christmas cards and candy cane's home from school each day & not only will you have to find room to hang said cards and endure the sugar rush your little treasures will be on each day, you will also need to think of a way to reciprocate the gesture.  It may seem a little daunting, because there are some pretty creative parents out there (My son once received a face washer fashioned into a reindeer) but never fear, there are a few ways to go about it and all are completely socially acceptable & are guaranteed to keep you on Santa's nice list this year ;)

The first thing I do each year to ensure card writing goes nice and smoothly is to request a class list or roll list from my child's Teacher, I find this to be more accurate than using the school photograph because children come and go throughout the year.

Once you have determined how many cards you will need (taking into consideration friends who are outside of the class list) You can plan your next step, which you have a few options;

The first option is you could pop down to your local store and buy a packet (or ten ~ class sizes seem so big these days!) of store bought cards. There are some gorgeous designs out there these days for teeny tiny prices. To add your own touch to the cards you could purchase some stickers or glitter glue from most $2 shops and your child can decorate the inside of the card and envelope :)

Secondly you could opt for your child to hand make their Christmas cards.  We have done this in the past and it can be a lot of fun! Purchase some cardboard or prefolded cards, some embellishments to decorate them with (glitter, stickers, paint, feathers, sequins, decorative paper etc..) and allow yourselves plenty of time to create a festive masterpiece for each of their friends! (Trust me your child probably wont want to make 30 cards in one sitting) You could go with a set design or make every card unique, either which way, its a great way to get into the spirit and have some good creative fun at the same time.

So now you've got the card sorted.. what are you going to put with it/inside it? Tradition says a candy cane - they are pretty cheap nowadays (Aldi has standard size candy canes 12 for 99c!) and they are usually well liked by the majority, but if you wish to opt for something else you could always go with stickers, festive pencils, festive erasers, chocolates, lollipops, glitter/sequins (the teacher will love you for it.. lol), a small sachet of reindeer food, bubbles or small crackers/bonbons ~ the list is endless...

Once the cards have been finished, I find storing them all in a zip lock bag is an excellent way to keep them all together until they are ready to be handed out. Alternatively buy a cane basket and store them in there.  The basket is great when it comes to handing them out as you can have your candy cane/gift items in the basket also and it looks really festive (you could even add a bow or a ribbon).

When it comes to handing them out at school, some Teachers will allocate time during those last weeks of school for students to share cards, however, if your child is younger (kindy/prep etc) perhaps give them a hand popping them into the kid's lockers/pigeon holes before school starts for the day. If your child is older they might prefer to hand their cards out as they see their friends or during lunchtime etc.  Check with your school if you are unsure of their policy surrounding Christmas Cheer.. (That may sound odd, but I once heard of a school who would confiscate all Christmas items prior to the last week of school ~Bah Humbug!~)

Whatever you choose to do, make it fun! Often writing out Christmas cards is a great way of kicking off the Christmas season, so crank up the carols, grab a festive drink (eggnog, raspberry or lime spiders) and make it a bonding moment between you and your child/ren.