Top 8 Free White Chocolate and Make Your Own Easter Bunnies - Guest Post for KFA

Are you tired of all the allergen warnings on Easter chocolate?

I am too, which is why I decided to make my own chocolates this year! Head over to the Kids with Food Allergies Blog to see how easy it is to make Easter goodies you know you kids can enjoy!

Make your own Chocolate Easter Bunnies!

All pictured sweets are Top 8 Free!

http://community.kidswithfoodallergies.org/blog/how-to-make-allergy-friendly-chocolates-easter-bunnies

But that's not all! You can also read Part 2:

Top 8 Free White Chocolate Recipe!

That's right, you can make and sculpt your own white chocolate! Go see how it's done!

http://community.kidswithfoodallergies.org/blog/how-to-make-dairy-free-white-chocolate

White Chocolate recipe will be shared on Allergy Free Wednesdays and Gluten Free Fridays

Keeping Green Eggs out of the Classroom

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday, which has nationally become known as Read Aloud Day. This is a great opportunity to increase literacy in younger children by sharing Dr. Seuss's extensive collection of great kids books. Many preschool and elementary school teachers include crafts inspired by the books as a way to increase excitement and student involvement with the stories.

Unfortunately, the mass popularity of Green Eggs and Ham sometimes leads to the exclusion of kids with egg allergies when real eggs get involved.

Nobody likes to see their child get excluded--especially when a dangerous item gets brought into the classroom. If your child has an egg allergy, it's not too late to ask your child's teacher what her/his plans are for the day, and to steer them towards a safer way to celebrate.

Here are some great suggestions, and a Google search for "Dr. Seuss crafts" will point you towards dozens more!

Cat in the Hat hats

These are easy to make and involve only a paper plate, large sheets of red and white construction paper, glue, scissors, and a stapler.

Cut out the flat center part of the paper plate. Cut red stripes roughly two inches wide from the red construction paper (this can be done in advance for younger kids.)

Glue red stripes onto a white piece of construction paper. Curl the striped paper into a tube and insert the bottom 2-3 inches into the hole in the paper plate. Glue or staple the tube together.

Cut 2 inch slits in the bottom of the tube and fold the resulting flaps under the rim of the paper plate. Staple the flaps to the plate to secure the two pieces together.

Bingo! It's the Cat's Hat! (You could secure it with string or elastic if the kiddos are going to be wearing it for a long time.)

Cat mask courtesy of my seven-year-old

Handprint Thing 1 and Thing 2

What child doesn't like to paint with their hands? These are fun to make and a great keepsake to remember how small their hands are!

Start by painting the child's palms and all fingers EXCEPT the middle finger with red paint.

Have them place their hands on a piece of paper with the fingers towards the edge. Having an adult press down on the top of their hands before lifting will make sure fewer gaps are left. Have the child wash their hands and then return.

Paint the child's palm white and their fingers blue, getting a little blue onto the perimeter of the palm as well. Flip the red handprints upside down and line up each hand so that the red handprint is a Thing's body, the new white palm will be the head, and the fingers are the hair. Again, have the child wash their hands.

Once the paint is dry, add a white spot to the center of the body, and then draw features on the face. Write "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" in the white circle once that paint is dry.









Toilet Paper Tube Horton with Clover

This loveable elephant is easy to make, although younger kids may need an adult to cut out Horton's features.

Have the children paint toilet paper tubes gray. Allow to dry.

While waiting, have the children cut out Horton's ears, trunk, and make a black fringe for hair. You can use construction paper or craft foam.

Glue these in place, and then use a marker to draw Horton's features.

Glue a pom pom to the end of a chenille stem for the clover, and glue a speck of paper for the dust speck, if you like.



With a little creativity, there's no need for any children to be left out of the Dr. Seuss Day festivities. Remember, the moral of Green Eggs and Ham is that we should be willing to try new things! That goes for educators too!

Credit where credit is due: I got the hat ideas from this blog, the handprint things from this blog, and Horton from this blog.

Personalized coloring books from My Kids Food Allergies!

The folks over at My Kids Food Allergies, a great food allergy resource, graciously asked me to preview their new coloring books!  I told them I'd be happy to take a look.

As you can see, this isn't just any coloring book.  Those are my sons' faces on there! That's because my kids are the stars of the show in these fully customizable coloring books!  You provide your child's name (hidden on mine to keep them anonymous), picture, and their allergies, and My Kids Food Allergies will send you a fun coloring book designed to help kids navigate parties when they're worried about their allergies.

In the book, your child gets invited to a birthday party.  He or she is thrilled to attend, but worried about whether they'll be able to participate in the food rituals because of their allergies.  At the party, they discover that other kids have food allergies too, and the FA kids agree to stick together and look out for one another.  In the end, they find out how great it is to be included in everything.

The boys loved seeing themselves in a story!  Kal insisted that I modify the other names in the book (the birthday girl, the other kids at the party) to match his friends.  I hardly got through the book because he wanted to examine the pages in great detail.

Of course, he asked me to color him like Batman.  That goes without saying.  Kal is always playing Batman.

See the Bat Symbol and Bat Belt?

Zax thought this was pretty cool too.  He thought the story was neat, and said it was awesome that the book knew what he was allergic to!

The lighting's bad, I closed the drapes after this.
Sorry for the poor quality.

He was quick to point out how his life was different from the book, though (there aren't really any other kids in my class with allergies, are there?)

