Category Archives: ponpon

“Mini chef in the kitchen” 2- Jus de lapin (carrot-banana-mandarin smoothie)

Posted on April 30, 2015 | Leave a comment

In the “mini chef in the kitchen” series, today we are preparing a healthy fruit smoothie to beat the heat.

Giving the juice a creative name, attracts your kids attention and stimulates their curiosity. There is no way they won’t try it especially if they are picky eaters like my son.

“jus de lapin” or rabbit juice because it contains carrots and has a bright orange color!

You will need

1 large carrot
1 big banana
juice of 3 mandarines
half cup ice (optional)
1 tsp honey (optional)

Mix all and blend for 2-3 minutes until smooth and frothy.

My son is not fan of sweet taste, i didn’t add the honey since the mandarin were not very sour.

If the fruits are already cold or some frozen, you can skip adding ice. I put two colorful ice sticks for fun and to keep it chilled.

This activity provides your kids with plenty of opportunities to learn. Click on benefits of cooking with your kids to know more about it.

To add more fun and encourage Nady to have the whole smoothie i prepared moustache cut out and insert it in the straw. Click here for the printable file.

There are endless options for smoothies, use the favorite fruits of your kids, or even introduce some other veggies like celery, spinach or cucumber and make the green giant.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Reasons to cook with your kids – “Mini chef in the kitchen” 1- Nutella mini tarts recipe

Posted on April 29, 2015 | 4 comments

How many times you let your kids out of the kitchen, having no time to let them be involved, or just being tired and drained out of energy, or simply not in the mood. However i am sure there were many other times you really enjoyed cooking or baking together with so much fun.

No doubt, cooking with kids takes more time and effort, but for the many learning experiences you can embrace while your kids are in the kitchen, i encourage you to do it more often. Trust me the benefits to their development justify the extra efforts.

Reasons to cook with your kids:

Literacy (building vocabulary): cooking with kids gives you the opportunity to introduce new words. You will be talking about the ingredients which gives them food knowledge. They will be observing and talking about the process as well (like creaming, whisking,…). It’s good to mention the new words several times and put them in a sentence they will understand and repeat after you. And when you read for them the recipe (if they can’t read yet) they will learn also that there is a method and instructions to follow. When am with with my son i enjoy mostly the open conversation we have all the time of cooking.

Brain development by exploring their senses: sensory experience is essential for the brain development. Cooking engage all the senses of your kids; seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting (especially smelling and tasting). My son is the curious type he likes to taste everything!

Motor skills: Developing fine and gross motor skills is as important as the sensory experience. They will be training their tiny muscles (fingers, hands, arms and even all body) by stirring, whisking, beating, kneading….. I love watching my son doing all this, i see a small proud man using his beautiful hands magically 🙂

Math and logic: By counting and using the measuring cups or spoons to follow the accurate recipe.

Self esteem: you will experience the look of confidence and pride on your kid’s face when he sees the outcome and especially when he offers it to others. When i bake with my son, he keeps on telling what he did to everyone he sees, and insists on offering some of “his creations” saying : “Nady did this!” waiting for the rewards for his efforts.

All these benefits go without neglecting the amount of fun we have and the quality time together which is sacred for me.

The most important thing though is you don’t force the learning to happen, it should flow naturally. The golden rule is to enjoy the time with your kids in the kitchen.

If you like to cook with your kids but you are struggling to find simple recipes to do, follow me this week. I will be writing a series of posts with easy recipes to enjoy cooking with your mini chefs!

Today we baked mini Nutella tarts. You will need:

250g flour (sifted)
125g cold butter diced
3-4 tbsp water
nutella chocolate

Let your kid sieve the flour into a mixing bowl and add the butter cubes.

Rub the flour and butter to become like sand. Add the water one tbsp after the other and watch your genius kneading.

We placed the dough for 15 mins in the fridge before working it. Meanwhile we cleaned the mess around us.

Sprinkle little flour on your working surface and roll out the dough.

and cut circles to fit in the muffin tray.

Nady cut also hearts and stars to decorate the top of each tart.

Put almost one tbsp of the chocolate into the middle of each tart.

Let your kid choose any shape to decorate the top of the tart.

Preheat oven to 200°C and bake for 15 mns or until top is golden brown.

Meanwhile arrange again the mess you did, teaching your kids to be clean and tidy, which is an important and fun part of cooking as well.

