EIO Kids Cup Review!

About 2 weeks ago we received an EIO kid's cup to review. Its actually not a cup but parts of a cup to be put on an 8oz canning jar (or you can buy it with the jar included). Let me explain. This new company (basically parents that weren’t happy with the sippy cup options out there) decided to design their own cup.

The EIO cup: The cup consists of a top that screws onto an 8oz glass canning jar and a silicone sleeve for the jar. The cup has a small opening for drinking so kids learn to drink properly from a cup. It has no valves, spouts or other typical sippy cup parts that are hard to clean, break and get lost often.

Things we LOVE about this cup:

• Its BPA free
• It promotes proper cup drinking skills
• It promotes good speech development.
• It doesn’t break!
• Its reusable (we use canning jars for everything at our house).

I found this cup as I was searching online one day for plastic free dishes for my kids. My son is well known for his food, dish and cup throwing skills. One of his favorites is to pour “wawa” (water) on the carpet. So I thought we were stuck using sippy cups.

Then I came across the EIO cup. I contacted the company and they sent one out right away for me and Leo to review.

I washed and put it together easily and handed it off to Leo. He quickly figured out where the hole is to drink from and was able to easily drink from it. He now requests it when he sees it on the counter.

So check it out for yourselves. I know we will be purchasing a few more so we can get rid of those plastic sippy cups!

I work in Special Education and I have heard many speech therapists recommend no sippy cups after age 2 for proper speech development! The EIO cup can fill the gap between the sippy cup and a regular cup!

*Leo and I received a free cup to review for this blog post but no other compensation.

Sensory Bins: Recycled Kids Activity

I have been admiring the sensory bins that many blogger mom’s do with their kids. They are popular among home schooling mom’s, preschools, crafting mom’s and Montessori education. What has kept me from making them with my kids is that I have been working on not buying cheap dollar store (or other) toys, crafts and stuff just to occupie my kids time. Well since the weather does not allow them to play outside as much anymore I have been creatively coming up with more craft activities. Also my daughter attends a Waldorf preschool. We like her school and I think the activities that she does there are great, she misses the typical school crafts and activities she did last year in preschool.

So then I thought about it and decided I could come up with sensory bins that used stuff we already have around the house.

Our first bins are:

The Happy Birthday 4 Bin. This is for my daughter who will be 4 next week. She is so excited for her birthday so we decided to start celebrating a little early. It contains typical birthday stuff, candles, bows, birthday cards, napkins, etc and there is 4 of everything (except the tissue paper filler). All the stuff in the bin I had saved from past parties, gifts and activities so we are reusing everything. This was a great way to use up ripped tissue paper, recycled greeting cards, squished bows, etc.

To go along with this bin we are going to read: If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. Also we will work on a P is for Party letter to go with our alphabet letters that we are decorating our playroom with.

I decided Leo needed a bin to. Although I don’t see him leaving the stuff in the bin, so I know a mess is ahead. So I made him a construction bin full of trucks, rocks, scoops and frogs. I just used toys form theie toy bins but I had to buy a few small bags of rocks to fill the bin (we didn’t have any in our yard). We will reuse the rocks in other projects, our garden or future outside play.

I am excited to do a Christmas bin, recycle bin, baking bin and winter bin in the next couple of weeks or months. I will continue to reuse and recycle as many items for the bins as possible.

Update: 12-5-10: The kids played with their bins today. Rorie really liked it and did all the counting, art projects, made up her own games, etc. Leo played with his for about 5 minutes. Then he dumped it out on the ground and rolled around in the rocks! Maybe he is too young for sensory bins.

This is how Leo decided to have his Sensory experience!

and here’s Rorie’s (about 2hrs after she started playing with it)

felt food

Still working on the felt food. This is carrots, strawberries and eggs. I like using the sewing machine to make the body of the food but closing it up and adding stems is very tedious. I am hoping to have the breakfast basket done in less than 2 weeks though so I will keep at it. Any tips are appreciated.

When I am making them I figure they don't have to be perfect because my kids are used to funny looking fruits and veggies since we have a garden, CSA box and shop at farmers market for our produce. So all the pieces are different and I don't worry about them all being the same size, shape or color.

Oh and it helps that Stacy and I are going to work on the baskets together. So I am making extra eggs and trading her for muffins, etc.

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Breakfast!

This my first felt egg. I am working on a breakfast basket for my daughter's birthday.
http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com/2010/03/breakfast-basket.html

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fresh pesto tomato pizza

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This is the super yummy pizza I made last night for dinner! So we were planting the rest of our winter garden and we took out the rest of our basil plants (from our summer garden), we were going to dry it but when I looked up drying directions I saw pesto making directions. Pesto sounded good so I quickly threw the pizza dough ingredients in the bread machine and started making my first Pesto. The finished Pesto was quite yummy even my kids liked it (who are not normally fond of eating green things).
The pesto Pizza however was AWESOME! Just pesto, mozzarella, tomatoes and sausage (for my husband who has to has meat at all meals). I am off from work this week and hoping to catch up on some blog posts about what we've been up to. Especially our garden that we nearly killed! Also I am going to have a review up for this new kids cup, I am so excited for Leo to try out!
Check it out:
http://www.eiokidscup.com/

English muffins ummmm

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Honey Wheat Bread

This is my favorite bread recipe; we make it at least once a week. I modified the recipe from the Zojirushi bread maker cookbook to just use the dough setting and cook it in the oven, but its still super easy and yummy. Baking in the oven leads to a much softer crust and better bread.

1 3/8 cups water

4 1/4 cups bread flour (co op bulk or King Arthur)

1/2 cup cracked wheat (co op bulk section)

3 Tbsp honey

1 tsp sea salt

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

2 tsp active dry yeast

Put ingredients in the bread machine's recommended order. Set for the dough cycle. When complete I shape into 2 loaf pans or 1 loaf and rolls. Let rise about 20 minutes then bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes. It makes great sandwiches, toast, rolls, etc.

I am trying out an English muffin bread recipe tonight so I will let you know how it goes.

Also I picked up a home made bread bag at Apple Hill a few weeks ago. It is lined with plastic but until I get a bread box it is great for keeping the bread fresh longer.

Please send me yummy whole grain or wheat recipes, I am looking for some that my family will like!

We have bought very little bread in the last 2 months which saves a lot of money on groceries. Also the few loaves we have bought taste cardboard-ish (even the good Rudy’s Organic). It is amazing the taste of home made bread!