Ideas I've Borrowed

I love to hear about the great ideas of others. Especially when I can borrow them myself! Here are three great ideas I borrowed from others and have put to use today.

1) Curried Eggs

All of my children get excited about hard-boiled eggs. That makes me happy since eggs are a relatively easy and inexpensive source of protein. However, most of my children prefer to eat only the white part of the egg, leaving sticky yellow yolk balls behind while asking for more eggs. That isn't particularly pleasing, especially when they are coming home in lunch bags, smelling less than appealing. I tried regular deviled eggs, but the creamy yellow yolks were still not well-received. When searching online for a recipe for an international potluck, I came across instructions for making simple curried eggs. These basically add a little scoop of red curry paste and mayo to the smashed yolks of hard-boiled eggs. Then the mixture is reinserted into the hollow of the egg white. These, my kids get so excited about!

2) Screen-time Tickets

This idea was passed along from a neighbor friend. Basically, I printed off some "tickets" that the kids can earn. Each one is good for 15 minutes of screen-entertainment (TV, movie, computer games, wii, etc.). These tickets have been great. They have encouraged helpfulness around the house and have enabled what we feel to be very reasonable limits for screen-time activities. I say: "Hey, guys, it is time to turn it off--you used up your ticket time," after 15 minutes, and they actually do it without any complaining or badgering!

3) Hammer and Nail Practice

A while ago, I got a book from the library--something like 365 Rainy Day Activities for Preschoolers--and it had this ingenious idea in it. We've used it at our house before. It can literally provide hours of fun. All you need is some styrofoam blocks (in our case, left over from some packaging), a golf tee, and a small hammer. Over and over and over again, Jadon and Abby hammered in their "nail," pulled it back out, and started over again!

If you like these ideas as much as me, feel free to borrow them yourself!