The Scout Ghost

Raspberry Spinach Salad

This is the most delicious time of the year! I have lots of greens in my garden that I don't want to waste, like Swiss chard, spinach, and purslain (that's the weed-looking  plant at the top, it's REALLY good for you).

 I also have raspberries on.  Voila! A delicious raspberry spinach salad your friends will LOVE!

First, put a little bit of butter in a frying pan, then add sliced almonds and brown sugar. 

Let it sizzle for a while and it will make a gorgeous caramel sauce. Yum!

In a serving bowl add your greens. I put in spinach, kale, purslain, and wild spinach because I ran out of the garden variety. Then put your almond sauce on top of the greens and top with raspberries.  

The berries will permeate the salad and make a delightful dressing all its own. Sometimes I add a little blue cheese for a nutty, robust flavor. This, my friends, is what summer tastes like!

Recipe: 

3-4 cups tender spinach

1/2-1 cup other tender greens ( purslain, chard, arugula)

1 tbsp butter

1/4 cup almonds or walnuts 

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup raspberries 

On the stovetop, fry the butter and add brown sugar and almonds on medium heat, stirring 3-5 minutes until it forms a caramel. Turn off and set aside.  

Wash greens and toss.  Add candied almonds and raspberries.  Enjoy!

Fun with Light: Water and Color

This was such a big hit! Water, color, and light? How could it not be awesome!

Again, you need a light table or projector – I prefer a projector because it has so many uses (and you can usually pick them up for under $20). Then I found a plastic container with compartments. Any plastic container will work fine, as long as it's see through!

We started out with basic colors and gave the boys droppers, medicine syringes and no other instruction. The boys started moving colors and mixing water.  Eventually, they added more water and more color.

This was a really fun open ended activity. The boys could do whatever they wanted with the colors. Eventually they filled up the entire container and we had so much fun we decided to freeze the container and make colored ice cubes for a fun afternoon activity!

Before we froze the water, we put little toys and letters in the trays so we could break up the cubes and find treasures. This was a great boredom buster for a cold or rainy day. Be sure to check out my next post when we dabble with light and ice!

Fun with Light: Ice

Wow! What could be more awesome than ice and light. 

  In my last post, we played with water and food coloring and decided to freeze the tray. 

We put tiny objects in colored ice cubes: like alphabet letters and tiny toys. Then we froze it and after a few hours pulled out the colored ice cubes. 

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These were super slippery and cold! It felt like Jell-O. 

This would be perfect for a hot summer day.

They looked really cool, and the treasures inside turned out really great. I wanted to make blocks that they could stack, and we got some five high, but we didn't freeze the cubes on a flat surface so they were pretty wobbly. I'd like to try this again and see if we can build a little igloo. Today they were more interested in breaking open the cubes and collecting the treasures inside. I have five boys and they'll take advantage of any opportunity they can get to smash something!

This activity was a big hit, literally. And you don't need a light table or projector for this to work, but the light makes it look really cool!

Fun with Light: Shapes and Colors

  Light is so awesome! It makes even the simplest toys pop out. I've been wanting to make a light table for years, but just bought a projector for $10 and found it works great. I like it better than a light table, actually, because it shows up on the wall too!

Today we got out the projector and my toddler and preschooler tried outlining the shapes with a marker.

Here, they are sorting the shapes into colors. Then by shape and size.

Jonathan's favorite was definitely trying to color the shapes! 

This is a great way to teach shapes, fractions, colors, and so many other things! Adding a little light makes all the difference!

Silhouettes

Do you remember making these back in grade school? They are so fun and easy. And kids love seeing what their shadow looks like. All you need is a light source (I use a projector) And a child that is old enough to sit very still.

We hung the paper on the wall, and outlined his face, then cut out the sillhouette and mounted it on construction paper. Voila! A great keepsake or gift!