When I asked Zax whether he had ever felt the same way as his character in the book, he said "no."  I think this was because I've never sent him to a party unprepared.  He always knows he'll have my cupcake, and that the food will be safe (as in the one party where he went solo) or I will approve all other food first.  Zax didn't get hung up on this, though, because when I asked him if there was anything he didn't like about the book, he said "no."  He liked it all!

So how did I like the book?

Things I liked:

• I liked the food allergy kids deciding to look out for each other--a great lesson in positive peer relationships!
• I liked that my kids were part of the story.
• I liked the quality of the books--they were very well made, both in terms of high-quality materials and in the editing job of my kids' photos.  They looked great!
• I liked the length.  Most of our coloring books lay abandoned after only a few pages get colored.  At six pages, the story is a good length and most kids (who are into coloring) have the persistence to color six pages.
• I liked that my kids felt a personal connection to the story because it was personalized for them.
• I liked the pictures, especially the angry cake.
• I liked that this story helped allergic kids recognize that they aren't alone.

Things that made me go "hmm":

• I wondered if they would change the story text for allergens that are not commonly found in cake, icing, or toppings (like fish, shellfish, mustard, etc, especially if that's the child's only allergy) because worrying that shellfish is in cake might seem a little silly.
• I thought that sending a child with food allergies to a party without a plan for food was unusual.  It certainly wouldn't happen in our house.  Which isn't to say that kids won't benefit from reading about food allergy kids who band together, because they will.  And also isn't to say that our kids are always paying attention to the preparations we make--anyone else feel ignored by their kids sometimes?  (I mentioned this to My Kids Food Allergies, so I don't know if they'll be modifying it for the sale copy.)

My Kids Food Allergies is now selling this coloring book here.  You can get a spiral-bound book like I received, or you can order a digital copy that you can print yourself.  If you'd like a personalized book to help you talk about food allergies in social situations with your kiddos, I encourage you to check them out!


Note:  I received two copies of the coloring book to share with my kids, and digital copies as well.  Other than that, I received no compensation from My Kids Food Allergies for this review.  All opinions are my own.

Peanut Free Pinecone Bird Feeders!

Back during Christmas break, I decided to do a bird feeder craft with the kids.  We all know that the traditional pinecone birdfeeder has peanut butter, but considering that birdseed often contains sunflower seeds, I figured birds (and squirrels, darn them) would be perfectly fine with Sunbutter.  So that's what we did!

It was superhero pajama day, in case you couldn't tell.

Zax caught licking the knife!  (The knife that had been spreading Sunbutter on dirty pinecones.  Pinecones that still had some dead bugs on them.  Boys!)

For some reason, I was unprepared for how much of a mess this would make.  Kids with peanut allergies definitely cannot be anywhere near where this has been going on (if they were made the traditional way), not even the next day.  Are the teacher and custodian really going to clean up all that residue?  If either of my sons's teachers ever tells me they want to do this craft, I will firmly state "you're doing it with Sunbutter, or you aren't doing it at all."

The picture doesn't really do the mess justice.  Sunbutter was
smeared all over the table.

Our Peanut Allergy Slap Bands are
available now!! Click here!

Getting ready to roll them in birdseed.  Make sure the birdseed is free of your allergens!  I would also recommend washing hands after finishing, not only to get the mess off, but because I'll bet birdseed doesn't label for cross contamination.

Aren't they pretty?  See, you can do this craft just as easily and nicely without the peanuts!

The squirrels decimated most of these, but we did see birds eating from those few that were in places birds couldn't reach.  What fun!

How have you modified "traditional" allergen-containing crafts to be safe?

Linking up at Allergy Free Wednesdays, Gluten Free Fridays, and Corn-free Everyday

  

Crayon Cupcake Valentines!

We had a lot of fun making our Valentines this year!  We decided to make them allergy friendly, and so we hauled out an old favorite craft--the Crayon Cupcake!

This is also a great way to get rid of old, broken crayons (of which we had almost a full bucket.) I removed the wrappers, and the boys helped break/cut the crayon pieces into small chunks.

(If you want to make sure your craft is also corn-free, you'll need to wash the crayons after removing the wrapper, as corn is used on the glue that holds the wrappers in place. Cheaper crayons (and restaurant crayons) may also use corn wax in the crayons themselves, so you should probably stick to Crayola (or call the crayon manufacturers) for a guaranteed corn-free craft.)

After the crayons are peeled and broken, place the pieces in cupcake liners.  (It was pajama day, in case you couldn't tell. :)

Bake in a 250 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.  Start checking at 10, and remove them as soon as there are no more crayon chunks visible.

Allow them to sit until cool and solid again.

Then you can remove the liners.

Aren't they pretty?

I cut out hearts using my Silhouette machine, with the expression "You color my world!" printed on the side.

Then the boys helped me attach the crayons to the hearts.  I tried to use Glue Dots but they weren't strong enough, so we used a small dollop of hot glue.  It wasn't hot enough to re-melt the crayons.

On Kal's valentines I pre-printed his name (not shown), but Zax personalized his hearts after we took these pictures.

Some of the wax will melt through the liners onto your muffin pan.  You can use a disposable one if you wish, but it is possible to clean the pan up again.  Just heat the pan again for a few minutes on low heat, wipe out the wax with a paper towel, and then wash.  Repeat as necessary.

So there you have it!  Allergy free valentines that still allow your child to bring a fun treat to share with his/her class!

I'm happily sharing this Valentine Craft with Allergy Free Wednesdays, Gluten Free Fridays, and Corn-free Everyday