Let it cool before your little chef taste the reward of his efforts.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in dessert, kids food, way to play

Tagged beirut, benefits of cooking with kids, blog, Brain development, chocolate, cooking, cooking with kids, easy recipe, food blogger, jaymmy, kids food, little chefs, marmite et ponpon, nutella, qatar, sensory experience, simple recipes, tart

3 fun games to teach your toddler the geometric shapes and colors (free printables)

Posted on April 23, 2015 | Leave a comment

Teaching your child about shapes and colors is greatly important. This knowledge manifests in their daily life. It helps:

Improving the verbal communication: by providing them the exact descriptive vocabulary we are offering an opportunity to communicate more effectively. By that we avoid their frustration of being unable to ask for a specific thing. ex: “i want the blue car not the red”, “i like the square biscuit more than the round one”…
Building up the logic skills: do you know that when your kid is able to build a balanced lego tower, means he is making use of his geometry skills?
Improving pre-reading skills: Children will apply the same skills that they used in recognizing circles and squares to recognizing and naming all of the letters, as letters are just more complicated shapes.
Being creative: the knowledge of shapes and colors will help them to create what they imagine in their minds when drawing or creating shapes with playdough…. Also the use of colors can express feelings and emotions that young children may not have the words to describe. Ex: using the color red to express anger.
Teaching perspective: realizing that shapes not only exist in flat form on paper but as objects in everyday life, will give them a new perspective of their surroundings.

First comes recognizing the shapes and then drawing, tracing or coloring them is a plus. And maybe building 3D shapes in an advanced stage.

I created series of cards for the most common shapes that a child will encounter in his daily life (square, rectangle, circle, oval, triangle, heart, star…..). Total of 12 colorful shapes with animals, to make it more fun. This way we are learning shapes, colors and animals.

Click on french cards or english cards to download a high resolution file.

As Nady loves singing, we were spending time on each animal to sing a related song and name its benefits.

We played 3 games with these cards:

Game 1: Tracing the shapes with colored pencils

A smart way to enhance his motor skills and practice the pre-writing ability by learning how to hold the pen and draw, beside naming the colors and the animals

Game 2: Making the shapes out of playdough

This game couldn’t end without using the cutters! The favorite activity of Nady 🙂 We found a way to make it beneficial, by cutting same animals to make assimilation!

A great way to build fine motor skills while the child rolls out the dough to trace around the shapes while learning the shapes, colors and animals.

Game 3: Coloring inside the lines

A different type of exercise, teaching a tough skill that needs time, drawing inside the lines! My son is a reluctant artist, he doesn’t like to follow rules he wants to be a free! Without forgetting that this exercise aims also to learn shapes, colors and animals.

We had a new experience each time we played with those cards. The sky is the limit. You can create your own games depending on what is your aim from the exercise.

Don’t forget playing and having fun is very educational! Enjoy every moment with your children, they are precious.

This is what i call a way to play! If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the fun. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in design, DIY, way to play

Tagged blog, colored pencils, DIY, geometric shapes, jaymmy, kids activity, learning, lebanon, marmite et ponpon, motor skills, playdough, qatar, shapes and colors, teaching math, way to play, writing skills

Creative Easter eggs decoration -Dinosaurs land- DIY

Posted on April 4, 2015 | Leave a comment

As i always say, my son is my source of inspiration. He is so much into dinosaurs lately, so a NADYnosaurs land is the perfect idea for this year’s Easter eggs.

As promised in previous post and If you’re willing to recreate this dino park, follow me step by step in this tutorial, it’s much easier than you think.

To make the dinosaurs eggs, you need first to dye the hard boiled eggs with a color of your choice. To marblize the dyed eggs (to give the effect of real dino ones), add a tbsp of olive oil to another color, preferably darker, then dip them in and let sit about 2 minutes before you pat dry.

I always recommend wilton coloring gel for healthy results. Add vinegar to your colors for vibrant effect.

We tried as well with brownish colors to make it as real as possible!

For the Dinosaurs, click here to download a high resolution file of the tail, back and head to stick on the eggs.

For the Nadynosaur banner, click here to download the file, you can easily change the name on it.

The biggest the park you want, the more eggs you should decorate. The files i attached present 3 color options of the dinosaurs; blue, green and orange. You can change easily to your favorite ones (vector files). Enjoy the best moments with your kids. Nothing better than seeing their happy faces! Just priceless!

Happy Easter everyone. المسيح قام، حقاً قام

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in design, DIY, special occasions, way to play

Tagged blogger, coloring, design, dinosaur, DIY, dyed eggs, dying, easter, easter eggs, eggs, food blogger, Happy Easter, hard boiled eggs, jaymmy, kids activities, lebanon, marmite et ponpon, park, qatar

Easter bunny burlap runner – DIY

Posted on April 2, 2015 | Leave a comment

It’s the third item in the burlap inspired decoration. After the door wreath and the bunting here we DIY a table runner to complete the set. A beautiful yet simple craft to be able to involve your kids.

First you need to cut a burlap sheet, convenient size to your table (mine was 170x45cm) and better to sew the edges so it doesn’t unravel. Cut out some colored felt bunnies (or other material, whatever you have available). Click on bunnies to download a high resolution file of the bunnies silhouette, i made it as big as could fit on my runner size.

With the help of your kids, paste the bunnies on the burlap runner, i used simple UHU glue, but make sure you put something under it to protect the table then glue the pompom tails.

Our home decoration is done now. We still have to decorate the eggs and we are ready for Easter. Don’t miss the coming post for our creative Easter eggs. Stay tuned i am sure you will love!

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More posts yet to come.